Primary classes split by boys and girls

It's been a long time since I was in Primary, and ever since I got out I've never dealt much with the organization, so I might be clueless about this. For an unknown period of time, at least several years, our ward Primary has divided at least one of its Valiant classes into two: Valiant Boys and Valiant Girls. I started looking through the handbook, and I only find distinctions based on age, never on gender. Likewise, I looked in MLS, and when I try to make a new class for Primary, the Valiant classes characteristics say "Sex: Male or Female," which I think is hard-coded. It suggests to me that mixed-gender classes are part of the package.

I was going to talk to the Presidency, but I decided to stop here first and see if it's a practice anyone else has seen or done. I can't remember anything about my Primary days, so I wanted to see if I'm not missing something.

slb1900 wrote:our ward Primary has divided at least one of its Valiant classes into two: Valiant Boys and Valiant Girls.... Likewise, I looked in MLS, and when I try to make a new class for Primary, the Valiant classes characteristics say "Sex: Male or Female," which I think is hard-coded. It suggests to me that mixed-gender classes are part of the package.

In MLS you can split a class (e.g., the Valiant 11 class) and designate which children go into each class. Make sure you split an existing class; don't try to create a new one.

What you can't do is set up rules to have new children go to the right class. You'll have to keep an eye on things and move them as needed.

There was a time when MLS allowed us to customize the rules - no more.

I think, re-reading it, my original post was unclear. I'm aware dividing the class into a boy class and a girl class could be done, but I'm wondering if it should. I'm planning on talking to the Bishop about it in our next bishopric meeting, but if this is a common or known practice in other areas, I'd rather not.

slb1900 wrote:I think, re-reading it, my original post was unclear. I'm aware dividing the class into a boy class and a girl class could be done, but I'm wondering if it should. I'm planning on talking to the Bishop about it in our next bishopric meeting, but if this is a common or known practice in other areas, I'd rather not.

Handbook 2, section 11.4.3 says: "children are normally grouped in Primary classes according to their ages."

Handbook 2, section 11.7 says: "In a ward with many children in an age-group, Primary leaders may organize multiple classes for those children."

That last sentence says nothing about how the multiple classes are divided. Since the Handbook is silent on that issue, it seems to me that Primary leaders could certainly choose to divide a class into boys and girls, or use any of a number of other strategies. Although such a division should not be done unless there are "many" children in that age group, the definition of "many" would be left up to local leaders as well.

slb1900 wrote:I'm aware dividing the class into a boy class and a girl class could be done, but I'm wondering if it should.

I have seen it before. It is not a new practice, nor is it rare.

The best practice I ever saw, however, was a combined Primary class on Sunday that was team taught by a couple, where the wife then took the girls for Achievement Days and the husband took the boys for Scout activities.

This is straight from the primary manual for valiant classes in the section entitled help for the teacher :
"Depending on local needs and the number of children ages eight through eleven, the classes could be organized by individual age-groups, combined age-groups, or separate classes for boys and girls."

I have the Primary 9 and 10 combined and want to split them each to their own separate groups. How do I do this?

gregkamp wrote:I have the Primary 9 and 10 combined and want to split them each to their own separate groups. How do I do this?

In LCR, select Organizations > Primary from the menu. Then click on the name of the combine class. It should show the callings for that class. There should be a small pencil icon to the right of the class name. Click on it and there should be an 'Uncombine' option on the drop down menu. That should split it back to their original classes.