ABSTRACT
Over the past year, Ofsted reports (Ofsted 1998a, 1998b) have shown that growing numbers of schools, both secondary and primary, have begun to increase their use of setting as a system for grouping pupils. Setting can be defined as the regrouping of pupils according to their ability in a particular subject. At secondary level setting has traditionally been used to group pupils for mathematics, science and modern languages (particularly during the examination years, Years 10 and 11), but now it is being extended to a wider range of subjects and year groups. At primary level, mixed-ability grouping has been the dominant system of organizing pupils since the 1970s, but here too, the move towards grouping by ability has led to the setting of pupils in Years 5 and 6, usually for mathematics, science and English.
