To think extra lessons for top students isn’t fair?

[Beepboobeep]

My DD’s state primary school has a “top maths club” and “great writers club” for the top performing students in yr 5 and 6 held outside of school hours. There is no charge for this - so it’s free childcare and free tutoring. You have to be invited. This has been running since the second week of the school year and is restarting on the first day of this half term.

By contrast, my dyslexic DD is in a group for those needing more support in writing, also outside of school hours. But they only managed 2 sessions last year and it hasn’t started back up this year. She gets ad hoc in school support; where it happens she misses other lessons that aren’t then caught up on, putting her further behind in the those.

I appreciate these children deserve challenging, but surely that could be done in class with different work and the teacher’s out of hours time, if available, used to help those struggling?

Is this even allowed in a state primary?

Then complain appropriately about the lack.of support rather than begrudging the support that does exist

Not least because it comes from completely differrent budgets

But it’s already not equal because teaching time is generally spent on those with the lowest abilities in a group setting, so these children are being held back during the school day and given a disproportionately lower amount of teacher attention in class compared to the children who learn at a slower pace.

Teachers can run whatever clubs they want to in their own time. I absolutely cannot stand the attitude of some parents who think they have a right to decide what extra work teachers do for free! Would you think it okay if your clients started trying to dictate what voluntary work you did?!

They do have support but the higher achieving ones dont...or didnt...but you seem happy to restrict their potential when they actually have potential rather than children who have had all the attention previously

It is equal OP.

Logically the main class content is brought down a few notches to accommodate those who are less able - then the needs of the less able dominated that class, at the expense of the more able.

If your child is struggling with the basics of day to day school work then you can easily help them at home so they don’t drag down the middle and high achievers on a daily basis

I actually wondered if we live in the same area from your description.

It is up to the teachers running the clubs to decide who is suitable for them, not you, and I’m sure they have their reasons for inviting who they do.

it is irrelevant what tutoring or summer clubs parents put in place for their children. You keep mentioning it as if it should have some influence on the provision that the school provides, but it doesn’t and nor should it.

You have admitted that your child receives extra support within school hours, so is your problem jealousy over an hour of childcare a week? Do you feel the same injustice about sports clubs when not everyone is sporty or they have opportunities for sport provided by their parents?

They arent. These clubs are not being run by the schools, but teachers in their free time.

They delight in telling me and their children love showing off to my DD (and telling her dyslexia isn’t real, I wonder where they heard that).

Who said I am not investing in her outside of school? Grammar school wouldn’t be right for her, but I pay £2,000 a month on extra curriculum clubs and tutoring for her. She will shortly be moving to private school.

She gets her normal day to day 5 days a week education which is a lot

The problem is that it can’t be done in class because a lot of the time, the teacher’s time is spent supporting those who need bringing up to expected standards.

Children who have the capability and intelligence to excel are not being prioritised over struggling children. It’s the opposite. SO much time is spent supporting struggling children, that gifted and talented children are not prioritised to support their progression.

Why would you want children who are more capable than yours to become stagnant and not exceed? It won’t make your child any more capable. These are separate issues.

You seem fixated on this extra hour of time being additional teaching time, when in fact, it’s making up for lost teaching time those children lose when teachers and TAs are supporting children.

So what are you complaining about exactly then. I’m confused.

Your statement is plain wrong. All children should be given the opportunity to reach their full potential, be they gifted or under achieving. To prioritise one group over another is wrong. If you have simply said your daughter’s club keeps being cancelled I would have agreed with you that the club should be run consistently. But when you say the club for the gifted kids should be cancelled and the support offered to your underachieving kid instead - nah, you’ve lost me.

Your DC has been at this school since they were 3. As you’re talking about 11+ I assume they are now approaching year 6. Shouldn’t you have looked into moving her out of the “hot house” years ago if it wasn’t a good fit instead of complaining about the parents who choose to have their kids tutored during the summer holidays and the support given to gifted children?

No I said my DD has received occasional, inconsistent support that takes place when she then misses other lessons putting her further behind. She has received exactly ZERO so far this year

You spend 2k a month, 24 thousand pounds a year on tutoring and clubs for your DD and yet you’re banging on and on about how these children don’t deserve to join a maths clubs for those with higher abilities because they receive too much outside school tutoring?

I didn’t say theirs should be cancelled, I am questioning why hers is cancelled for an entire year other than 2 sessions while theirs never is

What about the parents that can’t afford the extra support?

Be careful not to push your DD too hard or she will break. Do not make it about yourself but your DD and what she can cope with

and the children who need support whose parents can’t or won’t give it?

The irony of you using the fact that they’re heavily tutored outside of school as your argument is astounding. If THEY were getting the support they needed in school to exceed, rather than time being spent on them struggling children, maybe their parents wouldn’t need to pay for extra tuition?

Why don’t you pay for extra tutoring for your child instead, like they do?

I have one top achiever and one with severe dyslexia
The top achievers spend a lot of time waiting around in class /being asked to teach their peers (in my son's experience at least). I don't know why we lack aspiration for top achievers and it's nice to hear of schools putting some time in for them

You've no idea how much support she gets in school every day, to the detriment of others I bet.

2k a month, are you off your head?

Stop bitching about grammar tutors.

It was likely cancelled because most of the DC had no interest in doing more school work outside of school hours

agree totally and it is the teachers own time let them decide what they do

Of course it’s ‘allowed’! That kind of challenge for high achieving children is excellent.
This is not your problem. Your problem is the lack of support for the children who need it for a different reason. Your DDs club should be happening along with rest.