Anyone had their child skip the final year of primary and go straight into secondary?

[Miaou]

Just had parents' evening. Dd1 is in P6, so another 18m to go in primary school. She has already completed the reading/writing/comprehension part of the curriculum and from what I can gather she has almost finished the maths. A few people have asked if we would consider sending her to high school a year early, including a teacher at that school.

The school she is at just now is great, but it's clear that they are scratching their heads as to how to keep up with her. In their own words, they've "never taught anyone like her." Anyone done this?

Have you thought of trying to get her an academic scholarship to an independent school that may (may) cater for this type of thing and (may) have experience?

Is it a 'good' high school?

Personally we have fantastic primary, and the secondary options are not great. So if dss were to skip a year (and I'm not a fan for many of the reasons you list), I would want them to skip a secondary year, not a primary year.

I would tend towards her staying in a supportive, primary, who are trying to challenge her than moving her into an unknown situation.

Tamum, definitely intend to talk to the high school to see what their attitude is. AFAIK it is quite a good school. The last thing we want to do is a Ruth Lawrence - much more concerned with giving her the breadth of education/knowledge than pushing her on. However it is hard to know how that would work in Maths for example; easier in English/History type subjects!

Beety, nearest independent school is probably Aberdeen, Dundee or Edinburgh - nowhere within a feasible travelling distance. The next nearest High School is 25 miles away and not as good as the one in our town - so really our local high school is our only option.

Roisin, good thought re skipping a secondary year rather than a primary one - hadn't thought of that. And I agree - they are being supportive where she is and she may not get that in secondary.

I guess she could always accelerate in maths if they're able to cope with that at High School, end up doing Advanced Higher in maths early, get it under her belt, and then do a wider range of other AHs? It wouldn't really matter if she didn't do any maths for a few years at the end of school I suppose!

interesting thread and raises many issues
on a slight tangent but relevent to this - my dds school has decided this year to bring the SAT'S forward a year as it is a very academic school and they felt the girls were coasting a little...

the sats at 14 will now be at 13

dd is guinea pig therefore but not phased by it

the social and imHo 'physical' aspects of being a year younger in secondary school are worthy of much deliberation

miaou - is dd young/old for the year?
my dd is in year 8 now and amongst an ever shrinking minority of flat chested girls..she is very confident and laughs it off. i would have found it excrutiating!

Tamum - yes that would be one way to go. Or she could do maths early, then a standard in Statistics (like I did) the following year, etc.

CharlesandEddie - dd's birthday is at the end of May - but here in Scotland the deciding date for which year they are in is in January (I think ... Tamum?) - so she is kind of old-middle-ish . Much to her horror, she is developing a good chest and already wears a bra (being a tomboy she is rather about it!)

Off to bed now but lots to think about here - thank you - will return to this tomorrow.

Two big questions in my mind:
If she is not moving up early then how will primary school handle her P7 year given that she is already ahead of the top P7s? Also, what will happen in years to come in terms of her educational achievements - there are so many inherent dangers in letting her "coast" for what could be several years.

all things considered if she is already physically advanced i would seriously consider a 'chat' with the local secondary school

i am not a great fan of coasting- dont thing it is good for instillling a good work ethic either...

Almost, Miaou, it's the end of February, or was! Again, it might be worth speaking to the High School- I don't know whether it would be geographically possible, but my friend's ds, who is in the same position, was told he could have maths lessons at the local High School from P6. Is that at all feasible?

I do think some high achieving primary schools have too m uch pressure put on them to continue to improve academic results even when they streaks ahead of national averages.

The key should be depth for your dd rather than breadth. With reading and writing, it's perfectly possible to develop an interesting programme of work. I think it is in primary maths too, by developing maths projects linked in with the real world. So not about learning more maths in P7 but using what she does know in more depth, applying her knowledge through interesting projects.

