Mumsnet Talk

We are in a similar position, and our primary are also happy to differentiate and set work to each child's ability.

DS1 and two of his classmates (year 4) are currently working at year 6 level. I have been told that the top year 6 class are in an extension group and have additional help from a secondary teacher.

From what I can tell (and I'm pretty rubbish at maths), DS and his classmates are covering a lot of topics at a fairly quick speed. Because they "get it", they don't need to repeat the concepts, hence the speed.

I would imagine secondary school will be fine. It will only take a couple of children from each school to be at this level for them to make a whole class!

First of all, wow at your DC!
As to G&T provision, it all depends on what your individual school does.
G&T was a government scheme whereby there was separate funding for the 10% most able in each year. The funding ended in 2008 or 2009. Some schools kept the label, others called it "more able" or similar. Also some kept some of the extra provision arrangements, but it is quite hit or miss.
Teaching the most able children has been an issue recently (for an intro see this story from the weekend www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-21218072)., so if your school is working to make sure your DS is going to be challenged, then you are doing very well.

The implications are that the school need to work out how to meet his needs, which they have.

Not sure what your question is? It's reasonably common, but schools usually deal with it very badly, so you are lucky to have accidentally found yourself in a school that differentiates as a matter of course.

In the UK, kids are labelled at gifted at x or y (so Ds would be theoretically labelled gifted at maths), in some other countries, kids have to be working over 2 grades head across the board to be labelled gifted.

G&t is a fairly meaningless descriptor really, and means Nowt in the UK context. As long as the school are differentiating and meeting his needs, it's all good.

It's not uncommon for children to sit their exams early if they've very capable. I think primary school children who sit gcses usually end up in the local paper though.

I agree with redsky - secondary schools are often huge (200 - 300 pupils per year group) and cover a huge range of abilities. In Year 7 there will be children on the same level your son is now and others who could probably pass GCSE maths on the spot. Because the year groups are so large though, there is plenty of opportunity to find other children at the same stage and teach them all together.

G&T was a labal mainly used to identify the top 10% in any class. It therefore depended on the rest of the class as to whether a child qualified or not but in most cases didn't mean much - some schools did extra workshops for these children but as far as I know it has all but been abolished now. High achieving children are still identified of course but mainly to ensure they get appropriate work set.

The important thing is that he is getting set work that suits his abilities. At primary school this may mean working with older children but at secondary, they'll be others at his level to work with.

Is he in a small school? DS's school copes with able children by setting and the most able get "extra" maths (which is really G&T provision).

It would be difficult to teach a chlid with another year because of the way the timetable works.

I'd suggest asking your school.

DS (Y3) exceeds across the curriculum, particularly in maths and sports. We've been told that he is very bright and that the gap between him and his peers will widen "even more" the older he gets. Noone has mentioned G & T or any other "labels". DSs SAT results in maths were "off the chart" so he's now doing maths with Y5 pupils and he does some Y6 and Y7 maths after school.

Does that mean that he is G & T? When he's older, will he be taken out of other classes, too? How will a comprehensive school deal with children like him, if they are, say, 3, 4 years ahead with some subjects? (Sorry, not famliar with English school system.)

Thanks!