My son being told not to play with an older child at school?..

[Jenarry]

My son is 5 yrs old and whilst he was towards the end of his reception class at school he become friends with a lad who was around a yr or so older than him from another class. Playing games at break times etc which all sounded harmless to me.
Then a teaching assistant mentioned it to me that one break time my son was going to find his friend charlie to play with and she thought it was strange.
i thought this was just a passing comment then a few days later my son told me that he had been told not to play with charlie as he was older and he should play with children from his own class.
I thought this was a bit unnecessary but as it was just prior to summer holidays i didn't have a chance to check into it.
But now my son has now gone up to class 1 and because his school is a smaller primary school the classes get mixed up so a couple of his friends are still in the reception class and now he thinks he can't mix with them as they are now in a different class.
Can anyone with experience of working with children this age give me some insight into the thinking on this especially with regards the initial playing with the older lad.would the thinking be that it wasn't beneficial to him to play with a 5 yr old maybe?... I am going to ask at a parents evening next week but just wanted some views too.

[Jenarry]

Thankyou all for your opinions on this. It has bothered me since this happened but i thought i was being a bit sensitive. My parent's evening meeting is tomorrow night pink-kittens so I'll let you know then what teach says.

[Jenarry]

my parent's evening meeting went very well. my little guy is doing well.
i asked his teacher about this matter and she didn't know anything about it but she said they don't discourage children from mixing but the older child in question 'tends to gravitate to interacting with the younger children an awful lot and needs to spend more time with his own age group' and so that was probably why someone had stepped in so i have been able to tell my mattie not to worry so much about who he plays with.

[Mamyalynne]

Glad it has been resolved - good news.

[pink-kittens]

that sounds more likely, but still not quite right
Glad he is doing well at school =)

[Jenarry]

Yes i know pink-kittens. It is still not sitting quite right with me. :O(
maybe it's about keeping parents happy to prevent this happening and encourage children from playing in their own age group and not younger although personally as a parent i think i would be ok about it either way.
But at least i've been able to reassure my son a little about this.

[vulcan]

I'm glad to hear you're happier and your son is doing well. However the school still has the policy, not of segregation but of children only playing with their own age group, as pink-kittens says, it doesn't sound quite right.