(I am fairly non-plussed with dd1's school at the moment as she and one other are continually being given very different writing work to do, it's pretty tedious "high school" stuff and she gets teased a bit because of it. Personally, I rather object to my dd being pushed on to high school stuff in this way and I - and she - would much rather she was encouraged to work on the same writing tasks in a different way. But That's a personal gripe, obv)

I did this (am 28 now), and found it no problem at all. However, was at a small country primary where I knew all of the other classmates I moved up with, which probably helped a lot. I did GCSEs at 15, therefore, but was required to continue in formal education until I was 16 (which I would have done anyway). I don't think it would have been suggested if I hadn't been ready. The only people with a problem were those who were older than me in the year below, but as I had a year to establish good friends in my own year before they started, this wasn't really an issue for me! Hope this helps.

and what were the benefits would y ou say, photo?

I did this too, and I was born in August, there was a disadvantage as some of my peers were nearly two years older than me, so obviously my needs as a just turned 12 yr old and them being very nearly 14 were very different in emotional terms. I had good friends though and very much enjoyed school until the end of yr 2 (yr 8 now) I was moved up again. The gap was so wide (nearly 3 yrs with some kids) that It took me a good 6 months to feel secure in my place in class.
BUT, I came from a very secure loving family and the school I went to was a small comp in the near by town, and after an intial period it was ok. It stretched me and I enjoyed school like I said yrs 1 and 2 (7 &8) was great because I had already known the kids, yr 3 (9) was difficult at first but actually in retrospect I did enjoy it (after awhile) and the kids were always nice, it was me I felt nervous and therefore insecure. I hope that my post is not to disjointed and is of some little help.

No,No,No I have just re read my post and I should of said I moved at the end of yr 2(8) and skipped yr 3(9) and moved into yr 4(10). So I was had turned 13 in the August and some of my class mated had turned 15 in the sept and we were all in the same class.

fwiw it's worth, miaou, a friend of mine whose DD was clearly scarily clever and advanced declined an offer to skip a year early in the infants (as her DD's elder brother had done, and struggled a bit socially) because she wanted her to stick with her peers and chug along, which she did quite happily from 5-18 without getting bored - but did have lots of input at home. (She then won a national medal at A level, had a gap year and went on to Oxford)

If you and DD1's school between you can keep her occupied (and extension - sideways - is the answer for a child like this rather than stretching) and she is happy to stay where she is then from what I know of children who've been skipped I'd try to go with that.

HTH

Thank you all for your input. I will show this thread to MrMiaou - lots of food for thought

It was done to me too, and looking back i do think it was a mistake. Socially it was fine, I was in a great class and am still friends with them now.
Academically i did well enough, but I know it could have been much better - teachers were always complaining that i was immature - big surprise that given that a number of children in the class were 16 + months older than me. As we did maths O level a year early anyway i ended up doing it at 14, so i was doing my A level maths course at 14 and a bit and did start to find it tricky.
I did end up with a PhD and a career in research, but do reckon that if i'd stayed in my own year I could have gone to vet school which was my preferred choice.
I'm not screwed up by it (thought some of this sounds a bit bitter and i'm not as you can't go back and hoipefully it was done for the right reasons at the time)BUT
I wouldn't do it to my own children at all, and would really press the school to sort out some extension work.

Loshad that's very interesting.

On the theme of extension, I am looking out some more challenging reading for dd1. When I spoke to her teacher about it yesterday, and said we would like him to recommend stuff for her to read, he said he was looking into buying some classics for her (he and I were both thinking along the lines of Huck Finn and the like). I am also resurrecting this thread for some more ideas for reading (have ordered several of the books on there from the library last night!)

The next school may not take her. I did exactly what you described and ended up at university at age 17 although from and to a private school. The only effect was I was virtually always the smallest in the class. I don't think I felt younger because I was quite clever and mature anyway. It meant I passed my driving test in upper not lower sixth!

Xenia, we are in Scotland which tends to be a lot more flexible than England on this subject. Also, a teacher at the school asked if we were considering moving her up a year early - so although I have not had it confirmed, I'm fairly sure they would consider it.

