To not follow teacher's advice?

[HastingsLikeTheBattle]

Brief background - Y6 DD was briefly home schooled during the latter part of Y5 while we waited for a place at a new school. As she was mid way through Y5 she worked on mainly Y6 curriculum books at home, as I couldn't see the point in buying both Y5 and Y6. DD flew through her books, writing in exercise books rather than the actual books so we could reuse them. Now she's back at school, she still enjoys completing these books so now writes in them.

Today she took one in to show her teacher. Her teacher told her that it was too easy for her (it probably is) and she needed to tell me to buy her some Y7 books. Obviously I only have DD's word on this, so I'm not going to challenge the teacher or anything, but AIBU to stick with Y6 books for when DD wants to do some learning at home? I've said that maybe once she's completed all her existing books that I'll look into it, but especially for maths I was looking at getting the CGP tougher challenging KS2 maths, rather than Y7.

I don't want to annoy the teacher by not doing as she suggested, but equally I see no point in racing DD through the subjects - yes she's bright but she still needs focus in some areas.

YANBU. I don't think you're being unreasonable at all to let your DD carry on working through the books you've already got before then moving onto an even more advanced level. It sounds like your DD is doing really well, so I think your strategy sounds like a good one :)

YANBU - one of the points of the new curriculums and 'assessment without levels' was to stop more able children being pushed on to work above their year group. Your DD should be encouraged at school to gain a deeper knowledge of the Year 6 Curriculum. For example, in Maths, she should be focusing on problem solving and reasoning and 'mastery' of the subjects already taught. If you have a look at the White Rose website for Maths, you can sign up for lots of free resources so you can carrry on working at home with your DD. Hope his helps!

Hi OP, I would definitely keep her on her current books, atleast until she has finished them!
I was a very bright child (somewhat average now ) and was massively rushed through things. I think the new headteacher wanted to use me and a few other students as an example of what he had done in the school. We were really pushed, I was in year 3 and doing practice SATS for year 6, year 6 books for reading, year 6 topics and sitting in on the year 6 lessons. When I got to year 7 I went straight into the top set maths and struggled so much because they were going over the basics covered in year 4 and 5, a lot of which I had never actually learnt. It took me a good six months of tuition to catch up with the rest of the class and at the end of high school I came out with A* for both maths and additional maths but if I hadn't had that tutor I honestly think I would have dropped down to lower maths sets, been given a foundation paper and never have had the option to get above a C.

Yanbu OP. Dd is now in year 9, top set for most things including maths but really struggles with the odd thing because we changed schools in year 6 and she missed some vital stuff. She was just winging it until the maths got to the point where she needed the technical basics to understand the more complicated stuff.

Thanks all, pretty unanimous then! Its interesting reading how other bright children have struggled once in secondary, and if I'm honest, I think that's my worry. While DD can rattle off all the correct grammatical terms, she still struggles a bit with other aspects of literacy - I would much rather her slow down the pace and deepen her knowledge.

Thanks

YANBU - one of the points of the new curriculums and 'assessment without levels' was to stop more able children being pushed on to work above their year group

This is a bit of a myth. The curriculum document itself doesn't say this at all and actually says higher attaining children should be stretched by using content from other Year groups or even other key stages if necessary.

However, the OP can use whatever books her and her child are happy with or none if they want.

Yes - I'd stick to the year 6 stuff but get her to read round subjects she is doing in perhaps a bit greater depth using library books/internet articles etc.

Eg. if they are doing something on climate change just do some extra reading into it.

If she is doing an MFL get her to learn an extra 10 words of vocab each week not covered in class and so on.

This will stand her in good stead and prepare her to be able to study independently which will be happening more when she goes to secondary school.