Streaming is easy
From Paul Wright Sir: In his cover story (‘Why did he do it?’, 14 January) Ross Clark stated, ‘It is all but impossible for a school to timetable classes so that pupils can be set for individual subjects. It would require whole year groups to be taught the same subjects at the same time: an arrangement which inevitably requires more teachers than are available.’ This is not the case. The solution is to pair two subjects on the timetable, e.g., maths and science. Half the year group will be doing science while the rest do maths. Later in the timetable, they swap. The science and maths teachers can then teach both groups.
It is possible to stream students in two ways. If both half-year groups contain the same ability spread, two top classes can be formed in each subject. Alternatively, if all the best maths and science students are put in the same half-year group, one top group in each subject can be formed.
It works perfectly well and is simple to organise; I’ve done it for years.
Paul Wright Canberra, Australia
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