Schooling Central

I hope somebody here can help me.

My daughter is currently in grade 2 at the local primary school. It has a very good reputation, and most people are happy with the school -including my daughter. She is happy to go each morning, seems quite relaxed when she gets home, and so as far as I can tell she seems to enjoy school. The problem is the work she is getting is not nearly hard enough for her. She has had an IQ test which puts her in the gifted range, and she is really quite advanced in maths and English. The school knows this, and they believe they have made provisions to accommodate her (she now goes up a class for maths). But the work is still way too easy, and she quite happily coasts through it. While the school has tried to meet her needs, after 2 years of meeting with them I really don't know that they're ever going to be able to provide her with the radical acceleration she really needs. I'm really at a loss with what to do about it all. She can be an anxious child and the thought of shifting her away from her friends really upsets me. But then I wonder what the long term consequences will be of having her sit through years of classwork that does not challenge her sufficiently. If only she weren't so happy there -the decision would be so much easier!

Has anyone else had an experience like this? I would love to hear what others have done (or would do) in this situation.

Dilly

Hi Dilly,

I'm not going to be much help to you except to say that we are in a very similar situation. My son is very happy at his current school, even though he is not getting much out of the curriculum. Interestingly the other night when I mentioned that we were going to look at a school on the weekend, he got quite excited at the thought of changing schools (although I tried to make it clear that we were simply looking because he would need a high school eventually and many schools have waiting lists). I was really surprised by his reaction -I expected him to be quite angry. Of course actually changing schools is a bit different to sitting around chatting about it over a glass of milk. His reaction did however make me feel more enthused given that he seems to be able to cope with the idea at last of leaving his current school.

Have you talked to your daughter about the idea of changing schools, and do you have another school in mind?

Annabel.

Hi Dilly,

This may not be much help but these are my thoughts: I have a Gifted/ADHD son with anxiety now in Y8, and he was lucky in that he was in a tiny class with about 8 gifted kids so acceleration wasn't really an issue.

However, with the benefit of hindsight I would probably suggest two things, first, determine exactly what your daughter's needs are, i.e. how gifted is she, and exactly what her testing profile demonstrates, where her strengths and weaknesses are, also are there any other issues (such as anxiety) then have a look around and see if you can find a school that you feel would better meet her needs.
Only then do you need to make a decision. If there is no better alternative and she is happy where she is then there is no reason to move her, simply make a nuisance of your self at the school she is in now (in the nicest possible way), so that they realize you are not going to let up on your daughter's acceleration.

Also, for what it's worth, I moved my eldest son in Y5 and my youngest in Y4 to a new school where they knew no-one going in and they were totally settled after about 6 months, so kids do manage it.

Anyway, good luck

Hi Dilly,
I'd agree with the previous comment, if you can quantify how gifted is gifted, that will be of assistance. A moderately gifted child may be perfectly happy with some extension in the normal classroom, whereas a highly, exceptionally or profoundly gifted child is less to manage and will run into problems.
I changed my child's school recently (he is said to be EG) and I could not be more happy. The previous school did not recognise him as gifted at all, though they thought he (and I naturally as the Pushy Mother) should see a psychiatrist for behavioural problems. (I was believed to be fabricating evidence of my son's alleged genius) http://schoolingcentral.com/components/com_fireboard/template/default/images/english/emoticons/angry.png
New school, grade skip, maths acceleration, allowed to read novels not picture books...... NO more behavioural problems, likes school, no more pushy mother. http://schoolingcentral.com/components/com_fireboard/template/default/images/english/emoticons/smile.png

Having had a child profoundly unhappy at school I really value that your child is happy at school, that's really important.
However if a child coasts with no effort for years and years you worry that they could learn bad habits, like not trying their best, fear of new things, etc....
Have you considered having an ed psych assessment, or returning to the ed psych where her IQ test was done?
Have you heard of the IOWA acceleration scale? Would the school consider a grade skip?
I'm not sure what state you are in, have you considered Gateways/CHIP or local equivalent?
Have you seen the Hoagies website? It's american but great, there's an article about how to advocate for a grade skip.
Hope some of my random thoughts are helpful!
happymum

I think going to a different school is not the answer. You will soon find that it's the same deal. Even if you pay top $ for private schools, you will soon find out that private schools have a lot of "average" kids that even pull the smart ones down.

