To ensure a delightful and inspiring learning experience to all our students.
Our number one priority at LearningLeaders is to provide a delightful and inspiring learning experience to all our students. To do this, we need to ensure that every student is placed in the course that best suits their skill level (keeping in mind that different students have different strengths and weaknesses when it comes to their skill levels.)
However, since most of the learning experience is through our interactive classroom sessions, we also need to ensure students are practicing with other students of a similar age. Students between late elementary age and early high school age are undergoing significant physio-psychological changes, and even a gap of just a year or two can put students at different developmental stages. Students close in age and grade are more likely to have similar life and school experiences, school knowledge, and interests. They will likely work more effectively together and form stronger connections since they have more in common.
When younger students are in a lesson with mainly older students, they feel intimidated, which harms their progress. Similarly, for older students, being in lesson with younger students can hurt their morale and confidence, or encourage them to be more dominant to establish a higher position. In either case, this leads to a negative experience that affects the students' learning.
Additionally, the lessons are the first place where students will find partners for competitions. It is significantly harder to partner students when there is an age gap between them. Though this is not the only eligibility criteria, we are firm in enforcing it to ensure a delightful and inspiring learning experience for all students.