A Waterloo, Ont., mother says she’s concerned about shared classrooms at her son’s school in hopes it will start a broader conversation about Ontario’s education system.

Daryl Morris has a son in Grade 5 French immersion at Sandowne Public School in Waterloo.

She said that at the start of the school year, her class was supposed to be a combination of 5th and 6th grade, which was no surprise to her family.

“He’s been in a split class pretty much the whole time he’s been in school there. It’s a little smaller school,” Morris said.

But on Oct. 7, Morris says some families at the school received notice that 4th graders would also be added to the class the following week because a French teacher had to leave the school due to an annual reorganization.

“What they decided to do was remove the 4th grade French immersion class and transfer some of those students with the 3rd grade students, creating a 3/4 split, and then they transferred five of them in our 5/6 division,” she said. .

With these additional students, Morris’ son’s class now has 25 children in three different grades. Morris says the move seemed shortsighted given how quickly it happened, without prior consultation.

“It just feels like teachers have less time to give each child the attention they might need,” she said.

“Not to mention the fact that teachers now have to add another grade level program to what they have already determined they will do for the year.”

Split Class Model

Although running three grades in a single class is not a common practice in Waterloo Regional District School Board (WRDSB) schools, two grades often occur.

Jeff Pelich is president of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Waterloo Region of Ontario and says it’s because reorganizations take place every year to accommodate student enrollment at all grade levels. .

“Internally, there were probably about 54 schools that had to reorganize in one way or another, either losing a teacher or organizing and redistributing students,” Pelich said.

He added that in a typical year, only five to 10 teachers would be affected and would have to move.

“This year we had 28. That’s a sign that there’s a problem within our board and we need to look at it to understand what’s going on.”

In an emailed statement to CBC News, WRDSB associate director Scott Miller said a reshuffle occurs each year after enrollment is assessed, as required by the Ministry of Education.

“All school boards do this to ensure that we comply with ministry directives, guidelines and timelines. It also helps ensure that we keep in mind the needs of students as well as our financial responsibilities.” read in part in the press release.

“We are confident that WRDSB staff will continue to work hard to ensure that all students feel welcome and have a sense of belonging at the school and in their classrooms.”

Ontario’s Minister of Education is Jill Dunlop. Dunlop spokesperson Edyta McKay said in an email to CBC News that the ministry supports school boards “by providing the framework, funding and flexibility to meet class size requirements for all years of study across the province.”

“As is the case every year, school boards may reorganize classes after the start of the school year to reflect the number of students enrolled; however, this should be done with minimal disruption to student learning,” McKay wrote.

A new reality in the classroom?

Morris said after the change happened in her son’s class, she contacted WRDSB, school trustees, the director of education and Waterloo MLA Catherine Fife.

A week later, she heard from a school board representative who sent her a message from outside school boards highlighting the benefits of what they call “family classes.”

“When I read the information, much of it is prefaced with the following sentence: ‘When implemented thoughtfully and carefully, it can lead to greater success.’ » To me, there is nothing thoughtful or careful about this. You reorganized in mid-October,” Morris said.

While Sandowne’s classroom remains one of only three grades locally, if it becomes more common or is a new model the school board is moving toward, Pelich said his union would oppose it.

“We will do everything in our power to prevent this from happening. This is not good practice and anyone who says it is good practice has not been in class for a long, long, long time .”

Fife, who is also the NDP finance and Treasury Board critic at Queen’s Park, agrees.

“I would invite the Minister of Education to visit a classroom, a public school, to see how flawed the funding formula is in the use of these resources. In this particular case, it’s the students who receive less attention from their teacher because “The teacher is trying to cover the expected material for three different grade levels,” Fife said.

“What is happening here at Queen’s Park is not translating into reality for the students and educators in our schools and I firmly believe this government does not truly appreciate the value of public education or educators.”

The future of education

As for Morris, she says her family is still deciding what will happen for her son next year, as it is possible he will be part of a three-person class for another year.

“What has been done is done this year, it cannot change at this point. Besides, it would only cause disruption again,” she said.

She adds that this is extremely upsetting because there has been no prior communication from the board that this could be a possibility.

“I don’t think any parent with children in school thinks that’s a possibility in our area.”

Meanwhile, Pelich says what’s more important is why so many people were involved in the reorganization this year.

“Particularly when (the board) is faced with budgetary constraints and declining enrollment, we need to look at what’s happening and have honest conversations about the path forward,” he said.