I think it's important to think about primary education as a whole experience rather than individual subjects. This includes developing social bonds and happy childhood. Having said this, what can you do for your child? I think there are many things you can do. Often kids perform very well in some areas and not so in other areas. At primary school age, they should be given a chance to be well-rounded as much as possible. As you start to help your child to become well-rounded in as many aspects of education as possible, you will find that the child's high performance in one or two areas will soften down. You should first make sure your child is given the chance to experience many other aspects such as dancing, music, science, history, visual arts, sports, ... The more you add into the child's list of subjects to learn, the less time the child has for the few subjects she is good at. This is not dumbing down. This is really about taking advantage of her intelligence to allow her to do more than what a child normally does. In the long run to year 6, you will find that the child is well-rounded and could take on challenges of highschool. It's impossible to really know if a child is gifted until near the end of primary education where you can observe sustainable performance across the years.

I find school work too easy for my child too. That's why I buy more books for her to learn at home and structure home learning along with a big array of arts and music interests that my child pursuit. Now at year 4, I also encourage her to do calligraphy and music transcribing for fun. School for her is a very happy playground, social development, sport games and revision of academic works. We ask her about her wishes, and she happily replied "I wants to have the time to be a child and enjoy my childhood".

I have seen many parents pushing their kids to concentrate on their best subjects too early. They soon become unbalanced and failed badly to achieve their full potential later in life. The time for this is mid highschool, not at primary school.

Hi I have a son in kinder who could read prior to starting school and its now 6 months into the year that I am worried he is not being challenged at his current school. I have had three meetings with his teacher and have asked for him to be moved up in year 1 for reading and comprehension but am told they don't do that. I want to change schools but am very worried as it took him 6 weeks to be happy about actually going to school. He loves school now. I do alot with him after school but really want the school to do more for him. He currently goes to a local catholic school I have looked at the local public schools and a local private anglican school. I really do not know what to do. I do not want him to just become complacent and just fit into the 'norm' - which is how his teacher is treating him. Please help with any suggestions. Thank you

Changing schools is hard, and when your child is relatively happy at their current school it makes it SO much harder! My own experience is that my son made new friends extremely quickly at a different school, and he was previously an anxious and insecure child who I thought would find the change very difficult.

I will from now on mention to anybody who asks how difficult it has been for us to change schools. If you are moving from Catholic to the public or private system then perhaps it will not be so bad, but for various reasons we found the experience of moving between public schools both stressful and emotionally draining and whilst I don't regret it I wish I had gone in with a more realistic idea of what the process would involve.

At the end of the day if you have tried your best to resolve the issues with the teacher, the year coordinator, the vice principal and the principal with no satisfactory response then it would appear a change is a good idea...providing you can find something that is better. And there's the catch...because the truth is it's very hard to find any school that handles gifted education well, and even when they say all the right things, it's not until you're there that you really see how it works in practice.

I'm sorry if that all seems a bit glib -we've just been through a tough week! Ask me again in 6 weeks and I hope that I will be able to tell you about how fabulous things are now that we're at the right school!

Good luck with finding the right solution for your son.

Annabel.

One thing I also notice is that moving between public schools is not easy. You need a reason such as bullying. Schools always ask to see the child's reports. If they think the child is not "easy to teach" or "won't contribute anything to the school's profile" then they refuse. I find that kids with great reports could change schools easily. If a school thinks that a "pushy" mother wants to move kids into their school, they will freak out too. It's a delicate balance. In generally a proven performer is better accepted.

Hi We did change schools successfully. My youngest son has a few problems, usually associated with total boredom and a very active mind. it got to the stage where he spent more time suspended than at school as it was easier for the staff to deal with him this way than to actively challenge him academically. I spoke to the principal of a school out of our zone who had an OC class. My son was too young to attend the class but she was so disgusted with the attitude of our Principal when she spoke to her that she organised an immediate transfer for us. It was a difficult time as my son does not deal with change well (not alone I am sure!!) We had a lot of tears and recriminations. 3 years on and what a change!!!! He is in the top 2% of the state in a couple of subjects, well adjusted, a number of close friends and is looking forward to high school next year. He is happy, funny and sooo grown up. Sometimes , if we can find the right place, a move can be a very positive thing
Kerrie