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Original poster

come and convince me that bright but quiet children don't get lost in large comprehensives

35 replies

sunshinecity · 06/10/2009 17:14

Assuming that in the largest schools they are worried about the trouble makers and disruptive pupils...and that teachers are grateful for quiet pupils who just get on with things...
Then how do you ensure that a bright but relatively quiet child gets pushed to achieve rather than just swimming along doing ok but not necessarily their best?

OP posts:
Original poster
sunshinecity · 06/10/2009 17:55

oooh cocolepew, grammar school sounds like a whole different bag to the inner city comps I am thinking of. You lucky thing

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Original poster
sunshinecity · 06/10/2009 17:53

Thanks milliways - any chance your school was in an urban inner london location?!
Finding like minded friends sounds key, were they a very small minority or were there reasonable numbers of them in different years in the school.

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cocolepew · 06/10/2009 17:53

Oh shes not streamed in games, music IT skills . That's still more of a mix.

cocolepew · 06/10/2009 17:52

A,B,C and D and E are the Special Educational Needs classes. I think next year there are 2 top classes. We're in N.I and they did a test for the school they'd gotten into last Jan. So the school was able to try to keep the same ability together. She did her 11+ and got an A, that gained her automatic entrance to our Grammer school but she's too quite and nervous. I was speaking to the SENCO last week (she has a medical condition) and she was saying DD was the only A to go to the school but was showing me the scores of others in her class and all were very close. She is thriving at it TBH.

Milliways · 06/10/2009 17:47

A lot don't set in Yr 7, but the school needs to get results and WILL push those they can.

DDs school was totally comprehensive. Her classmates included one featured on ITV's "Neighbours fom hell", Asbo's and she knew where she could go if she wanted drugs

BUT - there were also those who just wanted to be normal teens, enjoy school and get on with life. They found each other and became stronger groups together.

True - she would have preferred NOT to have shared parts of her life with some of her classmates, but the good teachers ensured that those who wanted to do well - did!

Original poster
sunshinecity · 06/10/2009 17:46

hi coco - how many classes per year are there in your dd's school? is she streamed in all subjects or just a few?

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cocolepew · 06/10/2009 17:44

MMy DD is qite, small but bright. She has been streamed into the highest set already, and she's doing great. Some schools don't stream in the first year, as far as I know.

Original poster
sunshinecity · 06/10/2009 17:42

but if its a really large school how do the teachers get to know the children well enough to know how much to push them?

lilymaid - sounds like getting in the top set at the start might be a key thing as well then.

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Lilymaid · 06/10/2009 17:22

If the school is reasonably good and the child is in the top sets, there shouldn't be too many problems as the students will be expected to achieve good results.
If the child is in a middle set, it can be more difficult.

cornsilk · 06/10/2009 17:15

The teachers will push them - it's in their interests.