The question you addressed is by far the most common issue parents of multiples are struggling with. And even among parents there are different opinions…
The Dutch Association for Parents of Multiples has had quite some discussions with parents, school teachers and experts in the field (such as psychologists). The overall conclusion is that there is no such thing as a universal answer to the question whether twins should be in the same class or not. It really is an issue that needs to be dealt with on a case-to-case basis. For instance my own twin daughters have spent their preschool years (2 – 3 years old) together and we’ve had them in separate classes (in the same school) since and it really works great. There are, however, also situations in which it is far better to keep them together, particularly in the early years. There are actually stories of twins who were separated against their will (and their need). They figured a way to sneak out of their class rooms simultaneously and meet in the toilet, just to connect for a few seconds, after which they went back in their class rooms… every day. Those twins were probably better off not being separated.
The official recommendations of the Dutch Associations for Parents of Multiples are pretty much in line with the policies that were developed by TAMBA and similar organizations. You can find quite good documentation in English here:
· A public domain TAMBA report on the needs of elementary school kids. It’s not the best report ever, but it has one chapter dedicated to this issue (section 6 of the report). Parts of this report have been translated (with permission of TAMBA) and modified for the Dutch school system.
http://www.tamba.org.uk/document.doc?id=236
· A section in the Curtin University website dedicated to this question, including a checklist for parents and teachers to help deciding what is the best solution for their specific need. We have used the information provided in this section too and generated a similar checklist based on the one you can find here.
http://tandm.curtin.edu.au/school/sy2.cfm
Unfortunately, all our information is in Dutch (to make it easier accessible for our members) and all of our experts are Dutch too… That being said, I hope that these two sources can help you forward.
One of our experts is Coks Feenstra, an international expert in the field of Twins and Multiples and author of a great book that is also available in English. Unfortunately, the main content on her web-site is only available in Dutch and Spanish (she happens to live in Spain but is Dutch by origin). She has done a lot of research in the field of raising twins and how they develop throughout their entire life (from cradle to grave). She has been instrumental in developing our policy in this field and fully supports the case-to-case approach.
http://www.coksfeenstra.info/index_nl.php
Probably most important advise is that the assessment should always be made together with the school. There’s nothing worse for the kids than teachers that perceive that their expertise and/or opinions have not been taken seriously. It’s a discussion that really should lead to consensus, otherwise you might have to go and find an alternative school (which in many parts of Sweden probably involves unacceptable travelling).
Please let me know if this information helps you any further and whether there’s anything else we can do for you.
Best regards,