August 3, 2012
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Preschool class placement disappointment
So Mr. T got his class placement for his 4 yo class next year. We are very disappointed with where he will be placed. I understand that there are many factors that go into who goes into what class, but the whole thing just seems strange.
There are currently 3 three yo classes and 3 four year old classes. The kids usually get all mixed up the next year, but for the most part, they try to keep friends together. They say they don’t take requests regarding which class you would like your kids placed, but everyone does it anyway. I did request a certain class once way back in January after parent teacher conferences. I wanted Mr. T to be in the smaller class as opposed to the one with more kids. They told me that they would consider it, but it’s not guaranteed since they don’t really take requests. I never went back to the office to bother them about it. Apparently, other parents did…they went back multiple times and insisted that their kid be in a certain class.
So the list comes out and I was shocked to find Mr. T in a class where he would know absolutely no one. Out of the 16 kids from last years class, 8 were placed in one class, 7 were placed in another and Mr. T is the ONLY one from last year’s class placed in that third class. It just seemed so strange the everyone else was divided amongst the 2 other classes except for him, especially since other parents told me that they had specifically requested that their kid be placed with Tyler.
It took Tyler until March of last year to even start talking to anyone in school and he was just starting to get comfortable when the school year ended. He had made 3 good friends that went on to camp with him over the summer. I was almost certain that he would be placed with those other kids especially since all of them would be doing 2 years of 4 yo preschool (since they all have late birthdays and will have to start kindergarten a year later due to missing the cutoff). All of his friends will be in the same class next year except for him.
I called the school to try to speak to the director about this to see if he could be switched into one of the 2 other classes. I don’t really care that he’s not in the class that I asked for…I just wish there were at least ONE other kid from his class last year that will be in his class next year. Ultimately, I won’t really make a huge deal out of it. I know kids are resilient and will make new friends. And if they won’t switch him, then we’ll just deal with it. But I just really want to find out why the placement ended up that way. If Tyler was super social, I could understand why they would do that, but he was one of the shyest kids in class (this is according to his teacher last year). It just seems strange that they would put him in that situation.
Any teachers out there that can maybe shed some light as to why this would have happened?
