In the beginning weeks of Term 4 the staff begin the process of putting together class lists for the 2026 school year. The process will be completed with consideration given to:
The social and academic distribution of the children within the same level across classes
A gender balance in each class
Children’s requests for friendship groupings
Specific placement of siblings and children with individual needs, inclusive of emotional, learning, physical and behavioural needs
The social needs of children including the working relationships of all children and the desired separation of children who do not have a positive social or learning influence on each other
An awareness of teachers from the previous academic year.
To support the placement of our children we ask each child to name classmates who they work well with. Children will be reminded to consider children from their current class and from other class settings. Classes will then be structured with the aim to have each child with at least one nominated friend. However if the class teacher feels that the choices are not in the best interest of the child then the child will be asked to nominate others. Parents please note that it is sometimes commented that, ‘My child didn’t get any of their friendship requests’. It is often in this situation that a child’s actual friendship group has slightly or significantly changed from October through to the end of the year and as a result the child feels that their requests weren’t taken into account.
With approximately 22 children in each class each child is provided with 21 opportunities to either further develop existing friendships or the opportunity to develop new friendships. To be highly successful participants in our social, school and future working environments it is a most important skill to create new friendships each year, not be reliant on the same close friendships each year. We make every effort to support our children by providing them with supportive environments but at the same time we wish for some form of challenge so that our children can further develop personal life skills by negotiating new friendships.
As detailed above, there is a significant level of care and consideration that goes into establishing the best learning environments, along with social interactions, for our children.
Parent Requests - Meeting with Leadership
We are aware that some parents may have valid reasons to have input into the placement of their children for the forthcoming year. Should there be numerous requests from parents then the ability for staff to make positive and professional judgements for the best learning environments for our classes is compromised. Given this, if parents have any relevant information that you believe is essential to the grade placement process, I invite you to make contact with myself
kjohnston@sjferntreegully.catholic.edu.au or
Ursula DeCorrado (udecorrado@sjferntreegully.catholic.edu.au) to share your thoughts for the 2026 year. Should we need to gain greater clarity on the request as made we will make contact with you to make an appointment to share your thoughts or concerns. We will evaluate all requests and make a professional decision on the placement of the child in question. The final decision rests with the school.
‘Teacher Shopping’ - At SJB School we are blessed with a highly skilled and enthusiastic staff team and we are confident that all teachers will meet the needs of your children. Parents making requests simply as ‘Teacher Shopping’, without any foundation, may not necessarily receive their requests for the new year. The reference to ‘teacher shopping’ means that, for example, parents have heard positive comments about teachers in the school from other parents and think that that teacher may be good for their child. Likewise a sibling may have had a teacher previously and a parent wishes for their next child to also have that teacher. We would love to meet all requests but there are other elements around class placements, as detailed previously, which may take priority over a request as such. As stated above, parents are invited to meet with leadership to discuss thoughts that may be pertinent to 2026 class placements but we ask that you take on board all of the above information before making your request.
