The impact of performative focused agendas on how teachers 'do' teaching and how children 'do' learning cannot be understated. While research continues to highlight the negative impact of ability grouping on children's academic and social learning experiences in the classroom, policy imperatives (both global and local) continue to promote ability grouping as an 'effective' pedagogic tool for meeting the diverse needs of children, especially in the areas of numeracy and literacy. We argue that this is a symbolically violent process that negatively impacts the psychosocial positioning of children as they negotiate their identities within the figured world of the primary school classroom. This in turn influences their learner identities, as well as their perceptions of their ability to learn. Drawing on data collected with 100 children in three case study schools, we show how ability grouping evoked strong emotional and psychosocial responses characterised by feelings of 'shame', 'upset' and 'inferiority' for those in the low-ability groups. In contrast, children placed in higher-ability groups felt a sense of 'pride', 'happiness' and 'confidence'. Ability grouping maps a geography of affect within the classroom demarcating not only how children 'do' learning, but also how they embody learning through a particular feeling of 'being' a learner in the classroom.