Student Grouping

How do we group students at Blatch?

At Blatch we are ambitious in pursuing excellence for all our students, and understand the need to capitalise on creating positive peer-culture within the classroom to foster learning. We are equally ambitious to ensure that every student has access to the same high-quality curriculum experience. Therefore, to ensure the right classroom groupings are created to maximise student learning within different disciplines, we use both our own context and evidence-informed research to make our decisions.

At Blatch…

• Our students are taught in mixed ability groups across all disciplines, except for Maths (KS3 & KS4) and English (KS4 only).
• Our teachers plan lessons collaboratively and carefully, using Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction to ensure all students can access our curriculum content appropriately.
• All subject groupings have been carefully co-constructed by pastoral and academic leaders to ensure positive group dynamics.
• Within Maths at KS3 there are specific set groups to support students learning at the level of their ability, which are regularly reviewed throughout the year.
• At the GCSE level, Maths students are first split to follow either the Foundation or Higher curriculum based upon prior attainment. Foundation classes are taught in mixed ability groups, and within the Higher curriculum, there is a higher-attaining group, with the remaining classes being taught in mixed ability groups.
• At the GCSE level, English will be mostly be taught in mixed ability groups, however there will be two nurture groups to provide extra literacy support, and two greater depth groups to broaden and deepen the learning experience. As with Maths, these groupings are regularly reviewed throughout the year.

We remain committed to continual learning as an organisation and ensuring that our students have the best possible learning experiences. Therefore we will continually review and evaluate our approach to groupings each year.