| An educational quandary 08:22 - Feb 25 with 2371 views | sparks |
I suspect there's some expertise on here (not to mention some who think they have it but who's opinions one would have cause to doubt :-)). There may also be people who have had similar situations.
Child X is one of the older one in his year group. In early years of primary school he and a friend of his move swiftly and significantly ahead of the others and are moved up into the next year for year 3 and onwards. Child X is now technically a year 4, but doing very well in with the year 5 class.
Decisions about secondary school are looming.
Does he go up with his current class, and risk being the youngest in that year, being a little upset at leaving his old year mates behind (with whom he still tends to mix more) and effectively end up getting to GCSEs and A Levels a year early?
Or does he stay back when his current class move up, repeat year 6, risk get bored and stagnant, possibly have self esteem damaged a little by not being considered part of the group he has competed very well with- but potentially gain the benefit of an extra year before exams, and being very much the top of the class without anyone near him.
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| An educational quandary on 14:16 - Feb 25 with 345 views | solemio |
As many have said, not an easy decision to make. As a retired Junior School Head I should wish to know the boy himself and his family before presuming to give any advice.
Purely anecdotally, and unrelated to your situation: when I was at school we had three boys come into our year from the year below. One went on to write the words of Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Joseph etc. Another became Professor of History at one of the colleges of London University. I don't know what happened to the third of them, even though he was my best friend of the three, and we still drink out of his wedding present glasses! |  | | |
| An educational quandary on 14:25 - Feb 25 with 330 views | Lord_Lucan |
| An educational quandary on 14:16 - Feb 25 by solemio |
As many have said, not an easy decision to make. As a retired Junior School Head I should wish to know the boy himself and his family before presuming to give any advice.
Purely anecdotally, and unrelated to your situation: when I was at school we had three boys come into our year from the year below. One went on to write the words of Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Joseph etc. Another became Professor of History at one of the colleges of London University. I don't know what happened to the third of them, even though he was my best friend of the three, and we still drink out of his wedding present glasses! |
You went to school with Tim? |  |
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| An educational quandary on 15:32 - Feb 25 with 299 views | nc41 |
My daughter was very similar. We didn't consider skipping a year as we felt we would have her future results on our conscience should she underperform for any reason. We were told that the first achieved GCSE grade is what universities want to see (not a re-take). So we felt the extra year was there to be taken.
Year 6 was quite initially painful for her. She was almost used as a teaching assistant for the other children. We had to push really hard for additional work and ended up providing most of the resources for that and extension work ourselves.
Secondary education has been very supportive of her. She was put forward for various schemes including a special school for gifted mathematicians and another for gifted scientists that runs in conjunction with a local University. She has days out of mainstream school to attend.
I am not from the Ipswich area (am in Devon) but perhaps check out what schemes the schools you are considering offer gifted kids over and above the published results.
If he has an ambition/a career path then maybe some extra curriculum qualifications would help too. My daughter decided at 4 years old that she wanted to be a pilot. An ambition that has evolved into wanting to be a test pilot. She started learning to fly. The Maths, Physics and Meteorology of that helps her progress and her school see that ambition and are superb in supporting it. They even look for science/maths opportunities for her.
Good luck. Happy to get details of the special schools she attends for you to see if there are similar schemes in your area if you need it to push for opportunity. [Post edited 25 Feb 2017 17:55]
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