Bright 9 year old

BernadetteN

I would be very wary of giving even more academic work to a child that is obviously brighter than average.

Our neighbour has a 10 year old and he does extra academic work set by the grandparent (retired school teacher) almost every school night. Funnily enough, his dad is worried about him passing the 11 plus because he doesn't appear to be liking the "hard work".

I would be more inclined to find them a hobby which stretches their brain and can be relaxing and rewarding too - something like getting him/her to construct a model railway, model planes, do electronic circuitry. Or even learning a musical instrument, or taking up a competitive sport. I think all these things can be as, if not more, beneficial to children who are gifted academically.

PS I personally would not spend too much money on tutoring for 11 plus if you know the chances of your child passing are already close to the 100%. Our 10 year old son did 6 months of 11 plus tutoring for one hour a week and passed both the Kent and Dover 11 plus tests. He had been in only the 2nd of 4 groups in his class, until the last few weeks when he has finally "caught up" with the "high flyers" and is now in the 1st group (level 5 SATS predicted). In contrast, 2 "high flying" children who are in the 1st out of 4 groups in Year 6 class have been tutored all the way through primary school (Kumon Maths, English, private 11 plus tutoring etc) yet I can't see really if they have benefitted from their 100s of hours of extra tuition because they have no higher SATS predictions than our son who has lagged behind them all these years until recently and who only received around 30 hours tuition in total.

PPS don't rely on SATS scores when they are marked internally - only Year 6 scores are all sent off for external marking - as many schools like to give their children higher scores to make it look like the children there are improving the expected 2 sub-levels per year.

MissMoneypenny

Don't blame schools or teachers. Cream always floats to the top.

My son sailed into The University of Warwick and he just went to the local primary school and local comprehensive. Also at that local comp was a maths genius, who who took the entire years maths books home one weekend "for a read". I wouldn't even say that the standard of maths teaching at the school was that good, but bright kids will always do well no matter where they are.

My daughter went to the same schools and is an Astrophysicist. She also won the local universities Young Scientist competition at just 16 and won a trip to America to spacecamp - and she did all the work for that on her own. My son and his friends won a Chemistry award the same year.

I was shocked to be told by a local parent they had paid a maths tutor for their child as she was very bright, but was lazy. The little girl is only 7:eek: The mother of the boy who set fire to the school, claimed her son was very bright but was bored:eek: :eek:

I never gave my children extra homework and they didn't get any from the school until they were 10. I had the usual homemade name cards up on things round the house and my daughter wanted to learn to read before she started school, but my son did not. My daughter wanted to know about maths before she started school and my son did not. I let them go at the own pace. We spent the weekends and school holidays going mainly to themeparks or weekends away in the tent. I talked to them about going to university from a young age and planted the seed, but the choice was theirs. They had what I considered, to be good teachers and some not so good. I am the most competitive person going, but I tried to never demand academic things from my children, I wanted them to be children and work things out for themselves. I played sports to satisfy my competitive edge. I told my children to follow their dreams.

When they are at university, they have to work things out for themselves and don't have parents or teachers to do the work for them or push them, so better that they learn to want to work things out for themselves. Remember too that children are at home more than at school, so a well educated full time mother at home, who spends a lot of time with them 7 days a week, is always going to be helpful.

shykins

i quite agree about not pushing them .. i have been told for years hes very bright and should be doing this and that but i always said he needs to be a child not a scholar

the 11plus decision was his, he really wants to do it and pass hence he now gets extra help (only started last week so will barely have 10-15hrs altogether by the time he takes the exam) the extra work he does at home is to help him with the 11plus stuff cos they dont do verbal reasoning etc at his school and i cant send him in blind he would have no idea and that wouldnt be fair when hes so keen to pass

the sights were very interesting but i still would like ot know who to approach to get a private ed psych assessment .. anyone???

x

patchwork_cat

Hi
Does anyone know if there is any legal obligation for schools to identify more able children and provide them with any thing extra at primary level. I have just rung the school and sure enough 'it was very difficult to say when the head would be free' so explained to the secretary who had no knowledge of it and just talked about markers on computer systems - which won't help my daughter to feel stimulated!!

