Should I be concerned that ddin Year 8 is studying the same book as ds in Year 6?

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I'm hoping that she us studying it at a much higher level.

It's Skellig

Dd was ahead in a lot of subjects when she joined last year in year 7. She turned down a place at an academically selective school & I am concerned that she is still pushed academically.

I know she's doing a lot better in French but in subjects like science, history & RE she has done a lot of the work before. However she is reading around the subject especially she has an interest in ethics & philosophy.

I'm not sure about maths except she's been put into an extension group.

I know nothing about the curriculum really but she seems happy.

Yes it's fine, she will be studying it in a totally different way to your DS and looking at it in much more depth.

Tbh Skellig isn't really suitable for year 6. It's another example of primaries choosing books aimed at ks3.

Thanks

. I guess I panic every do often as she went from an academic prep school leading into a selective school with the best results in the county to a full time dance/ballet school.

The problem is that Primary schools keep choosing books which aren't suitable, and which their pupils will not fully understand. (I read Lord of the Flies on my own at 11 and didn't get half of it, it was a totally different book at 15.)

Skellig is taught in yr 8 at the grammar school I last worked in. Perfectly suitable and a very sophisticated text.

I don't think it's much of a problem, since it very much depends on what is being done with the particular text. The way I cover books at primary level is very different to how I would approach them in English lessons at KS3. It's not so much a question of primary schools choosing books that are unsuitable, either. I've taught Skellig to top set Year 7, but for my current school, it was a set text for Year 6...chosen by the LEA adviser. Some of the books I had been told to teach in Year 5 were completely inappropriate in my opinion (adviser left, I changed the set texts in my year groups). I'm meant to teach Skellig this year, but I won't. Apart from the fact that I personally don't particularly like it, it wouldn't do much for my class.

I have, however, done Holes with one of my groups. It engaged my able boys and they are still rating it as one of their favourite books of all time. They are a bright bunch, and good readers...but some of them just don't read outside of school. For a few, it was the first book they've finished since KS1. Again, though, we didn't go into as much depth as I used to with top set Year 8.

One of the biggest problems we have is how Primary schools will take books patently not suitable for Year 6's and 'teach' them, which mainly involves reading extracts and watching the film/tv adaptation. This year we have had year 7's who have 'studied' Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and Hunger Games in Primary. As a parent I would be horrified if books with such subject matter were studied at 10. As a teacher I feel it is depriving children of a valuable learning experience later. Skellig is far more suitable for Yr 8 than 6. I would be taking it up with your yr 6's teacher.

You'd have the same issue with children, who have read these books at home. While I agree that the books Agggghast has mentioned are completely unsuitable for Year 6 (what kind of weird person would choose these??), it's not my job to rate the "enjoyment" of potential secondary school teachers higher than the engagement and enjoyment of my current class. Instead of finding it "infuriating", it might be an idea to actually have a look at what the primary schools around you cover and show a little bit more flexibility. Surely, you have children starting in other subjects at different points of understanding and knowledge and have to deal with it.
It might be difficult to believe, but I choose the books I use very carefully (and have just dumped "The curious incident of the dog in the nighttime", which again, was a set text by the LEA).
For Maths, I made the effort to find out which textbooks our main secondary school are using, so as not to use the same ones for my more able pupils. Unfortunately, that information isn't forthcoming from the English department. Having taught in both, I'd be happy to adapt and stay away from books I know they will cover in KS3. However, I'd also expect the secondary school teachers to pull their fingers out a bit and show some flexibility.

The problem is that we have over 12 feeder schools. We try to select novels that are age appropriate, which we believe will engage and stretch the pupils, however certainly two of our feeder schools seem to pick novels on the basis of cinema releases! I am dreading 'Wonder' coming out as a film although ironically this is one text I would have been delighted if my children had studied in year 6. Our Year 7's always adore it, in fact we always get parents phoning up about the book so they can buy it!

I totally agree with Thatssofunny that we need to spend time with our primary colleagues but it seems to be impossible to arrange. It is sad that the cluster meetings we once had have disappeared along with the advisors. This is another problem with current education policy that thinks competition is more important than cooperation.

My ff is in top set year 8 and is studying that book

Coolas Well, if you insist on wasting your time with being infuriated, then who am I to stop you. I personally try to work with what I've got,...and make things fit around my needs and the needs of my class.
We are a one-form-entry primary school and I send children up to six different secondaries. If they are happy to share and work with us, then I'm happy to do the same. We work in partnership with one of them. The others don't appear terribly interested...or organised.

I don't teach English at primary level the same way I would at secondary. My class would therefore have read a book, but certainly not analysed it the way you described. My L5/6 group have just worked with very specific extracts from 'Animal Farm' to analyse language features and rhetorical devices. They certainly haven't studied it or understand any of the context, but they'll know a bit about it by the time they get to secondary school.

Absolutely fine. Personally, I think, 'Skellig' is wasted on Yr 6 - it's exquisite.

Did you mean to sound as self-congratulatory, condescending and arrogant as this reads?
Not really any of these things, but then that possibly depends on the attitude and mindset of the reader. It's possibly similar to your complaint that it's infuriating that children might have already read a book you were looking forward to, which sounds rather self-centered and inconsiderate. I'm pretty sure you didn't mean to come across as such, either.
The point I was trying to make was that it's possible to work around such things. So, they've read a book already. You either choose a different book to study, manage to inspire them with a text they already know at a superficial level or decide to work with the primary schools to avoid such things. (I'm not saying you have to sit down with each of them, but a simple email giving information about your curriculum and which texts you'd like them to avoid, if at all possible, might be a simple solution.) On the other hand, however, you can also beat yourself up about it and become infuriated, which solves nothing.

The secondary my DC goes to has up to 35 Primaries feeding into it - are they supposed to communicate with each one? And is that with every teacher at the primary, because individual class teachers have a lot of freedom over chosen books.

And yes it was dispiriting for the first English teacher my DD had to hear 8 in the class moan as "they had already done War Horse".

What is the point of using Animal Farm in Year 6? They cannot possibly understand it properly. I had to spend over a week with my top set Year 10's just teaching them the socio-historical context so they could have a chance of understanding it. With all the books you could pick why do one that is a GCSE text? Plus it is as unpleasant as Hunger Games and would certainly upset some children.

Since primaries are teaching to level 5/6/7 they are looking at KS3 resources.

If you've got kids coming from that many different schools, then you have what...perhaps one child per English group, who has studied the text before?Even if it's two or three, I don't think it's such a huge deal.
You had your faculty choose the text, we had the LEA set it. It's not as if any of us go out to choose books with the aim of pissing off their secondary schools. (If I know it's a KS3 text, because I've taught it at KS3, then I try to stay away from it...hard to do when your adviser thinks they know better and won't go away.)

The extract from Animal Farm was the speech about the apples and milk. They looked at this part to analyse the use of rhetorical devices. When they get to the actual book at secondary level, they'll probably recognise that bit...mainly because they find it rather funny that a pig is talking in the first place. They haven't read the book itself, but will at least be aware of it. As mrz said, we need to start using KS3 resources for these levels, simply because there isn't much out there for L6 at KS2. I already adapt what I can.

Did an LEA adviser really recommend Curious Incident for KS2? If so, they need sacking.