Nursery World - EYFS Best Practice in schools

Grouping by ability is growing in popularity despite evidence showing that it can have a range of negative impacts for children. Charlotte Goddard investigates

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It has been described as an ‘educational disaster’ and a ‘psychological prison’, and is actually illegal in Sweden. Despite this, grouping children by ability is increasingly prevalent in early years classrooms in the UK.

‘Over the last 15 years, more and more ability grouping has taken place lower and lower down the school,’ says Mark Boylan, professor of education at Sheffield Hallam University.

‘It has become a naturalised part of English pedagogy, but if you take a global view it is actually very unusual.’

WHAT’S HAPPENING?

Grouping by ability can take a number of forms:

In early years classes, ‘setting’ is rare, but in-class groups and intervention groups are prevalent, especially for phonics and maths. Research published by the National Education Union last year found 81 per cent of Reception teachers used grouping for phonics and 61 per cent for maths.

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