Class Placement

At this time each year, we will outline the class placement process. The placement of students into classes for next year is a complex and important one. The process works as follows:

Data Collection from Teachers

Our teachers make a balanced judgement on each student in their class within the following areas:

Academic ability
Learning behaviours
Additional needs
English as an additional language (EAL).

Students - Who do you work well with?

During week 5 of this term, our students will be asked to nominate five (5) other students who they ‘work well with’ in their year level. Note a couple of things:

You can see we are not using the word friends here. We don’t always necessarily work well with some of our closest friends. That doesn’t mean we won’t be in the same class together; what we’re focusing on here is our educational relationships, more so than friendships.
Your child will be in a class with at least one of the 5 students they nominate. We do not account for whether that child was listed first or fifth on the list, if they are a boy or a girl, or if they were in another class this year.
On very rare occasions, your child may not be able to be paired with someone from their list. We will contact you and discuss this with you further if this is the case.

It may be beneficial to talk with your child prior to this about how they best identify other students who they work well with. Our teachers will also have this discussion with their class before the students complete this part of the process.

Parent Requests

No requests will be taken into account regarding teachers.
In an extremely limited number of cases, there may be an educational, health or wellbeing reason for your child to be separated or paired with another child. This may include:
- A child with additional needs who will be supported by positive ongoing relationships with their peers;
- A child who has been involved in ongoing and targeted incidents where another child has negatively targeted and/or impacted their learning and/or their wellbeing.
Requests from parents must be:
- Sent to the Solway Primary School email address (solway.ps@education.vic.gov.au), addressed to myself and Kate Nancarrow and with the subject line ‘Class Placement’;
- Received no later than close of business Monday 4th November (no late submissions will be considered).

To be clear, I expect very few, if any, requests from our families. Our teachers know our students in great depth and I trust them and the knowledge they have to make considered judgements regarding class placement.

2025 Classes

Our classes for next year will be formed with the following priorities:

Students with at least one peer from their nominated ‘who you work well with’ list;
Classes with a balance of:
- Students working above, at and ‘working towards’ academic level,
- Gender.

Our classes for next year, including teachers, will be announced on the Solway Primary transition day, Tuesday 17 December. All students will have an opportunity to spend time with their new class and teacher on this day.

In my experience, this process is comprehensive, considerate and best prepares our students for a positive start to the following school year. Of course, on occasion, there might be some disappointment for a few of our students. They might miss a particular friend or be anxious about leaving a favourite teacher. As the adults, it is our responsibility to support them through this. I have seen occasions where families have made requests regarding their child’s class following the ‘transition’. To be clear again, that will not happen at our school. Instead, if there is some initial disappointment, we will work together with kindness and resilience to ensure our students and families feel supported and prepared for the transition into 2025.

If anything I have outlined is unclear, please do not hesitate to contact me for further clarity. I look forward to working through this process together with the intention of providing our students with the best possible learning platform to begin 2025.

Solway Fair