Schooling Central

As I have outlined in previous posts, we have had some concerns with the school my 6 year old son currently attends, and have been looking at some local alternatives. Recently we toured a large local state school which we were very impressed by. Unfortunately when we rang up to ask about a transfer for third term we were told that the year 1 classes are all full, although they thought they should be able to help us for grade 2 next year (the classes are so big they think they will form an entire new class next year). It then occurred to me that perhaps our son could get a spot at the school in grade 2 this year. I rang them back and was told that in there is room in grade 2, and that in theory they could accommodate a grade skip.

As a bit of background -ds is 7 in November and is currently in a grade 1/2 class which includes several other gifted children. He is currently subject accelerated 2 years in maths and he doesn't particularly like his maths class (he finds it hard and would rather be with his friends in the significantly easier maths class which unfortunately is way too easy). He tends to be quite anxious when he is unsure of a situation, but half way through second term has settled into his class to the point where he now talks and jokes around when he should be working I will add that he is very small (around the 5th percentile for height and weight) as some people will see this as significant although I'm not convinced that it is.

Now, I am not at all convinced that this is the right thing to do, but it was suggested that we send ds to the school for a couple of days to see how it works. I think this is a great idea, as even if we don't decide on the grade skip it will give us a better idea on whether this is the right school for ds. One of my problems is going to be making an informed decision in the face of what I anticipate will be quite negative reactions from nearly everyone I know! So at this stage I'm inviting people to comment with positive stories. There will be plenty of time to discuss the possible pitfalls -I just don't want to get bogged down there before I've even started.

So -who has had a positive experience with acceleration?

Annabel.

Hi Annabel, you have seen these links before I think, however this one specifically takes you to a module that has some very detailed information on the benefits of acceleration and indeed the negative side of not accelerating a gifted child. When you open the module you need to skip down to Part 2 Longitudinal Studies: Gifted Children Growing Up, Page 34.
http://www.dest.gov.au/NR/rdonlyres/66288AD2-B688-4F0A-94C6-4E3385A70D26/13914/SpecModule1_PRIM.pdf

A short snipet from this document says: The study also demonstrated that acceleration caused no social or academic difficulties; indeed, by contrast, gifted students who were accelerated experienced greater school and college success, and reported greater satisfaction with many aspects of their lives, even in middle age and after, than did equally gifted students who were not permitted to accelerate.

Hope this helps, it certainly points to acceleration being a very positive thing for children who have a high level of giftedness. Goodluck with your journey I know it is very difficult making these decisions.

Ask me, ask me!!!!
My son is on the first centile for height and of COURSE he is way the smallest in his new class but he would have been way the smallest in his old class, in fact even if they put him DOWN he would have been nearly the smallest!!! He is about to turn 8 ( in June) and the other kids in year 3 are turning or have turned 9.
There have been no problems at all with his skip, apart from the obvious ones with being a different height, which would occur in any class except Prep.http://schoolingcentral.com/components/com_fireboard/template/default/images/english/emoticons/laughing.png
He is one of two children to be in both the top maths and reading groups.
It was a bit of an artificial situation as we were returning from overseas and there was no peer group to leave, rather he went into year 2 on our return instead of going into year 1. I was keen as he was at about year 4-5 level academically (in some areas though not of course handwriting or organisational skillls etc ) and I saw it as a painless time to have a skip which would have had to been done at some time later anyway.
No social problems, he loves Dr Who, Harry Potter and complicated violent computer games which are more in keeping with his new class anyway. His teacher is really happy with him. (The last school wanted him to see a psychiatrist!)

Hey, fantastic news!!! A trial would be an excellent idea! Don't let the height thing put you off.

Thanks to both of you for your words of encouragement. I must say I already feel a lot calmer about the idea -to begin with it totally freaked me out. TMCR I have not yet followed that link, but will do so tonight when the kids are in bed (I was too busy partying at the school trivia night to have a look last night ). I definitely need to do some research on both the pros and cons -I have heard a lot of anecdotal stories, but really should start gathering my own facts. Happymum I love your comment about your son being the smallest even if he were put down a year -it really puts the height thing into perspective.

As I see it now the biggest hurdle is going to be convincing ds that changing schools is a great idea -or even an average idea for that matter Whilst he had seemed open to the idea earlier in the year, he has just recently started to make several new friends in his class and now sees leaving his mates as a terrible idea. We are worried that we won't even be able to get him to go for the two trial days. We are taking him to the school today to hopefully have a walk around -it's about the only thing we've been able to get him to agree to so far. If were a simple school transfer I wouldn't be so concerned about how ds feels about it, because at this point in his life I am in charge of his education, not him, so if I say he has to go to a different school then he just needs to get used to the idea. But I don't feel at all good about forcing a grade skip and a new school on him against his will, and I question whether the school would want to proceed if he were not at all accepting of it. So for now we're just focusing on trying to get him there for a couple of days next week, and then we can start to analyse ourselves to death over whether we should go through with it or not

I will keep you updated!

