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Original poster

Weird experience at parents evening

17 replies

chickydoo · 13/10/2011 13:25

Have a year 2 boy (age 7..just) I have to be honest I don't pay too much attention to his schoolwork, mainly because I have teenagers doing GCSE's and A'levels. I have just let him muddle along in his own sweet way,he reads to me while I cook dinner, and never has a problem reads fine.
I had a chat with his teacher a couple of days ago, and she told me my son is top of the class in every subject, has a vocabulary of a 12 year old, and she is giving him year 4 maths to do has he finds everything very easy. apparently he is confident and is happy to help other kids!!!! WTF????? That can't be right.
He is 7 is loves footie and sport, yes he copes fine a general all rounder, but just average or so I thought. Now I'm being told I have this amazingly clever child?
I just don't believe the school. If my DS is that clever, dear God the rest of the class must be dire!
How do I know what they are saying is right? If he is astoundingly bright (teachers words not mine) Surely I would have noticed.
Has any one else in MN land experienced this?

OP posts:

peachyicecream · 13/10/2011 13:31

He sounds very happy and coping with everything thrown at him! Don't think you need to do anything (extra or special) about him or worry. I would say he is picking up everything from his older siblings and has been all his life - more than you realise. He is your baby, but he is a sponge! Relax!

GypsyMoth · 13/10/2011 13:35

I found similiar at parents eve last night !

Top marks in a comprehension test and reading level too high for school to take any further( he is yr 4 and school ends at yr 4, it's a lowest school)

I knew his reading was good but not to the point where they have no more reading material for him!!

Incidentally, I have teens with A level/gcse stuff going on too.

geraldinetheluckygoat · 13/10/2011 13:40

Well, just be grateful, I have been at the other end of the spectrum at parent's evening and it was horrendous. No idea my son was doing so craply till parent's evening. It is surprising that they hadn't pointed it out before with your son, but, well, he's doing well, so that's good....not sure what you're worrying about, tbh

Yellowstone · 13/10/2011 13:43

chickdoo he may very well be super clever, I don't want to do him down, but I do think much younger siblings have a head start.

DD4 is 9, has seven older siblings (21, 19, 18, 17, 15, 14 and 12) and is noticeably more advanced that they were at the same age, despite a far slacker school.

gramercy · 13/10/2011 13:43

One for the stealth boasting thread, methinks....

ragged · 13/10/2011 13:45

DH had the pleasure of parent's evening last night (45 minute wait!); and they didn't say that DS is a nightmare child, who drives everyone to distraction and impossible to reason with.

So I am pretty pleased, too, genuinely!!! .

DD is 5a in "something"; DH couldn't remember what, though.

Yellowstone · 13/10/2011 13:46

chickydoo, sorry.

geraldine but is he the oldest or one of the oldest in the family?

geraldinetheluckygoat · 13/10/2011 13:52

He is the oldest.

Yellowstone · 13/10/2011 14:11

I bet that's a big part of it then geraldine, I think the apparent cleverness of much younger siblings is often just that - a veneer.

Original poster

chickydoo · 13/10/2011 20:54

Yellowstone, Yes he is the youngest. Wow, you have 8 kids massive respect to you!!!
I think because the other 2 are 16 and 18, I have just bundled them all together, and he has just got on with things. I personally don't think he is a gifted child, just advanced for his age, i am sure at some point things will level off. it was just the teacher pointing out that made me feel like a crap mum for not being aware of how well he's doing.

To Gramercy, why the hell would I boast to people who don't know or give a toss who I am. I was asking for opinions, advice usual stuff.....

OP posts:

missnevermind · 13/10/2011 21:59

My eldest is 13 and very advanced especially in maths.
The next eldest is 10 and has trouble coping emotionally but nothing diagnosed. At parents evenings i am more worried about his interactions with the teacher and classmates and not really bothered about levels and targets and such as I 'Know' he is not really very bright and as long as he is enjoying school that is fine.

Imagine what a crap mother I felt to be told that he is on top tables for everything and working ahead of his year group in one or two subjects.

He is not the youngest anymore but was for a long while. They now have a 2 year old brother and a newborn sister.

3kids2many · 14/10/2011 09:57

I think when you get on to child no 3 or 4 you lose interest a bit in the educational journey. We has a similar experience with child no 3 we both thought he was nice but dim. We thought he was particularly crap at maths. He was almost nine before we realised he was by far the best mathematician in his school and much brighter than the other 2. We have no excuse husband is a mathematician!

smee · 14/10/2011 11:05

I don't think it's all that unusual in Yr2 to be taught at Yr4 levels. At Yr2 there's a massive range from what I've seen and kids can plateau or accelerate from then on. Our school is an average inner city, v.diverse primary who teach certain subjects according to ability rather than age. Last year in DS's Yr2 class there were a couple of kids doing literacy with Yr6, two more with Yr5 and half a dozen with Yr3. With Maths they differentiated too, so the top table were working way above Yr2 levels. It's brilliant that your school's stretching him, but keeping him happy too. It must be a good school.

Iamnotminterested · 14/10/2011 13:55

Re: the not realising your younger one was actually quite bright!

Yes, guilty of this a bit. DD1 was an early talker, very sociable, quite needy and we had high hopes for her at school - PFB syndrome . DD2 (3 years younger) was always a lot more placid, quite content to pootle about on her own as a baby/toddler, and we always thought when they were younger that no. 1 was going to be the academic one and no. 2 would smile sweetly. Roll on a few years and it's DD2 who is the brainier one - mad thoughts of scholarships etc - whilst DD1 is very bright in one area but average in most.

Who knows how DD3 will fare? although she does seem to enjoy numbers and counting.....hmm...

Ormirian · 14/10/2011 13:59

Congratulation!

I wish I had a parent's evening like that. I tend to get a bit of an awkward silence and then "J..yes...what can i say about J?. He's got a fantastic vocabulary. He's very knowledgeable about animals. And dinosaurs... erm"

MoreBeta · 14/10/2011 14:12

chickydoo - we had the same weird experience with DS1 except it was in Yr 5.

We were told he was doing brilliantly ay maths. We knew he was not brilliant and when we asked him he told us he was so bored he just sat looking out of the window in maths class.

Problem was that the teacher knew he was at the national average attainment level so she just let him sit and vegetate knowing she was not going to get any credit for teaching him any more. She got credit for lifting the grades of weaker pupils. Guess where she put her effort?

I suspect this is what is happening with your son. The teacher is telling you he is doing well to keep you happy nd she is putting little or no effort in to push him on any further.

We only found out by accident and when we did our own informal maths tests we found DS1 was not being taught to the standard he needed to be at to pass the entrance exams at the senior school that we wanted him to go to.

We had a massive battle with the school who refused to push him on. We did our own tutoring in the end. Not surprisingly all the other pupils in the class failed the entrance exam or ended up in the bottom stream at the senior school when they left in Yr 6.

MoreBeta · 14/10/2011 14:18

By the way, we are not 'in your face' with teachers and apart from occasional helping with homework we prefer to leave the job of teaching to teachers. They are the professionals - we are not.

We left it far too long and were far too trusting that the school would do their job and keep challenging DS1.

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