Gifted teen, lazy as hell, would like teacher advise on how to push him

I don’t try to challenge that your child is so bright. But in our day and age the opportunities for learning and applying the knowledge OUTSIDE of school are endless. From free or paid courses to endless sources of information on pretty much every single thing he’d want to research. What is the issue? Why do you want him to start everything early or “push him to the breaking point”? My child is extremely bright in science related subjects, so he is reading a lot/researching some subjects that are 1/2 years groups higher. It doesn’t make me think of “pushing them to the breaking point”.

At 15 he must be Y11, and if in England should be taking his GCSEs this school year (unless born early in the year and has just turned 15 and in Y10?).
My daughter is in Y11 and a few friends have taken one or two gcses early (so in y10) - usually in their native language. They had to do the tuition in their own time. Another student decided to take one or two a year early 'for the challenge', also self taught.
But the facility to do that makes no difference if your son isn't motivated. You say he is lazy, yet he complains the class isn't moving fast enough. And if in a private school why no textbooks?
Surely he himself can only provide motivation to do extra work (or even the work required). He should be pushing himself - if he feels unchallenged then surely he is bright enough to find things that do challenge him? It doesn't matter how smart you are if you can't be bothered to exercise your brain - and that has to come from within, not from the school. But it does sound like he needs to be in a more selective school.

2. would need pro/con mostly from teachers on why you would or wouldn't push a gifted kid to do gcse/a-levels a year or 2 earlier if they were clearly capable of doing so.

Doing a GCSE or 2 early is no big deal but most unis want at least 3 A-levels taken in one sitting, and all A-levels have to be listed on UCAS. If he does one early, then the 3 A-levels later on, that's fine, but if he gets a rubbish grade, he still has to list it on his UCAS form, which might be a disadvantage when it comes to applying to uni.

I think there are other ways to stretch bright students without putting them in for exams early.

Also, if you are in the UK the schools are not closed. I'd definitely send him back.

Is he in Y9 or 10? I agree with PP, if he's in Y9 send him to a much more selective school.

He needs more breadth and, depending on how he is, social skills. Some very bright children do not know how to interact with their peers.

Some of David Crystals books would link well with language learning but also introduce him to linguistics.

For maths there are maths competitions he could enter, you could also get second hand OU books to work through. The OU also has some free resources.

Can he explain things to you? That's a really good skill to have and is something more than just doing a maths problem or writing an essay.

May be he could have a Youtube channel explaining things?

There is a company (sorry the name escapes me) that sends you clues to solve a crime, sort of like an interactive Cluedo but done via internet and post.

School in the UK is about so much more than academic success. My guess from the cadence of your language is that you come from a country which has an extremely competitive education system where success is judged purely on exam grades?
Success in the UK and similar countries us judged on a studentb using their time in school to develop a more rounded personality. He should take advantage of wider opportunities, drama club, sporting experiences, volunteering in and for the community. These are experiences which will enrich his academic education, look great on his CV and expose him to a different group of people.
In lockdown what is he doing to help his community? Maybe he could offer online tutoring to local kids who are less advantaged than him, for free?
Get him to join Scouts and meet some people outside of his school friendship group.
If you are only interested in his academic success, sign him up for an Open University course in something that he isn't studying at school. If he is aiming for medicine, have him study history or art.

I think bright kids need to find interesting, challenging things outside school. School work is just incidental to some clever children.
Learning another language, writing music, playing instruments, coding, doing an extra online course in something that interests them is better, IME. School work is very limiting and more of the same is just boring for some kids.

Get him to learn about history methodology through some well known seminal works and see if he can apply it to certain topics.

A fried described a gardening/ botany course as "really hard core" due to the science involved; she had exams to do as well. Then he could earn some cash doing gardening? I think it was based in Edinburgh and is long distance currently.

I'd get him doing some sort of research. Apply his knowledge etc.

That's what he will need to do in the future

Tackle stuff that's unknown.

Don't just learn the language, apply it in really hard situations. Translate something.

Look into creative stem stuff. How do OkGo make their videos and can he plan the times for his own?

Free courses in everything under the sun here
www.coursera.org/courses?query=free
If he’s really that bright, he needs to find something that fires his imagination.

I think they should be pushing him to breaking point and not giving 80% on an essay where he even steers away from the actual task

This part of your attitude towards his education is unreasonable.

He definitely shouldn't be pushing for early entry either. Even though he's learning the syllabus, he will need teacher input to get those top grades and refine his, exam technique.

He will be missing the enrichment side of activities by not being in school. Nothing you can do about this really.

UKMT and nrich are good websites for maths. School are right that enrichment of subjects and depth of knowledge is what he really needs. Studying for the FSMQ may be an option for maths too.

School are right. Doing exam syllabus faster is not the way he's going to be challenged. It's just a larger quantity of easy stuff.

Finding the gcse courses easy gives him space. If he wants to get into a top university he's going to have to show commitment and interest in his subject way beyond the content of any school courses. Forget the gcse course, it's too easy and not relevant. Read around subjects he's interested in, try to find out more, find ways to push himself outside and beyond, maybe pick a specialism within the subject to investigate.

If he's doing a language for example, can he follow a radio station or podcast in that language, read a novel? Any of those would teach him more than next year's textbook. Maybe he will end up flicking through next year's textbook to find a verb tense - more likely he will take off with a dictionary and become a proper independent learner.

Or for something like history, there's so much he could read, digest, have opinions on.

More reading/listening around will help secure best chance of a good gcse grade but also help him investigate possible A-levels and beyond. And make him an independent thinker and learner.

Can you change his school? How selective is it? One way of sorting this would be to make sure he's with a cohort of students where he's not that exceptionally bright. As PG he'll probably always be one of the top students but in some schools (thinking for example Westminster) he won't be the only one.

The problem with doing exams early is what comes after that? Some people push to college/university early but that is do much more than just an academic experience.

how about learning something else in addition to school work? another language? He can then develop study skills and work out how he learns best.

what do universities look for in addition to academics? what outside activities?