TGS-408?

[mystery]

40 mins a day is quite a lot of time though. It's a shame to hear that they wouldn't listen to parental feedback. Are year 7 parents generally happy with it?

Maybe parents like the fact that their children don't make many friends there!

Are you finding that your daughter is making meaningful friendships? Do you think this would have been easier for her with the traditional system?

[kenyancowgirl]

Fundamentally, if they are not being taught in vtg, (which, to be honest I have never heard of), they are spending the majority of their time with a class of their own year in their teaching groups. There is plenty of time for them to get to know their year group children and make friends, or not, depending on the sort of child they are. The vtg groups allow mentoring and support across the school - it also means, when extra curricular clubs are attended, there is a very real chance that the kids across the school know each other - for example my son does athletics and has made some very real friends across the years who are also in his vtg. The kids in the vtg are all in the same boat and I haven't heard of any major problems where they don't make friends - they may not be best buddies, but where you have a group of Yr 8s in a vtg, my son assures me they all sit together and support each other/talk to each other etc. In our GS they stay in this vtg until they leave the school.

It does sound a little bit like you are panicking, mystery! Honestly, I really wasn't keen as my son finds it hard to make friends but the presence of older kids seems to make it easier actually.

[mystery]

That is very positive feedback and good to hear.

I am not panicking - I am looking at it from several different perspectives - having been the form tutor for a year 7 class, having observed vtg in a girls' secondary, and from having one girl go through mixed age classes in a small primary. Putting these all together it would not be my system of choice for this particular child of mine.

Yes, it is only 40 mins a day but the rest of the day is mostly lessons which should not really be "getting to know one another" time.

I really wanted her to be surrounded by a bigger pool of likely friends. However, if she was lucky and did get on with the seven with which she was placed, and they didn't live a million miles from one another, it might work ok. Maybe it would work in her favour as she takes longer than average to make friends - maybe it would kind of throw the seven together so they get to know one another faster.

E2k, how is it working out for the current year 7?

[daddylonglegs]

Just to say that DD is in Y7 and we are v happy with TGS. The split form groups and then mixing with different girls for the lessons has allowed more friendships to develop and has avoided too many cliques developing. We feel very fortunate for DD to have gained a place at such a good school.

[franticmum]

Mystery, obviously I have a year 9, so cannot comment on how the learning communities appears to be working for the new year 7's which is where E2K's and other y7 parents' comments will be most helpful to you.

TGS has a tried and tested ethos of encouraging many friendships from all aspects which was in place long before my daughter joined. They have some of their lessons in 'year house' groups and they also have some of their lessons in split groups where they have mixed up the whole year for that subject. Therefore, in French, for instance, the class could be made up of the 5 house groups for that year. The extra curricular activities on Wednesday afternoons are also a mixture of year 7's and 8's.

My daughter's experiences of the split groups and activities (when she was doing them) is very positive and that she now has loads of friends from various different sources. Not all are very close ones, understandably, but she has lots of people she can talk to and say hello to.

The learning communities (so we don't confuse this will teaching lessons) was brought in to help the younger ones, not hinder them. When my daughter joined, her house group was made up geographically, to help people bond coming from the same 'route' into school. Therefore, if this has now been changed to primary school, then this is probably better as they are getting geography and existing friendships. When my daughter joined they might have only had one or two from their primary.

Furthermore, many of the out-of-area children don't actually know anyone when they arrive, as was the case for my daughter, so I really don't think you should worry too much about this set-up as they do all they can to make it easy for them. There is also a social evening for each year group early in September.

Hope that helps.

[kenyancowgirl]

When does your dd start, mystery? Assumedly Sept 2014 but I guess your queries about a couple of the schools are because you have not had the results due in March 3rd yet. (Or do you have another whole year to go?)

[mystery]

Thank you everyone for all your thoughts - particularly as it is on the wrong thread! We've got another year to go - so it is highly hypothetical as may not get a pass score let alone a high one. If a place at TOGS did happen, it would probably be the only one from our primary (as I think it's only a few boys this year going for it).

Maybe like you say I need to hear the experiences of the current year 7. Maybe I need to start up a thread which asks people if they have experience of year 7 under the new VTG system. Was 2013 entry the first children to experience VTG in year 7?

[Essex2Kent]

Are you finding that your daughter is making meaningful friendships? Do you think this would have been easier for her with the traditional system?

Its not been easy and there has been issues. One girl has left because of bullying and another because she has a medical issue Mrs Joyce did not want to help with.

As with all things it takes time... she doesn't really have good friends in the VTG but does now in the split groups although she does not like the fact that those split groups are not the same. So in one group there are a lot of girls from one of the big primary schools all together and very clicky - but she will find who she likes eventually. She has about 5 nice friends in the split groups. The travel friends again is a nice idea but even on the train people get different ones and one girl started on the bus and moved to the train anyway