Many schools have ‘mixed-age’ classes that contain two or more year groups, which teachers are told to teach separately, increasing their workload substantially. Currently published materials and guidance are designed for single year-group classes, with an emphasis on ‘small steps’, making it difficult to plan coherent learning sequences for mixed year group classes. However, this is not the only approach: effective maths teaching can involve low threshold, high ceiling activities, multisensory approaches and flexible, responsive teaching strategies. Recent research into ‘mixed-age’ or ‘composite’ early years classes in Scotland found these had positive attainment effects for all children. There are also many social and learning benefits for children in extended contact with peers across a range of ages (Lindström and Lindahl, 2011).
We argue that our responsibility is to the learners in front of us, rather than ‘fidelity’ to a scheme or set of material. Here we include advice and case studies from a range of early years and primary teachers and childminders who have found notable benefits from working with mixed year groups. No one-size fits all, and we hope that sharing some successful strategies will help others find approaches that support their practice.
Key strategies include:
- curriculum flexibility, keeping the class together with a common maths focus
- more open-ended, problem-oriented activities
- skilled assessment of each child’s learning needs, flexible grouping
- a climate of collaboration, with children helping each other
Tinkler provides a short research overview here.
Benefits include:
- Children learning from each other, gaining confidence in communicating mathematically, developing collaborative skills and independence
- Teachers gaining a bigger developmental picture, through planning over a longer timescale, and knowing children better, adapting teaching for individuals
- For both: smoother transitions between years and phases
Lindström E. and Lindahl E. (2011). The effect of mixed‐age classes in Sweden. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research 55(2): 121–144
©Early Childhood Mathematics Group 2024