I was moved up in primary school - was in the top class a year young, The primary school preferred to move me up from the first year juniors and teach me with older children than keep me with my peer group. I took 11+ early and started grammar school at just 10. As a v v small, and physically slow to develop girl I found it v hard. Also we moved areas so no-one from my primary went with me. I was emotionally quite immature too. The advantage was that i did get to keep academically stretched (one of the others in my grammar class was a year young too but she moved back as she found it too hard, whereas I was pretty much top of the year anyway) and I did get to take a gap year and go to uni at the standard age. However it's hard to do much in a gap year when you are only just 17 - lots of schemes are for 18+. I think it depends on the child, and ideally the primary school would be able to continue to stretch the brightest as will the high school and you get to stay with your age group. I was a May baby so almost 2 years younger than some in my year at school - wearing vests and knee high socks when the others are in full bras and stockings! not easy at all.

How about her doing an extra subject? Like learning a new language, or whatever? And staying where she is? There are lots of courses available ... perhaps start on something she is very interested in herself. I have seen a bright little girl in our school being moved up and she was fine until y10 (15 yo) when the others in her class matured really fast. THEN she became lost and lonely and ended up dropping some GCSE's which she should have been able to do get A's in.

Also remember ...having to repeat when you are a teenager is much harder on self esteem than when you are little.

Miaou,

My Mother did this, a long time ago, she did
her 11+ a year early and went to Grammar school at 10. She was not the super confident type and although she said she was
mature enough at 10, by 'O' levels her class mates were a lot more mature than she was.

She was determined the same thing wouldn't happen to us - and looking back I'm glad it
didn't. School work wasn't a challenge for me, but I had plenty of time to do scientific experiments and projects at home, to write stories, and enter competitions, and
have imaginative adventures, and all the things you don't have time to do as you get further up the school.

A similar thing happened to me, I started school at 3 in a nursery class at quite an academic prep school, leanrt to read, write, count and add etc and moved up a year, skipping reception, then at 5(going into year 2) my family moved to the USA where I was starting first grade which is 6-7 y/o like y2 here. Most of the children in the class couldn't read yet as they start school much later there (or at least they did in the mid 80's) so I went up to second grade (7-8), not much of big deal as there was another boy and girl who were only just 6 so just a few months age difference.
However when we returned to the UK when I was 9 I was academically ready for secondary school, I never had any trouble with the work and was always realtively popular despite being quite quiet but it was so embarrasing being 9-10 and having all your contemporaries starting puberty/periods etc while I was still wearing age 6-7 clothes in the 1st year! I didn't start my periods until I was 15 and in the upper 6th! I went out with my friends to the cinema but I could never see a 12! Luckily at 13 my parents let me get a fake ID (I was very sensible) so I could see cert 15s with them, it also served a useful purpose at 16 when we were all going to nightclubs, I never had more than one drink but I wasn't excluded from the gossip in the common room on monday mornings!
God, my post is horribly long, sorry!
Basically would you be happy with her going 'out' at 15-16 when all her friends are a year or more older? Because the social side of school is just as important in many respects!

Personally I wouldn't do it. As with others I speak from personal experience, missing my last year at primary to go to a girls grammar. There are a lot of issues involved as have already been detailed. For me things came to a head at about 15. My best friend was 17 and felt a bit awkward having a pal who looked like she was 2 years younger; going out with a gang who dated 18-20 year old blokes; starting drinking younger (this was in the late 80s!); leaving home at 17 (I did a gap year chambermaiding in a Bavarian hotel). I did well enough in my 'O' levels but I HAD to stay at the grammar to do my 'A's as the local tech wouldn't take a 15 year old. This was a mistake for me, I was rebelling like crazy about uniform, strict rules etc etc and I know I would have done better at a tech. A year out in Bavaria made all the difference to me so I re-entered education at the 'right' age with the maturity to handle it.

As a point of interest the other 10 year old girl from my primary who went up with me (a Sept b/d) had an even more disastrous time of it. As she says herself, her glory days were from about 9 to 13 whence it all went wrong. Too immature, too easily led; she 'peaked' far too young! There's FAR more to it than being a clever clogs at 10! The novelty of it soon wears off.

Obviously it all depends on the individual. If a child really is breathtakingly bright (I'm thinking of the 15 year old who got 4 As at 'A' level at my grammar), you'll never be 'just like the other girls' so moving up and skipping year after year is probably the way your life will pan out, but if you're just a year ahead academically, I don't think it's enough to chance such a potentially risky move. Yes, you CAN always revert back to your 'proper' year, but think of the sense of failure you'd feel, however unwarranted.