Angry, upset and annoyed or over reacting rant

Dunroamin

The most worrying thing is the fact that the school seems to think that a grade B is an acceptable grade for bright students to achieve.This strongly suggests low academic standards and a lack of understanding of how GCSE grades affect further choices and careers.

krlyr

Is there any real benefit for your son to sit the earlier exam? I know you mention him studying statistics afterwards but will he then go on to sit any kind of exam for this?

My mum refused to let the school do the early GCSEs for my brother because they had no real plan on what to do with him afterwards. Why sit a paper 6 months early if there was no real benefit.

If he'll simply be studying statistics to get a headstart when doing Maths at A-level, he could always do extra study alongside studying for the GCSEs next year. I was part of an "extra study" group in my GCSE year, we were all ahead of the usual syllabus so were just given an extra book and grouped together in the usual class - we still did the same homework as everyone else so the teacher could check we grasped the concepts we'd be using in the GCSE exam, but we didn't just twiddle our thumbs repeating things we knew in classes, we gained some extra knowledge which was useful when we went on to college.

Alchemilla

bbc.co.uk/bitesize choose GCSE and Maths. Eternally useful. Also does school have an intranet/moodle/ilearn? Should be stuff on there.

Counting_Pennies_2

FBaby wrote: »

GCSEs maths in primary school? What's that all about? My son's school is providing extra tutoring for the most able children to see if they can reach a level 6 at their end of year SATs, is that what you mean? In his case, it is in addition to normal school hours. They have a tutor that comes early one morning and another that come after school for English.

I am personally pleased with that as my son finally gets a lesson where he feels challenged and therefore really enjoy it. I am pleased too because he finally gets homework that takes him longer to complete than the usual 5 minutes.

No this is GCSE in addition to sitting level 6 SATs

I feel they are taking the challenging the gifted children a little too far. The children who have been forgotten in the middle, never challenged, never pushed are yet again left behind in order to show the world that talented and gifted children are covered. If this was so extra tutoring for them outside of the school hours is not appropriate. Why should they get extra assistance when those behind them do not

Dunroamin

Counting_Pennies wrote: »

No this is GCSE in addition to sitting level 6 SATs

I feel they are taking the challenging the gifted children a little too far. The children who have been forgotten in the middle, never challenged, never pushed are yet again left behind in order to show the world that talented and gifted children are covered. If this was so extra tutoring for them outside of the school hours is not appropriate. Why should they get extra assistance when those behind them do not

Why indeed, if they can all grind along at a lower level rather than being challenged to fulfill their potential?:(

FBaby

Counting_Pennies wrote: »

No this is GCSE in addition to sitting level 6 SATs

I feel they are taking the challenging the gifted children a little too far. The children who have been forgotten in the middle, never challenged, never pushed are yet again left behind in order to show the world that talented and gifted children are covered. If this was so extra tutoring for them outside of the school hours is not appropriate. Why should they get extra assistance when those behind them do not

Most importantly, I don't see the point. What are these children going to do in secondary school? That's all well if there is a form of education to follow on this accelerated education, but what is the point when it just isn't available unless you are prepared to pay for private education (and even then, few would continue from there).

I do however disagree on your statement about extra assistant. Gifted children are also children with extra needs from the 'norm'. My children are bored during normal lessons because they systematically finish the work expected from the class long before the others do and even the additional work given still leaves them waiting. They have accepted this to be the case, and they will either read or the teachers will encourage them to help others in the class, but I don't think there is anything wrong in giving them additional time so that they can also be challenged to their level. These classes are not compulsory and open to all children who can follow at that level.

FBaby

The children who have been forgotten in the middle, never challenged, never pushed

The feeling I get is that this because the syllabus is geared towards those in the middle. They are the focus of what is learnt every day in class. This is why those with learning difficulties get more additional support, and why gifted children also require something different. I agree with Emma, my experience is that gifted children are often left out because they will do ok anyway. My DD Maths teacher said last year that she would get an A* at her GCSE so there was no need to worry. I don't worry about her results, I worry about what she is assimilating because of her lack of being challenged, ie. that you don't need to work hard to achieve. That's all well whilst the curriculum is geared at the average, but how will she be prepared when she suddenly face much harder lessons? Those additional lessons are in my view more about teaching the children what it is like to not always know systematically every response to the question and how to go about it, rather than getting them even closer to getting an A* at whatever test.

Dunroamin

EmmaBridgewater wrote: »

This just isn't true in reality. In my experience (not too long ago) the lower and middle children were given far more support and guidance whilst the A graders were left because "oh they're smart, they will get on with it" I appreciate that there are people on the boundaries between D/C but there are people on the A*/A boundary too.

The group who tend to get most support are those on the C/D borderline as grade Cs make such a difference to league tables.:(

Lunar_Eclipse

Counting_Pennies wrote: »

No this is GCSE in addition to sitting level 6 SATs

Anyone consistently working at level 6, has a good chance of passing the GCSE. With extra teaching on elements of the GCSE curriculum not covered up to this level, they could get a reasonable result (C+).

Having said that, I'm also not sure it's a good idea, although possibly better than expecting the children to twiddle their thumbs for a couple of years just because ...

susancs

FBaby wrote: »

Most importantly, I don't see the point. What are these children going to do in secondary school? That's all well if there is a form of education to follow on this accelerated education, but what is the point when it just isn't available unless you are prepared to pay for private education (and even then, few would continue from there).

I do however disagree on your statement about extra assistant. Gifted children are also children with extra needs from the 'norm'. My children are bored during normal lessons because they systematically finish the work expected from the class long before the others do and even the additional work given still leaves them waiting. They have accepted this to be the case, and they will either read or the teachers will encourage them to help others in the class, but I don't think there is anything wrong in giving them additional time so that they can also be challenged to their level. These classes are not compulsory and open to all children who can follow at that level.

My daughter was identified in primary school as "gifted and talented" (has now just started doing A levels) and while I can see you point about these children having extra needs, I do not feel giving extra lessons would have been beneficial as there was no need, it would have just eaten into her spare time and put her apart socially from her classmates. My daughter like your children did the classwork, extension work, her homework and then helped classmates. The benefit of this in my opinion was that she had time to do other less academic activities in the evening due to no homework and gained good teamworking and social skills in helping others. We would not have wanted her to have accelerated learning to do A levels earlier for example and she was fully capable of extending her own learning by doing her own research (and did so). The school's approach has been good in my opinion in helping create a better rounded person who is not just viewed (or views herself) solely in terms of her academic achievements. Recently she applied for Saturday work and helping others in school really helped in the team working group interviews and allowed her to get offered several jobs.