To think my DC is too clever for state secondary school?

[GeniusCreator]

DC is Yr7. Top of year according to what I’ve been told. Read the full series of Harry Potter books by 7 years old. Excels in STEM subjects. Spends ages at home researching science stuff like quantum field theory and nuclear fusion/fission and enjoys it! Designs his own websites and writes his own code for his own games. Primary school were always pretty amazed by him. Secondary school have picked up on him now and have said they’ve never seen anything like him.

He’s already mentioning being a bit bored in class. We live in what could be described as a deprived town and are not well off, no family to help out, so would never be able to get him into a private school. I did check with the private school in the next town but there are no scholarships available.

WIBU to try to crowdfund for private school fees?

He needs a much higher level curriculum than the state school one to continue stretching him. I honestly think he’s destined for amazing things.

<only slightly light hearted>

If he is that smart, then he doesn't need some private school, OP! Anyway ,private school do not necessarily have the best teachers !

If you're in a deprived town, are their outside resources like libraries, music lessons, tutors, academic clubs?

Is there much crime and drugs in the area? That would be my concern with a bored child, getting into the wrong crowd.

Can you move?

I'agree with Puffalicious. I have never seen an academically gifted pupil refuse school. The reasons for refusing are complex but don't include boredom.

Just let him be a kid and develop as he wants. My daughter sat her AS Maths aged 12 at a state school. She loves maths and science and self taught her syllabus from khan academy. She will finish her a level and then consider other options.
She’s become very interested in coding languages - off she trots to mess about with them. Ditto with space. MIT have interesting bits and bobs for him to look at. There is a world of world class education for free on the internet.
private or publics schools are not the answer.

Speak to the school he might be able to do some qualifications on the side such as btecs and take some GCSEs early if he's getting bored. I went to a state school top math set all did GCSE maths in year 10 then advanced maths year 11

My 9 year old does all the same as OPs kid. Even the physics stuff. His Dad is a physicist though which helps.

DS read Lord of the Rings aged 7 and understood it. We quizzed him on it.

DS is clever but I'm under no illusions that he is the next Einstein. There are several similar children in his peer group.

Kids have access to amazing learning resources these days. They are so much more knowledgeable than we were at their age.

You do know an independent school will just teach the same curriculum, don’t you? There isn’t a special extra hard curriculum - it’s just the same one as everywhere else. If he’s already getting top grades independent school isn’t going to improve them. You might want to look at enriching his learning though. Check out your local universities for things public lecture series or hackathons he could attend. Look for online free coding courses, or sign up to something like FutureLearn which have tonnes of courses that can be done for free in anything he wants.

I was moved up a year. And then went to a grammar school for a levels out of town - there were lots of us which took the train, bus or drove there

You can also enrich his learning with EdEx - free courses from Harvard, MIT, etc.

www.edx.org/search

By that age I was reading the classics. I am far from a genius. Calm down OP. If he's bright he will be fine at state school.

Yes, they are kids books. I know many children who could read them by 7. I'd be embarrassed admitting that, as an adult, you can only read a few pages of a kids book. I probably read more advanced books by 7, I was a very advanced reader. Funnily enough nobody offered to contribute to put me through private school. Can't imagine why

Is he happy?

Regardless of how talented a child is they have ONE childhood. If he is happy leave well alone.

He sounds happy OP so I would just leave things as they are. A bright kid will do well whatever school they attend, and I don't believe that the education given at a private school is any better.

Harry Potter books? It’s wonderful that he loves to read but it’s hardly remarkable. If you had said he was reading Sartre or Brecht at 7 you might have a gifted child there. But he doesn’t sound any more intelligent than many other high-achievers.

If he really is that bright he will flourish wherever he is.

A 7 year old proclaiming that “I know that they’re fantasy” sounds like a precocious brat though tbh.

While the OP sounds a little deluded, there is a lot of jealous and inverse snobbery on this thread.

and a lot of misinformation.

OP it’s bursaries not scholarships you want to be looking for, and you should approach both the private schools in your area you’ve mentioned, and also look further afield.

I see it's going to be another thread where the OP has "privacy concerns".

