“My child is top of their class”

[BluthsFrozenBananas]

I see this on threads quite often, I just saw it on another thread. Or my child is on a higher book band than any other classmate, or is top in maths, and I wonder, how the hell do people know that?

My DD is in y6, at no time since she’s been in primary have I known her “ranking” in the class, or that of any other child. Neither did I have any idea what book band others were on in the days of reading books.

I get if your child is super bright and doing extension work far beyond their years you might assume they were “top” of the class, but even then surely it’s not a given as teachers don’t routinely give out information about other children’s accidemic achievements.

Or am I missing out on something and schools publish super secret league tables of children which only the parents of children at the top get to see?

my eldest is in all the advanced literacy and numeracy programs and I see results.

What does that mean?

You can call the tables they sit at 'red, green, blue', but the kids soon learn that red group does the hardest work and blue the least hard.

Statistically red group is most likely to be the least able.

Our teacher certainly didn't tell us but I know my eldest is top for maths (I could see her looking up his result and it was at the top) I know for a fact he won't be top for literacy. I vaguely know about reading because he says only me X and Y are free readers. I also know his handwriting and art is one of the worst by looking at the work on the wall. I think it all changes fairly frequently and is nothing to get concerned/excited over.

When people say my child is top of the class it's usually to either show off or illustrate their child is probably in the right in whatever dispute their talking about (not sure why they think it's related).

Teachers may well tell you “he’s doing very well, he’s the best in the class at X”. It’s not exactly classified information.

DC’s local authority used to have special awards for children who got the top grades in all their SATS - if a child was the only one in their class to get the award then “top of the class” is a fair summary.

One extreme example was a lesson which I witnessed on a “bring your dad to school day” where one child was forbidden to speak up in phonics lessons so that everybody else could have a go, until the very end of the session when the teacher would put up a couple of more difficult words just for them - if the parent of the child in question saw it then it wouldn’t be a reach to say they were top of the class at reading at least.

Looking back at my old school reports they all had my precise position in the class noted for each subject: 5/24 or 10/27 etc.

The kids definitely pick up on what the tables mean. We had circles, triangles and squares going up in difficulty. If the kids move table they definitely talk about moving "up" a table so getting harder work.

tafetta. The op asked how parents knew their child was top.
People (including myself) have answered. It's not a boast (stealth or otherwise). I am proud, yes.
I also have a 19 yo - I've done primary school before and while I support my son and the school I really am not over-invested in nosing about and showing off.

It wasn’t until 11 plus time a couple of weeks ago I had any inkling which children were the most academically inclined based on who took it and who didn’t.

I’d be pretty surprised if your child didn’t know who was brightest in their class though at each subject.

Don’t they talk about it at home? Jane is amazing at art, Sarah is the maths whiz, Robbie writes the best essays etc etc

Maybe only children who are top of the class get told, and there is a secret code the teachers use with them. Or maybe some parents are so overinvested in their children that they are over-interpreting everything the teacher says.

The children themselves all seem to know who is where in terms of rankings. My DD is what you would call 'top of the class', but I would never say it IRL.

I have a general idea of this because:

• teachers have spoken to me about differentiation and stretching her
• free reading long before anyone else in the class (used to have to go to another part of the school to change books)
• she tells me which children are where in terms of ability and who the other bright children are
• her work is obviously at the standard of a much older child.
• she gets 'mastery' in all areas on her school report
• other parents tell me that their children tell them how clever my DD is in class

I'm pleased she's doing well, but don't compare her to anyone else and have never looked in another child's book bag. I don't discuss it with anyone outside the family as it would, of course, sound incredibly smug and braggy.

At parents evening his teacher said he's top if the class.

A school I worked in used to have DC's names on pegs and they'd be clipped onto a wall display showing which level they were working towards in numeracy and literacy. Each child knew what level they were at and what they needed to do to get to the next level. They also knew what level everyone else was at too.

