Promotion Policies?

This may seem like such a mundane thing, but it's one of those "nuts and bolts" questions. When do you promote (or move kids up to the next class) in your early childhood area?

It seems like it's pretty obvious how that works once kids get to school--when they move up a grade in school, they move up in Sunday school. Now that I serve with 2-year-olds, though, I'm seeing the impact of "promoting on birthdays."

So we have 2-year-olds who don't want to go up to the 3-year-old room. Developmentally, they're not ready. We let them stay and treasure that we're not losing them. We get attached! Then we have 1-year-olds who have a birthday and immediately get moved into our room. This last Sunday we had so many new ones that it was disruptive. I had to hold one little girl who could only tell me "birthday"--meaning "I had a birthday and this is what I got." I had to hold her the entire time!

So the lesson went out the window, the processes we'd established went out the window, and it felt like we were starting all over in the middle of the year.

So, I'd love to know...how do you deal with the promotion issue in your early childhood area?

Comments

[Jill Nelson]

We promote in the fall for our Early Childhood Department. We have 5 classes--nursery, Toddler 1 (for new walkers), Toddler 2 (for confident walkers who are ready for some structure), 2's & 3's, 3's &4's and 4's & 5's. The first weekend of the school year, we promote all children who were 3 by September 1st to their next class and so on. We follow the deadline of the school district, therefore creating what will be the same classes that they'll attend school with. Because our 2's & 3's class is a mix of ages and half of them don't promote, the class is somewhat small in September. But then as children are developmentally ready for that class, we promote them in. We also used to promote on birthdays, but found that we had the same problems you have. We've also heard of people promoting at the beginning of the summer, but I prefer to do it in the fall. We have so many rotating volunteers over the summer months, a child would promote into a class where they don't see as consistent of faces. By doing it in the fall, we're able to move them into a room where they can count on the same teacher each week to help them adjust.

[Chris Yount Jones]

Jill,
This is so helpful! Thanks! I'll pass this info on to our director, too.
Chris

[Lisa Burney]

Hi Chris - Our Nursery and Preschool Director monitors the developmental progress of the children and moves little ones when they are ready for the next class. Babies to creepers to toddlers to twos. We have younger and older twos classes & promoting for 2's is done on a readiness basis. 2's promote into the 3's class in the Fall of the year using the public school cut off dates as our guide. That date has been moved up from mid Oct. to early July starting this school year, so we will be upsetting the apple cart a tad this fall to make the adjustment. Our goal is to have children moving up according to their school grade assignment. It works well until you have a child that is held back from Kindergarten who wants to move up with their SS class. We recommend making the switch by holding them back one more year in the 4's class but do work with the parents.

[Larry Shallenberger]

Classroom size, rate of growth, and how av. class sizes at each hour is driving our changes in promotion policy.

We have a young two's and an older two's classroom. Children.

Children are promoted into the two's classes each quarter. But they promote into the older two's or three's threes in May.

We pay attention to developmental needs if a child needs to stay in a certain classroom longer. We don't advance a child into older classrooms (It's almost always about pressure from a competitive parent. I just can't make myself play that game.)

[Jon Dixon]

Hi, We promote based on the year of their birth. Meaning that starting in September everyone born in 2005 will be in the S05 [Sprouts 2005] group, everyone born in 2006 is in S06, etc. This way we allow the children to grow through our early childhood ministry with the same children that they will be with in our elementary school ministry.

We are planning to launch shortly a new ministry which will be a bridge from Nursery to Sprouts [ages 2 - school age]. This new ministry will be called Seedlings and will be for children who are turning 2 between Jan - June of a new year. Meaning that they would represent a new birth year for our Early Childhood [Sprouts] ministry. This new bridge minitry exists from Jan - June each year and will provide a hybrid of free-play [nursery] and teaching.

Hope that all makes sense outside my head. :-)

[Chris Yount Jones]

Thanks everyone! This is so helpful!

Makes me wonder...how do you deal with competitive parents in this issue?
Chris

[Jill Nelson]

We had problems with parents the first year we put the new promotion policy into place, and it was mostly parents of just-turned-three-year-olds. One mom promoted her child on her own and told the 3's & 4's teacher that I said it was OK. It took a lot of repeating that we have to follow policy. We explained how eventually the child would have to spend an extra year in a class before going to Kindergarten, so why not make them stay longer in a class that they're unaware of, then when the child and their peers know they're staying back?
Now, 3 years into the policy, we might get one or two parents a year (we average 300 total kids/weekend) who wants to promote early. At that time we offer to observe the child in the next step up. We have yet to see a child who is emotionally ready for the new environment. We also explain that while yes, their child may seem more "advanced" then the children in their class, they'd be moving into a class where the majority of the kids are a whole year older, and have been working within a structure that is more challenging. We explain that it is better for the child to be in an environment where they excel than where they feel like they have to catch up.

[Chris Yount Jones]

Jill,
That's very helpful. I think when parents truly understand that we're trying to do what's right for their children, they're all for that! Sounds like you do a good job of it!
Chris

[Larry Shallenberger]

Chris,

I politely disappoint the competitive parent.

@Jill, I like that last sentence in your post. That's a keeper.

[Jill Nelson]

Thanks, Chris and Larry