MissMoneypenny

shykins wrote: »

the 11plus decision was his, he really wants to do it and pass hence he now gets extra help (only started last week so will barely have 10-15hrs altogether by the time he takes the exam) the extra work he does at home is to help him with the 11plus stuff cos they dont do verbal reasoning etc at his school and i cant send him in blind he would have no idea and that wouldnt be fair when hes so keen to pass

I guess I was lucky with my children as we had the grammar school system and the comp system. The comp was out performing the grammars, so we elected for the comp. My friend's son was doing the same A levels as my daughter, at the same time, in one of the leading grammars in the UK and his results were so low that he had to do a foundation course at a lesser university, before he was allowed to do a degree.

What I am trying to say is, parents, don't worry about your children if they really are bright, they will do well in exams. Don't pressure them. It's the children who wouldn't make the top sets who need the most help.

Also noticed that some of the colleges lower down the schools list, get a lot of government funding and can afford to pay better wages. One college near here had teachers who had a degree in the subject they taught. Most teachers don't have degrees in the subject they teach. Some teachers don't even have A levels.

shykins wrote: »

the sights were very interesting but i still would like ot know who to approach to get a private ed psych assessment .. anyone???

Try phoning your local British Dyslexia Association. They will have Ed Psychs coming in to their centres.

MissMoneypenny

Double post

MissMoneypenny

patchwork_cat wrote: »

- which won't help my daughter to feel stimulated!!

Why don't you help your daughter feel stimulated? She is with you more than she is with the teachers. If you feel a bit out of touch, then why not go to evening school and retake some GCSEs or A levels? Educate the mother and you educate the child.

clairehi

MissMoneypenny wrote: »

bright kids will always do well no matter where they are.

This is a bit over-simplistic dont you think. Bright kids will do better in an environment which encourages and stimulates them and where learning is valued. A lot of parents are rightly concerned that their children will get bored and mess around if they are not challenged at school. That was certainly the case for me when I was age 11-12 in a bog standard comp where it was uncool to get the grades. The fact that I had two highly educated parents including a stay at home mum, and a home full of books did in no way make up for the poor quality teaching and lack of aspiration at the school. Sure, I was top of the class so you could say I did well for that school, but when I changed school I was a year behind in many subjects.

shykins

have to agree with claire.. i went to a very poor performing comp school and was very bored and in fact walked out of school more then once.. in the years i was there i achieved nothing except 1 o level.. i went onto college and in 2yrs achieved 6 O levels, 2 A's and an OND

things are not going well for my boy at school lately and i am concerned boredom and lack of suitable peers is not helping the situation.. its all such a worry when u dont know where to turn

patchwork i read something earlier about all schools needing to have a special co-oridnator for more able pupils but i am not sure if that has to be in place now or by sept 2007
x

BernadetteN

It may be over-simplistic but Miss moneypenny is trying to motivate you to look at a child's whole environment, not just school, and not blame school for every child's ills.

It is not easy for schools to cater for all abilities. I can see it from both ends of the special needs spectrum. Not only do I have a child with dyspraxia and other possible learning difficulties, I also have a child who is increasingly "waking up" at school and is heading towards the top 10%. So how is any state school supposed to cope with him?

I was quite capable at primary level. I was put a year ahead of the rest of my age group but not allowed to move up to secondary school with the rest of the class and therefore spent 2 years in Year 6 (class 7). I spenta large time of my 2nd year in class 7 helping out the less able children and was given responsibilities that these days school secretaries and TAs would have (I did the whole school registers each week, collating the stats, I collected the dinner money and handed out dinner tickets for example). Well I suppose it was an imaginitive solution at the time for me and I loved that last year at primary school. I may not have done much academic work but it gave me an early taster of management skills and also was very good for my mental arithmetic.

Stretching the gifted and talented is not all about giving them more homework or giving them even work from the year group above.