School - children skipping years query

milliebear00001

Dustykitten wrote: »

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?

Year six children in our school would have work (rather than topics) differentiated for them. This means they will cover the same themes, but at a more advanced level. We are not teaching them 'year six' work, except possibly in maths. Year six children who have covered the year six standard planning, would be planned for separately using Key Stage 3 level work. I don't see why this should be a problem for most teachers.

Gingham_R

milliebear00001 wrote: »

A child working a few years ahead (esp. in EY/KS1) is not necessarily gifted - often the others will 'catch them up' later on.

To be honest, the sad reality is that so many children who are a few years ahead when they start school are 'caught up' by the other children because they are bored stiff/not catered for and stop learning. It's an absolute tragedy that these kids are allowed to fall so far behind their potential in so many schools.

A few years ahead by the time they are 4 of 5 years old is extremely significant. It's not acceptable that other children are expected to develop but these kids are expected to go no further until the others 'catch them up'.

Gingham_R

milliebear00001 wrote: »

Year six children in our school would have work (rather than topics) differentiated for them. This means they will cover the same themes, but at a more advanced level. We are not teaching them 'year six' work, except possibly in maths. Year six children who have covered the year six standard planning, would be planned for separately using Key Stage 3 level work. I don't see why this should be a problem for most teachers.

That would be my preferred method - except for children who are profoundly gifted, in which case they may need to study different topics.

milliebear00001

Gingham_R wrote: »

To be honest, the sad reality is that so many children who are a few years ahead when they start school are 'caught up' by the other children because they are bored stiff/not catered for and stop learning. It's an absolute tragedy that these kids are allowed to fall so far behind their potential in so many schools.

A few years ahead by the time they are 4 of 5 years old is extremely significant. It's not acceptable that other children are expected to develop but these kids are expected to go no further until the others 'catch them up'.

I would disagree. If we're talking about academic achievement, it's perfectly possible to be advanced without it meaning you're in any way gifted.

I could have taught my daughter to read before she got to school. I could have taught her written methods of addition (in some countries they do) it would have made her academically advanced, but not gifted.

Truly gifted children are different to academically advanced children. The former remains ever present, the latter may not. I see the latter every day - most children who were 'very bright' (according to academic measures) at the end of Y2, are not that different by Y5, and some will have been overtaken by those who were simply 'later developers'.

blue_monkey_2

My daughter is very academically bright and head of her class - but I'd not say she was gifted. I do not think I'd be happy her moving to an older year group to be honest, I think emotionally she is not ready to be mixing with these children all day.

chelle230

my 5 year old is gifted and talented in reading and writing, he has recently moved schools as we felt they were not helping him enough, he is now in a class with reception, year 1 and 2, and only 18 children altogether, it is helping his enormously, but he's still with his own peer group.

the previous school did recognise his talent, and moved him to year 1 for an hour a day for these classes. we felt this wasn't enough.
they didn't want him being put there permanently as they said he wasn't emotionally ready, and still needed the same age group to develop socially.

we would have been happy for him to be pushed more, and the hour a day wasn't really enough.
he is a lot happier mixing with older children, as he is quite mature for his age.

only you know how your child is and how they will react to the older classes, I'm sure they'd tell you if they were unhappy with it.

Gingham_R

milliebear00001 wrote: »

Truly gifted children are different to academically advanced children. The former remains ever present, the latter may not.

Truly gifted children are very different to academically advanced children. They often don't show any academic advancement because their school doesn't cater adequately for them. They are often either sitting 'switched off' at the back or kicking off causing trouble because they're bored.

But they are 'ever present', just as the academically advanced children are. Mensa accepts the 2% of people who score highest in IQ tests - but they don't accept others who are gifted but perform badly in IQ tests (eg because they're also dyslexic). If we're looking at the top 5% of ability to class as gifted that obviously means 5% of all school children - so some schools will have one or two and some will have many more. But almost all schools will have some who are truly gifted and under performing.

Gingham_R

chelle230 wrote: »

he is a lot happier mixing with older children, as he is quite mature for his age.

Another common problem for gifted children - they're expected to want to play with children their own age who may not have the same verbal skills, or want to play games with complex rules or who don't share the same interests. Although the child may be mature, it can make them look socially unable through being expected to 'fit in' with children they may not have much in common with.

blue_monkey_2

Gingham_R wrote: »

Another common problem for gifted children - they're expected to want to play with children their own age who may not have the same verbal skills, or want to play games with complex rules or who don't share the same interests. Although the child may be mature, it can make them look socially unable through being expected to 'fit in' with children they may not have much in common with.

That is all very well but what happens if they are in year 6 instead of year 4, what do they do when they are in years 5 and 6? They cannot go any higher so will have to, one day, mix with kids of their own age. What happens then?

chelle230

Gingham_R wrote: »

Another common problem for gifted children - they're expected to want to play with children their own age who may not have the same verbal skills, or want to play games with complex rules or who don't share the same interests. Although the child may be mature, it can make them look socially unable through being expected to 'fit in' with children they may not have much in common with.

exactly, I work at the school he used to go to, and he was forever on his own at lunchtimes as the reception were kept on a different playground to the older kids. I felt awful for him.

the school he is at now is a small prep school, who thankfully offered us a wonderful opportunity of a free place for him. there are about 80 kids in total in the school from age 3 to 11.

I speak to his teacher about him and his progress and she said he is not happy mixing with his own age group, only his best friend (who moved from the old school same day as him) within the class.
as soon as break arrives he heads off to find the year 4/5.

it's brilliant for them to be able to socialise with older children, they can make the decisions then on who to play with.