to 'set' or not 'to set', that is the question.........

From The Indy :-

Teachers at Lisle Marsden Church of England Primary School, in Grimsby, are to be praised for their efforts in raising standards through moving away from setting and returning to more mixed-ability teaching. The school's results are a timely reminder that, rather than adopt a more prescriptive approach, Whitehall should be more flexible and allow a "whatever works" philosophy to prevail.

they conclude: -

If schools sincerely believe that they can raise standards through a return to more mixed-ability teaching, they should be free to try it.

and : -

(it would be good ) to have more home-based research with which we could compare (the results of setting vs mixed ability). And even better if we had had it before politicians had started making pronouncements about which teaching system was best.

Sounds interetsing. I had always assumed that setting was a good thing, being the product of setted classes myself. However, thinking about it, there could be times were mixed ability classes would produce better results. Perhaps factors to consider could be the range of ability within the class, and of course the subject being taught. I shall have to discuss this at school, where I know they start teaching in mixed ability classes, and then move on to setting for GCSE'S.

the whole article is here