Vertical grouping change

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 11, Issue 529, 29 March 1994, Page 4

Vertical grouping change

• When I went to school all the same age group were in the same class and that is how we went through the primers, standards, forms one and two. We had three levels in our class, abo ve average, average and below average. This gave the teacher lhr 35 minutes a day if necessary to teach each level individually. With vertical grouping there are five different age groups , from Standard T wo to Form Two. Now, each of those fifteen levels may get 18 minutes a dayteaching time. This works out to 61.5 hours' tutoring time a year for each level. This, to me, is not a lot of learning time for a full year at school. At the end of the year our exercise books were always full. Today our children are finishing the year and are lucky if their books are one third used. To me this shows that vertical grouping does not give the children enough work throughout the year. I was told by the principal that the new methods of teaching did not require a lot of writing and that this is why the children' s exercise books were only partly used. The only way I ever learnt anything through school or polytech was to write it down. The more often I wrote it down the more chance I had of remembering it. In the vertical group class often the older children teach the younger ones. While they are doing this, they are missing out on valuable learning time. If they wish to tutor other children, they can learn these skills at a teachers training college: As for sport, the children go out to play a game and the younger ones in the vertical group do not know the rules, so the older ones do not play sport. they spend their time teaching the younger ones the rules and how to play. One advantage of vertical grouping is it must make the teacher' s job a lot easier. All they have to do is tell the older children to teach the younger children. Therefore the older half of the class does not do any learning and when they arrive at college for their secondary education they are not ready because they have only had half of their primary education. I think changes are very necessary at the Ohakune Primary School. K Deadman Ohakune (This letter has been abridged - editor).