School - children skipping years query

Ivrytwr3

Hey all,

Before i start, let me say, i do not think my child is a genius and i am just after some advice here!! lol!

My boy is 7 in August and since Reception class he has 'skipped' years due to doing well in his class, as has 7 - 8 other children who have moved with him.

After the school holidays he will be moved up again into a class with 9 year olds (as will the other 7 - 8 who have done well and moved with him.

Now my daughter looks like she is heading along the same route. She has been told that when she comes back from the school holidays she will be moved into year 2 (from Reception) along with 5 others.

Now my concern is is this a good thing? Yes, it's great that they are doing well, but when it comes to exams etc, their peers will have a year or two more maturity than my children and also i'm not sure my 2 children have been able to enjoy being children and are already worrying about spelling tests, maths tests etc!!!!

One of the other childrens mothers who are continually been moved up is a teacher and she seems happy enough to let it happen - so am i worrying about nothing? Is it a good thing or a bad thing to 'miss' years?

Should i insist they are kept in a year with children of their own age?

blue_monkey_2

What happens when these children get to Year 5 and they have completed the work?

They also get taught things like Sex Ed in Y6 and your son, while not actually sitting in that class, he will then be overhearing them talk about - the DVD shows at our school is quite graphic apparently. Which at age 7 or 8 would be a worry for me to be honest.

As an after thought, it is great they are moving them up but why do they not just 'set' them together on one table and give them a higher level of work? What happens for school trips and things like that? Do they go with the older kids or with the ones in the class they are registered in?

Is this because of class numbers? I am wondering if they are doing this so they can maniupulate the numbers in school and get extra kids in to the lower classes.

Do some of your kids leave for middle school at Y5?

milliebear00001

As a teacher myself, I would want to know why the school are unable to cater for your (academically advanced) child within their own class.

My major concern is that socially, these children are in a class where the majority of children are emotionally much more advanced - they will almost certainly then be forever 'out of the loop' with their own peer group cohort. I would be especially worried about a Reception child going into Year 2 - that's a massive leap emotionally and socially.

Some children will cope better than others, and it's better that there are at least a few other children from their own peer group moving up too, but I'd still want to know why the school think it's necessary.

Gingham_R

Hiya

I'm not sure what's happened suddenly in here but this must be the third thread I've posted on in the last week or two where we're talking about gifted children!

Some schools don't do a thing for bored kids who already know the syllabus/find the work too easy, so it's good that your kids are being challenged. However, you're right to have some reservations about them being moved up years - do you know what they're planning to do when they get to the highest school year? Will they end up repeating work for example?

There are several alternatives. One book worth reading if you're interested in talking to the school about it is 'Teaching Gifted Kids in the Regular Classroom' by Susan Winebrenner.

You may also want to get in touch with the NAGC. There are a lot of parents going through the same kinds of issues that this raises and they can put you in touch with a local group - so the kids can meet other gifted kids - and so you can talk to other parents making the same decisions for their kids.

Or you can pm me as it's a subject very close to my heart.

meritaten

I have to say that I agree wholeheartedly with Milliebear - while your child may well be gifted (though you say that 7 or 8 of his classmates are moving up too? - sounds a bit suss to me - surely they dont have that many gifted kids in ONE class? what is in the water where you are?) they may not be emotionally ready.
I have to say that it sounds as if the teachers are teaching to the level of the slowest children - and really thats not on. What happens when they reach year six and they still have a couple of years to go before they can move on to comprehensive? do they stay where they are? or are they sent up to comp - that is scary for 11 yr olds for 9 yr olds it would be completely inappropriate?

Gingham_R

My friend's child is in a class with children a year ahead - also with 6 other children here age. In that particular class there was an unusual amount of very able children. There's a class like that in my son's school too, though they haven't been separated. There are 3 highly gifted children and several unusually able children in the group. It sounds like the staff at the OP's children's school are looking at the needs of individual children and trying to accommodate them.

I like the idea of schools moving children round depending on ability if it's done correctly and I don't think it indicates that they're teaching to the lowest ability in the class. I think, from experience, it's more likely that they're not restricting children's education to their batch date and forcing them to see 'peers' as children of a certain age.

It isn't necessarily the option I would choose, but it's better than keeping 6 or 7 bored kids with kids the same age doing work they can already do, which is what often happens in schools.

polejunkie

Are you sure he has skipped a class and not entered a mixed year class?

My old school has a mixed class of pupils from 2 years along with a full class for each year.

tessie_bear

my son was in a class with older kids for one year in primary....it was a timetabling issue so they said...im a teacher and i think its dodgy that bright kids are not catered for in their proper class...i would think at some point the child would be held back so essentially does one year twice....not very motivating for the child
id go in and ask the school to explain the whole picture to u

YORKSHIRELASS

Hi, my son has been ahead of the rest of his class for the whole of primary. He has been taught with his own year group but has always done more difficult work or work that older children are doing. Our school felt that it was important that he was learning with his peers as this would be better for him socially. Its been easier I suppose because he goes to a village primary where there are only 85 pupils in the whole school so children learn together anyway.

Now he is at the end of year 5 he has been graded as 4a for all subjects except Maths which was graded 5b. I am slightly concerned about year 6 because he will be the second oldest pupil in the school and he seems to have covered most of the year 6 work already. I am fairly confident in our school but I do wonder if there anything I should be asking school to do above what they are doing already.

As to the original question its definitely been best for my child to be with others of the same age, especially now he is going into year 6. Its interesting that he tends to gravitate towards older children anyway, but maybe this is just because he has an older brother.

Dustykitten

Have the school told you what will happen when they get to the top of the school? Surely at some point they are going to have to 'repeat' a year as they will not be able to move on to secondary school early. How will this be managed?

milliebear00001

A good teacher will cater for all ability levels within the class - this is what we should be expecting of all schools. A child working a few years ahead (esp. in EY/KS1) is not necessarily gifted - often the others will 'catch them up' later on. This is especially unlikely given that the school appears to have defined several children as performing at this level.

What it screams to me is a school trying to make life easier for the teachers, rather than one catering for the children's needs.