The OP just sounds unpleasant though

Her son sounds marvellous

My daughter is exceptionally bright.

she was highly academic from the word go and polite and friendly from the word go. She struggled with PE but that is due to a medical problem.
At 11 she had a reading age of 18 and devoured books. Full marks in her KS2 sats.
She applied and got in to an indie girls grammar and loved it and then we relocated in year 8 during lockdown. She started at the local outstanding state school. She was due to do several GCSEs in her 8 but due to lockdown and the new school they were reluctant to enter her for gcse and did not have enough evidence. She did some gcse in year 9 and got level 9s. Alongside her normal GCSEs she is doing a couple of a levels this year in year 10 and is on track to get A*. The rest of her GCSEs are all level 9 and her teachers frequently give her A level work. I had a meeting with the head back in year 9 as he said her teachers had said she was pretty much ready to do all her GCSEs. The issue then is did she do a levels in all those subjects in year 10/11 so maybe 3 a levels then and 4 in sixth form and she’s already got 2! It gets ridiculous. She doesn’t need 9 a levels.
we came up with a different plan. She is doing 2 a levels in stem subjects this year. Interestingly these aren’t her favourite ones but for things like maths to keep accelerating they don’t advise a break between say gcse and a level and a level and university.
Instead the time spent on homework we have invested in things she wants to do socially as that was the main issue polite and friendly but recently discovered high functioning autistic girls mask their autism by learning facial cues etc - she is autistic. Recently confirmed.
so she has some ‘geeky’ outing hobbies - think bonsai tree identification or something, she loves chess, she loves art and creating so we given her everything she needs to follow these hobbies but for example painting can be quite lonely but we wanted to encourage the social part and she hates sports. So instead we found things she wants to do eg horses. She rides and helps out down at a stables and spends the morning there - this gives her a nice group of friends and outside time as well as animals. She does things like navigating which is helping her socially and academically by using her brain. She does music and has joined a band. She is a member of scouts etc lots of team building activities etc
an outstanding state school has been fine but it has taken a lot of discussion as I can assure you no state school wants to enter early due to the what next question? As I said we discussed the option of her doing GCSEs in most subjects in year 9 but what then ? And that’s the same issue as private schools!

I am under no allusions the jump to gcse from primary is large and the jump to a level is huge and then the jump to university. At the moment my daughter has found it easier to do the stem subjects like maths ‘untaught’ using a textbook but subjects like English I believe need discussion with others to get breath and width of perspective and arguing / discussion of ideas so it has been ‘easier’ for her to do maths etc early although her teachers have been amazing she works on her own stuff alongside her peers. Eg they do year 10 work she does year 13. We are lucky as a contact at the local university from one of the teachers said would do some university maths etc with her as part of an outreach program.

my daughters issue is she is level 9 or more across the board so is not sure about what she wants to do - eg maths or medicine or English etc and the school are very aware of this and have been really helpful
eg pointing out that for medicine it is the a level achieved in one sitting that is accepted and for some maths and further maths only count as one subject etc and considering bmat exams

be aware that with great self expectations and ability comes pressure and mistakes can be seen as failures. Eg if you are used to getting full marks on a test paper, you can be judged for getting a level 8 or it not being ‘good enough’. My daughter used to get upset if she ever got a question wrong eg a maths question on the gcse until a kind professor at a local university spoke to her and pointed out the greatest scientists and even he made mistakes and even shared his examples it then twigged that she needs to be able to confront that - and that was a big turning point.

just pressure and expectation are so difficult to manage. My daughter has no idea if and what she will be she just knows she is loved and she is always always good enough and we love her for who she is and not what she achieves.

good luck

I’ve seen people crowdfund 10-20 grand for a course. But I doubt you could crowdfund £150k for seven years of private school. Even scholarships expect you to be as poor as a church mouse, if you have any assets at all they’ll expect you to spend those first, e.g. sell the family home and use that money. I get what you’re saying, the state school system doesn’t really cater for above average children (a few areas have selective grammar schools but most areas don’t). But the government doesn’t care and neither does anyone else, they’re only obliged to offer a basic education not a good education. Your best shot is to pay for extra curricular activities to stretch your child.

Plenty of children go to the top universities from state schools you know OP.

You can get into Cambridge from state schools.😂I did it.

Well OP, I have a genius-level IQ. Yes, it's been tested. Many times. I went to a state comp and I didn't love it, but I do think it made me a more well-rounded person. I mostly educated myself by reading: the Cambridge interview was primarily about my interests and personal ideas, not about what I'd learned at school.

Plenty of bursaries in top private schools for super clever children who can’t afford it. Can you move? Send him boarding? Will he be happy in a private school though?

This 👆🏻
He doesn’t sound any different to my son’s (two of them) . Whilst very bright, the curriculum is the curriculum and unless he’s already been taught it, he doesn’t know it yet does he!

Plenty of stretch activities to be engaged with there.

Any local universities. A neighbour had her 13 year old taking access classes. Very bright. See what might be available. Also look at adult colleges and see if you can enroll him in extra classes to keep him engaged.