I love how many posters have come on to say their kid is top of the class, pathetic

I find the whole concept of bragging about your kid being "top" distasteful. In a time when we're trying to reduce pressure on kids in schools parents certainly shouldn't be competing to have the best kids. It's no different to "my dad's bigger than your dad" and quite frankly belongs in the playground. I hope my children never hear me behaving like a primary school kid and bragging to other parents. You all need to grow up

Okay, I’m getting an idea now. DDs school don’t do ability tables, and apart from weekly spellings as far as I know don’t have regular tests where the results are read out in class. The school is what I think is called an “enhanced” primary (could be wrong though) which means it’s kind of a mixture of special school and regular mainstream with all abilities and disabilities in the same classes. Therefore they have a higher than average number of children with SEN, possibly because of this they don’t make a big thing of class positions.

I knew some of these things either from dd or other parents, I wasn't bothered enough to go and seek the info.
My dd noted pretty quickly that the tables were arranged by place in the class, and that x was better at maths than English as they moved table for English etc.
she knew her place in the class, but it didn't bother her at all.
The teachers didn't discuss place in the class, nor did they tell parents or dc about the tables, they worked it out for themselves.
Book bands the same, kids would come home and say they were on a different colour to xyz and klm seemed to be on lower bands.
it was more giving info/reporting than being bothered though.

The teachers do tell you......I imagine they're more likely to tell you they are top than other way around.

The question was “how would you know?” noobs. Obviously people with personal experience of that situation are the people who are in the best position to answer the question. I happened to have a couple of answers not relating to my own DC, but surely it’s not boasting to answer, anonymously, a specific question asked.

For what it's worth I went to a top uni. and most of us weren't particularly exceptional until later in secondary school. In fact DH (who is now super academic) was a slow learner when it came to reading and didn't excel at anything except art (we're in STEM so not at all art related). I'm definitely not making the mistake of getting over invested or smug about the things DS is good at!

My ds started reception 2 weeks ago. We had a phonics and reading meeting Monday morning. We were told that there will be to graph/tables on the wall as you go down the corridor. The children's pictures will be on to show where they are in reading and phonics for parents to see what stage they are at which means everyone also sees where everyone else's child is. We were told not to worry if our child is behind everyone else. I don't think it's nice to be honest.

Mine were never top, if that makes it better.
Ds1 was on middle table, Ds2 and dd both second table out of 6.

My dcs' old primary was very hot on not telling you how your children were doing. I found out more about mine when I went to do a lunchtime club and the other kids made random comments about them than I had in 4 or 5 years of reports and parents' evenings.
The school did give us lots of information but it was impenetrable.

Honestly DD never talks about how other children do. I know a couple of the children are dyslexic because their parents have told me, but DD rarely talks about anything other than the social side of school.

It’s fairly obvious at our school as they have bands so I’d anyone asks which reading book or whatever you are on, they can judge the level. My son was the first to be given a book to take home, this was huge apparently. I don’t really know how it works!

Parents generally that think their kid is top in the class are over invested and living vicariously through their kids. In my experience

You know the type - barge past others to rip open kids book bag to see Y2 spelling test results, quiz little Johnny when he’s round for a play date what he’s reading, grill own kid about what group they’re in and who else is in it every few weeks etc etc

Taffeta all I can say to that is that you know some very unpleasant people. I don’t know a single person who would behave that way, let alone enough to classify a “type”.

Noob the OP asked a question, who did you think was going to be able to answer it other than parents with the relevant experience?

Also please don’t confuse what people say anonymously on here with what they might say IRL. I don’t discuss my DC’s test scores, reading age, report cards or parents’ evenings with anyone outside our immediate family.

If anyone asks I just say that are doing fine.

Au contraire noob. You'll never find men#soblessed or #soproud on FB after a school report is issued. My true friends and family obviously are already more than aware. Anonymously here? Why the hell not!

You think all the kids are top of the class.
According to all the parents in dds year
The teachers wanted them to go straight in to year one, As they were soooooooooo advanced. I almost had the only child in the year group. She'd have been ready for Oxford by the the time she was 5 with all that attention.