Annabel.

My son skipped year 3, moving from 2/3 class to 4/5 class. It was a very positive development and and I only regret not managing to do this earlier. The greatest benefit was in terms of social acceptance which improved considerably. As he has no interest in sport, being the smallest did not bother him at all. There may however be one important difference with your boy: mine really wanted to skip and worked hard to convince the principal.

Well it appears that our son is quite interested in the skip! He has agreed to go and trail the school for a couple of days next week

Annabel.

Dear Annabel,

I will be very interested to hear how things go. I haven't had much experience with acceleration or class skipping but would like to understand the issues involved better. (For anyone reading who doesn't know me, I'm an educator of gifted children.) I know some children who I suspect could cope with being accelerated but I'm concerned about how well the schools in question would handle it. Grade skipping when swapping schools I guess is another option.

This is certainly an area I need to investigate further. Anyway, let us know how things progress.

Penny.

All most 10 out 10 people saythat skipping is a great idea. But it's a common Aussie tradition that those who don't think it's a good idea will not bother saying anything. My 2c input is "to be extremely cautious" with grade skipping for young kids. You only really know if a child is gifted or not when the child is about 8 years old or over. Early indications are only promises that may never become real.

A few years ago, I knew a child who started same kindie year with my daughter. He was indeed clever and teachers asked the parents if they want the child to to year 1. They did not accept that offer. Now the child is struggling to stay at the top of the class. Other kids that were "average" at kindie time had gone past him in overall performance. This child is only ever good in a couple of subjects even with being pushed hard at home. What important is to see if a child is ahead in ALL areas and particularly far ahead in some areas. Failing this, the child is not ready to skip grade.

It depends on schools, but most public schools are programmed to be quite easy for kids. Therefore a smart child is likely to be doing extremely well and would be 1-2 years ahead in some subjects. That's very normal. These kids are just bright and should not skip grade.

I suppose having a bit of a test is fine. If a child that skips a grade and continues to perform well in the higher grade at the band 80% plus, then it's worth it. If the child is only managing 60% or less then the child should be moved back down and be at the top of the lower grade. That would be more psychologically advantageous. Generally it does not pay to hurry education because in education, depth is infinitely more preferable than speed.

Good luck!

dmaivn wrote:

QUOTE:
All most 10 out 10 people saythat skipping is a great idea. But it's a common Aussie tradition that those who don't think it's a good idea will not bother saying anything.

It's interesting that you say that, because my experience is the complete opposite. I find that nearly everybody I tell thinks that grade skipping is a bad idea, and most are quite happy to tell me why! That's partly why I only asked for positive responses when I first posted about our son's potential grade skip


I must update that it doesn't look like my son will be doing a grade skip after all. There was a mess up with the new school and when he showed up for his first trial day he was put into a grade 1 class. As it turned out this is exactly what he wanted and has been quite adamant ever since that he does not want to be put into a grade 2 class. We would have been interested to see how he liked/handled a grade 2 class for a couple of days, but as it didn't turn out like that I think we need to accept that for now he's not the right candidate for a skip (as I said earlier I would feel very uncomfortable about trying to force a grade skip on him).

The good news is that he had a wonderful time at the new school, and was keen to go back. The bad news is that there are no spots for him until next year So we get to think about it for another six months, which will do my head in, but will also give us time to make sure we're doing the right thing. As I have always said it will be very difficult to take him from the environment he's currently in, with streamed maths classes and a large gifted cohort. For now we will work with the current school to try to get some of our concerns addressed, and reassess towards the end of the year.

To be continued...

Annabel.

I mean on the Internet people don't often want to say negative things if it's not their concerns. Ofcourse if you talk to friends and parents at schools, they would generally tell you what they think. One thing important to consider is that kids need to learn good working ethics in order to able them to convert gifts into talents. Some smart kids keep failing to get the basics right because they like challenge but they don't realise that everything counts. That's why I think it's important to be well-rounded when they are still very young. The majority of Aussie parents actually delay starting schools for their kids hoping that they would be older, more confident and lead the way in their classes. In most cases this actually work well. In some cases the kids become too old for the class, and they get bored. There are exceptions, but one has to be very careful when deciding to go against the norm.