separating twins in reception class

[Camilla Bubna-Kasteliz]

Hello all

I'm writing because I've just had a slightly surprising conversation with the school that our twin girls will be starting at in September (Jubilee in Stoke Newington) that I thought needed to be shared with other twin parents.

After much discussion, my partner Soren and I have decided to keep our girls in the same class, at least initially. Following the work done by a number of local twin parents from this network in 2014, I believed that the school, via a pamphlet published by Hackney Learning Trust, should be aware of the guidelines about separating twins at primary level, i.e. that it should be decided on a case by case basis, in conjunction with the parents and reviewed every year.

It was a shock therefore to be told by the school, not only that their blanket policy was to separate twins, but also that they had never heard of any guidelines from HLT. I then phoned the primary admissions department at HLT itself and asked if the guidelines were still in operation. Here I was also told that they had never heard of the document I was referring to.

Fortunately for us, I was able to persuade Jubilee to reconsider - it turns out that they mix the classes up again at Year 1 anyway, so there is a natural point at which to reassess, if separate classes looks like a good idea. I wanted other parents to know about this, in case they are assuming, as I naively did, that a joint decision between school and parents is now the norm. Apparently it's not, despite all the hard work of the twin parents back in 2014.

Has anyone else had a similar experience? And does anyone know why neither the school nor HLT apparently know nothing about the guidelines? I plan to follow this up with both the school and HLT, but would appreciate support from anyone else who finds themselves in a similar position.

Thanks

Camilla

[Dymphna Corrigan]

Hi Camilla,

I have vaguely heard that there was a policy of this nature.

Personally I think it's down to the parents - with the help of the nursery.

I originally wanted to keep my two, boy and girl together, however have decided to split them. In their case one is more dominant or tries to be so think this move in reception maybe for the best - we shall see.

Luckily they are currently in the school nursery so the transition to reception should hopefully not be too traumatic.

Good luck. As you said you can always move your girls at a later date.

Regards,

Jane

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[Tanya Augustine]

That's really disappointing to hear - I've moved to Norwich and all the schools I spoke to decide on a case by case basis. The schools should just using common sense more than anything as all children are different & what's right for one family will be different for another. 

I hope this gets resolved asap as the school application process can be stressful enough as it is! Sorry I can't offer any help. 

Tanya 

On Monday, 13 June 2016, 'Camilla Bubna-Kasteliz' via Twins Club N16 <twins-c...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

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[Marika Hegarty]

Same. Our boy/girl twins have been offered nursery place at Northwold and we were not consulted at all about the fact that they were allocated separate classes. Having read the Tamba/local authority guidance leaflet, I actually leant towards the separate class option -the leaflet lays out the pros and cons of each option - therefore supporting the idea that only you, as parents, can decide which is best for your kids. The separation pros- which swung it for us -were to do with identity and competition. I know the down side will be the emotional challenges of separation: less of an issue for nursery age kids as there is so much crossover and free play. Any how, as was said earlier, who knows what the impact will be?? - I'll keep this space posted. We just want what's best for our kids, that can be stressful. At the end of the day anything can be done well or badly, so I'm focussing on trying to do a good transition; these were some ideas given to me by ed psych :introducing the idea( of together or separate); making the idea of such a big step sounding fun ( role play going to new school , different classes)and sharing as much visual info as poss(pics of classroom, teacher etc- some schools websites allow for this) 

Good luck friends!

Marika

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[Camilla Bubna-Kasteliz]

Hi Marika

I think Northwold can make their own rules because they're an academy. Apparently that means they don't have to follow HLT's guidelines on this kind of thing. That's what I was told by the headmistress when we looked round. I'm glad it's worked out in your case, but it might be worth other twin parents knowing about it.

Camilla

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From: 'Marika Hegarty' via Twins Club N16 <twins-c...@googlegroups.com>
To: twins-c...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Monday, 13 June 2016, 21:12
Subject: Re: [twins-club-n16] separating twins in reception class