Zen and the art of class organization

Each year, we go through the ritual of organizing classes for the next school year.  It is a balance between enrollment projections, the number of students currently in our school, and past trends.  It is an important activity as it determines the number of divisions that we have, therefore the way in which we organize students for instruction, and ultimately, how many teachers we have in our school.  This becomes an even more difficult process in a year where the Board of Education is faced with a possible shortfall in necessary funding.

As we consider all of the factors that are available to us, we also try to look at the needs of the particular student groups we have.  Do we need to group students in a particular way in order to provide support, do we need to separate some students to ensure workable class groupings, do we have "split" or "straight" grade classes?  Then we have Provincial legislation and District Policy that provides some "rules" around how many students in a particular class, and of those students how many might be on an individual education plan (IEP).  We then have to ensure that we consult with the District, our school staff, and parents via the School Planning Council (SPC).

All of this is terribly important in ensuring the best balance of grade offerings, and student groupings for learning because students don't get a "do over".  This is there only shot at that grade and we want to set them up for success with a great bunch of classmates in a class structure that supports their needs and abilities.

So, we carefully choose how we configure our classes and how we place the students in those classes, then over the next several months (right up to and including September), we watch the student registration numbers.  A few students at a certain grade level registering at our school or leaving our school could mean the gain or loss of a division, which means; you guessed it, re-organization and re-placing the students in the new classes.

Patience, understanding, and a certain resolve to get it right no matter how many changes occur, is the challenge we face each year at this time.  So, with deep breaths and thinking happy thoughts we are poised to plunge in.