Schooling Central

Our six year old daughter has been identified as 'a highly able student'.
I don't know what to do for her. I have no car during the week so cannot get her to a public school with a g&t program; we don't have the money for Grammar school; and her current ACT public school is not equipped to deal with her.
She had a taste of how good it can be at the recent GATEWAYS Festival of Workshops and now she hates her school.
I shake when I start thinking on this. It scares the living daylights out of me. Does anyone else feel this way?

Hi and welcome to the forum

You are certainly not alone in feeling scared and frustrated. We have just been through a very difficult time with our son's schooling and I am still feeling emotional drained by the whole experience. Have you tried to work with your daughter's current school to try to improve the situation? Do you think it's a problem with the individual teacher she has, or something that is systemic throughout the school? Has she had an IQ test already? Sorry for all the questions! Some schools will respond to an IQ test, but sadly others take little notice. Even if the school doesn't respond appropriately the the test it can be very useful when trying to advocate for your child now and in the future.

I'm sorry I don't have more advice for you -just remember that there are many people out there facing similar issues and by being aware of the problem you already one step ahead of many parents.

Annabel.

God love you Annabel..I just needed to know that there is someone out there who knows what I am going through.
Her teacher is just wonderful but it is systemic unfortunately. Last year the deputy principal would take my daughter out of class to work one-on-one with her but this year our principal resigned rather hastily and the deputy is filling that role til another can be found. I will be making an appointment to talk about this issue once we have a new principal.
Without sounding melodramatic or boastful last year the principal and the kindergarten teacher suggested the reason they are not prepared for my daughter is that in 25 years they have not come across one quite like her.
They suggested putting her up but I am not comfortable with that as I have already had one child go through schooling being the youngest in the class and while in primary school that was fine but once she hit high school things went horribly pear shaped as she tried to fit in socially..long story.
I so want to do what is right by Miss Six. She is a paradox though. She has the head of a 50 year old but the maturity of a 3yr old. She runs around the class on all fours like a cat doing imaginary hissing and scratching (without actually making contact). She is a nut! lol..but she just loves her peers and is a very popular nut with all ages.
We haven't yet had her IQ tested yet due to something the school counselor said. He suggested we wait until she has turned 8 as apparently the test they administer prior to that age only shows results to 8 (and costs about $1000).. but that there is a test she can take at eight that will test up to adult level. Please feel free to tell me if this is incorrect. I am pretty clueless and am operating on his word alone.

Thank you once again for your response. I know I should be thankful that we have this problem and not at the other end of the spectrum..but frankly, there would be more available to her if she were struggling.

Hi mychild,
We also went through a really really difficult time when my son was 6... I can empathise. I felt so powerless in the system. However after a lot of difficulty now we are in a good spot... my son is now 8.
I don't have a firm grasp of all the IQ tests involved so I dont' want to mislead you but in general there is a test used on younger kids (WPPSI????) in which very bright kids can "ceiling" or get a really high score so that their IQ is undervalued. However there are other tests available, eg the SB5 which can be done at any age above 2. I think if the IQ test results will be helpful then it would be really worth seeking the advice of an experienced educational psychologist who will certainly have an informed opinion about what test will be suitable to use at your daughters age and why. I would not be put off by the comment of the counsellor. You won' t be charged $1000 to make an enquiry.
As always Hoagies has a page on this! I found this Hoagies really helpful..... It really helped me to learn some of the terminology and categories so that I could talk to the teachers, ed psych etc. http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/tests.htm
On the bright side it's great that your teacher is good.
Good luck and as Hoagies says... remember this, you are not alone!

Thank you Happymum, although I did cry at your last sentence. I do feel alone, so very alone with this. I do worry that I won't help her enough and she will lose the impetus to want to learn. I don't know what I am doing so I am thankful for the link you provided.

My eldest (early 20's) is bright..but nothing like my six year old. My seven year old son is also performing years ahead of expectation, however my six-month-old son refuses to do calculus or speak a second (let alone first) language yet..lololol.
I just want to do what is right for all my kids. Unfortunately the eldest has to date blown off a great education and is floundering through life. I don't want this for my other kids. I am not pushy..in fact, although the six year old craves to learn more about maths etc, I am reluctant to stretch her myself if it means sending her back to school only to be given work that is far beneath her. I frankly am lost.

I will check out the link you provided and try to find some other information and an educational psychologist. I cannot attend the g&t group in Canberra as I don't have the car during the day. I certainly can't talk with my friends or family about this as the reactions vary from playing-it-down to feeling threatened. I can understand in a way. I just need to talk with people who do understand.

Thank you for responding.

Hi, I'm new to forums, wrote a long entry a few weeks back and it disappeared without getting sent- hope this works this time (I'm not the gifted one!!). Our 15 year old son had testing last year when we had to rush to psychologists after everything went pear shaped in our son's world. He was depressed and talking suicide, had major issues with girls, withdrawing/crying inclass etc. We always knew he was very bright, but never really pursued learning about giftedness. If we had we would have discovered that gifted kids have special needs too, that self esteem can be low even when you're bright, that some of his difficult behaviour stems from frustration and asynchronous development- his social skills are ok but I'm starting to see that he has to work hard at it, and that is tiring. By the end of term, and frequently during term he is agitated and infuriating at home which makes life harder for everyone including him. He is doing NO work in several classes, and only what he feels like in science and math (his strengths) which is vey little. He leaves the classroom when he feels like it, has even walked out of school at times. His agitated behaviour led us to consider aspergers although the psychologist said he isn't aspergers. We are organising a meeting with teachers/counsellors etc to see what can be done, I'm hoping it's not too late. Initial attempts to extend him at high school seem to have been "do all the set work at as often as the rest of the class does it (he only needs to do it once- often did it years ago in self motivated study) then do some extension work as well- seems to have had a very negative impact. Any comments or encouragement would be greatly appreciated. We feel like we've left things a bit late. Will be looking at Hoagies site for ideas- thanks for the tip