ABSTRACT
This chapter draws on research in a school in which parents are very much involved in all aspects of the school’s strategy and policy. When the school was established, mixed-ability grouping was central to its organisation. Recently, the school has moved to a system where Year 7 has been streamed: children now work in groups that are seen as fairly homogeneous in terms of ability. The grouping system is described as follows: one ‘Accelerated’ group, two ‘Accelerating’ groups, four ‘Standard’ groups, and one ‘Nurture’ group. The main criterion for grouping students was average level of attainment across subjects of the National Curriculum1. The school used other data to group the students, including Cognitive Ability Tests (CATs), Reading Test Scores, and internal assessment. It was introduced in April 2008 for Year 7 (Y7) students and viewed as a pilot until the end of the summer term.
