Class Formation

Class groupings at St Monica’s Primary School are formed to provide a learning environment which best meets the needs of the children. Due to enrolment numbers and the number of classrooms within the school St Monica’s is required to offer a combination of single grade and multi-age class groups. This combination may vary depending of the variation in grade enrolment numbers from year to year.

Consideration will be given to the following factors when forming class groupings.

• Class sizes will reflect the limits set by the current Teachers Certified Agreement
• Gender balance.
• Sibling placement.
• Separation of students who do not work well together.
• Friendship groups.
• Minimum numbers from each chronological year group.
• Equitable distribution of academic achievers.
• The exposure to differing teaching styles of staff from year to year.
• Parental concerns.
• Equitable distribution of Catholic children.

Whenever there is a need to change the existing school class structure the Principal consults with the teachers and the Council Executive prior to finalising the decision and advising the school community.

Parents are provided with the opportunity to speak with the Principal and if required will be provided with the opportunity to attend a meeting to clarify parental concerns or questions, relating to the multi-age classroom.

A multi-age class is a class composed of children of different ages, intentionally grouped for learning. It is not a combination class (sometimes called a "composite") where students in each grade study a different curriculum (2 Math classes, 2 Science classes, etc.). The multi-age classroom is a place where all students participate in the same units at their own level.

Class groups are distributed in the last week of Term 4 to the school community.