At Drysdale Primary we spend a lot of time creating classes for the following school year. There are many variables that we take into account: friendships, the children’s abilities, other children with whom they work well, (which is sometimes different to friendships), children’s personalities, their likely responses to teachers and other students with whom they might be working. We also try to create classes with an approximately equal number of girls and boys, an approximately equal mix of abilities and an approximately equal mix of additional needs.
With so many variables we can only prioritise one as a starting point. We have chosen to prioritise the children’s friends and have asked them to nominate a selection of five friends. Of these five we do our very best to guarantee at least one of the five will be in their 2020 class. Generally we manage more than one. The complexity of the process means that very occasionally we don’t manage even one.
While I understand that parents will have a view about the teachers they would most like for their children in 2020, it is not practical for us to prioritise these preferences by accepting “teacher requests” as well as prioritising the children’s friendship groups. We have an outstanding teaching team at Drysdale Primary and a very good understanding of each child’s needs. Please trust us to place your children in the best class grouping we can manage.
Kind regards,
Phil Dunlop-Moore
Principal