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.

I spend a stupid amount of time arguing with Englush teachers who think that it is 'stretching and challenging' Yr 7 pupils to give them texts that are on the GCSE or A level specs. What it actually means is that the pupils get at best an entirely superficial understanding of the text (English by numbers) and, at worst, think that they've 'done it' so when they get to GCSE or A level they don't want to engage because it's already been ruined for them. It makes me furious tbh. There are so, so many excellent age-appropriate books out there, that would far more effectively teach the skills needed in Yr 7 and allow pupils to achieve those skills with depth of understanding far beyond that possible when 'doing' texts which are beyond them academically and emotionally.

And I argue with English teachers, not Englush teachers.

HmmAnOxfordComma Yes, that text was set by the LEA adviser. She's gone away now. I dropped it.

Coolas 1) I now choose the books. When I started at my current school, the texts were set by the LEA adviser. It's a bit difficult trying to explain to SLT why I'm changing things after they had been put into place. I have to do this a bit slowly...
2) I'm middle years trained (not many of us around, I appreciate that) and have therefore taught KS3 English (and up to GCSE, actually), but personally didn't like it. I like teaching a variety of subjects and having my class all day. Due to that, I moved to primary and have happily remained in UKS2 for the past few years.
3) I did Holes with one of my groups. That's six children. (They've read it. They haven't analysed it.) It's part of our curriculum, so was one of the texts that I was meant to use anyway. It had also been dropped by our main secondary school (that much I was able to get from them). In addition to that, several of our Year 4s have already read the book at home.

Well I agree it is a good decision not to use a book with 'cunt' in it at KS2, but I still feel teaching by extracts is daft. Why teach Animal Farm with no context? If you want to look at rhetorical devices try a real speech. There is a huge difference between a child reading a book and a child understanding it. Just because children can read the novel does not mean they can actually understand more than the simple narrative.

Aggghast It's part of our reading skills book. We are using "Aiming for Level 4/5/6 Reading" (Collins) in booster sessions. I so far haven't found anything comparable designed for KS2.

AggghastJust to make this clear again. They haven't read the book. They've read two extracts from the book.
This is very different to a class reader, which we read cover to cover and which I (now) choose myself depending on my class.

I am sorry if you think I am hostile, quite the opposite, I would love closer ties to our primary colleagues. Indeed when we stopped teaching Skellig to Year 7 we gave our copies to two of our feeder schools. I just feel that some primaries just lift from secondary without thinking, I am sure you don't but the way ks2 has encroached on ks3 texts has cost us a lot of money. For example we taught 'War Horse' for years but now the film is out many of our feeders have started teaching it so we have had to stop.

I didn't perceive you as hostile, but tried to avoid confusion. Well, to be honest, I think Coolas also perceives me as a little hostile. I think it's an issue with communicating via internet that causes this. (It's probably also because I have a habit of being rather abrupt in real life. I'm not British and don't do 'subtle' very well. Colleagues tell me that I can be a little scary at first,...but really lovely once you get to know me. I bribe them with sweets... )
I do understand why it's annoying for secondary schools, but was trying to get across that sometimes primaries don't get a choice, either. While we were in SM, there wasn't much freedom and that was the situation I walked into when I started at my school. By now, I'm quite lucky that I'm being trusted enough by SLT to be able to change things and move away from the stuff the LEA had forced on us.
Sometimes, I also think that primary school teachers are simply unaware that certain texts are studied in KS3. (I mean, honestly, how much time do secondary school teachers get to spend looking at primary practice? I know I haven't set foot into a secondary school lesson in ages.)
I generally start to plan a topic and then go hunting for books that I could use for it. Once I've got a few, I read them and then decide on which one would be best for my class, their preferences and areas for development. It can happen, though, that some teachers don't get much further than choosing one book and looking for resources to go with it. Particularly when looking for something that goes with Science, it can get a bit tricky. I found "A Wrinkle in Time", which would have been a good match in terms of content. When reading it, however, I figured it wouldn't engage my class well at all. (I'm still looking for something suitable...)