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Original poster

To ask the school to stretch my DD

59 replies

PaxAeterna · 19/06/2025 19:02

Is this something schools do?

My DD is doing very well at school, is one of the top performers I’m told. The problem is that she is starting to find school very repetitive and boring. She has constantly complained this year that everything is explained over and over again and that she has grasped a concept and is ready to move on. I had paid little heed to this to be honest but now with the end of year report stating that she is a top performer, is it unreasonable to ask the school, next year, to stretch her with harder work basically or accommodate her in some way so that she doesn’t continue to find the academic end of things dull and repetitive?

OP posts:
SleepWalkingtoSeville · 19/06/2025 19:18

arcticpandas · 19/06/2025 19:16

Can't she just skip a year? Because teachers will focus on getting all students to point D so if she's already at point F they won't make any efforts in streching her further.

This is generally considered a very bad idea. It causes all sorts of issues down the line when you are not in the correct age group.

arcticpandas · 19/06/2025 19:16

Can't she just skip a year? Because teachers will focus on getting all students to point D so if she's already at point F they won't make any efforts in streching her further.

Mrsttcno1 · 19/06/2025 19:16

You could mention but not sure how well received it would be, a teacher has a class full of pupils, they aren’t a personal tutor for your child nor do they have time to take on that role.

LadyTable · 19/06/2025 19:14

We could have done with knowing her age really OP.

OldChinaJug · 19/06/2025 19:13

I'd ask what the school is doing to challenge her rather than just assuming they don't.

I have a child in class who is a 'top performer' (but that's relative to the rest of my class. He's still not GD. But he's closer to it than the others).

But both he and his parents expect me to be giving him work that is 'harder'. That's not how it's done nowadays. They should be deepening her understanding though.

BarnOwlFlying · 19/06/2025 19:13

At our school there are usually a range of tasks for different abilities:high and low.
At the end of the day the teacher has lots of pupils to try and help. Your daughter does need to learn resilience and not be complaining about being bored, a gifted child should hopefully be able to edit and improve her own work or extend her own writing or maths during a lesson.

Iampondering · 19/06/2025 19:08

I really struggled with that with my DCs school. I think it came down to the fact the teachers just don't have time (not their fault at all) but are pulled in so many directions. In the end a friend suggested Twinkl, so we do stuff on there at home together now. Will probably look into a tutor too in a few years.

Sunshineismyfavourite · 19/06/2025 19:08

Schools are expected to stretch high attainers of course. You say the school said she was a top performer, what did they actually say as those are words I wouldn't expect from a teacher without more specific explanation really? I would also expect them to still have targets for her. What year is your DD and is it a specific subject she is doing especially well at?

Hollowvoice · 19/06/2025 19:06

How old is she? They will likely start setting some stretch tasks for the class so whenever a child has done the normal work there's something extra to do