Yr 1, bright child - help - where do we go from here?

[Tanzie]

DD1 is supposed to be v bright and her teacher wants her to have an assessment by the G & T co-ordinator. For a variety of reasons (sick leave etc) the assessment keeps slipping and has not been done yet. DD keeps telling me she is bored at school and is now saying that she doesn't want to go to school as all she does is play (she is very anorakky child!). I mentioned this to her teacher yesterday and she said she really did not know what more to do - she has "extended" DD as much as she can, but she still needs more. We were told on Monday that the G & T assessment would be done this week, but once again it hasn't been. I do not want to be a pushy parent, and am not convinced she is "gifted and talented" - she is just a bit brighter than the rest and needs more work, but her teacher seems to be saying she can't give her anything more until this assessment is done. I don't want to go flouncing into the headmistress like Mrs Pushy Parent, but I don't want DD getting more and more reluctant to go to school because she is bored - any advice?

Thanks - strangely, I now feel exactly as those other mothers of first-time-schoolies do on the "starting school in September" thread - all nervous and a bit weepy - she's so small etc. etc. Felt a bit of a fraud joining in that thread last week, but don't now.

Brilliant points from frogs and Scummy on an all-round really interesting and helpful thread.
We have a ds of five who has taken like a duck to water with reading and can already read information leaflets in the GP's surgery (: "Talk to Frank about drugs" is a recent example, still it kept the waiting room in stitches). He is also reading Narnia, Tintin and Asterix on his own.
We are having to explain to him that this is a natural ability that all children have and he happens to have picked reading up quicker than others. He is starting to comment, not boastfully, but shrewdly, about classmates' reading and vocabulary and we do not want him getting conceited.
From what others have said here, I think his class teacher is handling him really well. His formal praise is always for stuff that comes less easily like writing and maths. She is not making a big deal about his reading.
I have no idea whether he is G & T and the subject hasn't been broached. Maybe we will raise it with the school if there are any signs he is bored in class or not being stretched enough and so far there aren't.

Frogs - we have the good behaviour notes too (neither of mine ever have them). I do think they are used as a form of classroom control for the more unruly element but still think this sort of "reward" system needs more balance. I do not expect and wouldn't wish either of my DDs to have praise lavished on them daily but do think excellent classwork/homework/craft,etc. should be given more than a cursory tick. My younger daughter's teacher does have a better approach to it all in fairness but then she has two DDs of Primary School age so probably comes at it from a different angle.

just havong a quick read of this thread, the worry about rewards to help the children who previously displayed negative behaviour ( and have improved) is very valid.
My ds (now 11) was in that situation in yr 4, worked very hard, excelled in everything, teacher adored him and he tried desp hard to attain this once a term (one child in each class) Gold Achievement Award, my son has never been as focussed on anything and was always bringing home merit cards for each subject.
I had a word with his teacher not to say "give my son an award" but to let the teachers know that the kids that were always working hard, were getting disillusioned.
My son did get his award , I was reassured that he would have got one anyway and they developed a number of ways to reward children who always were doing well.
And frogs I too have a child who has always been able to do whatever is offered easily, he has never really been tested or had to work to do well. I too worry that when he is tested (he has got into a very excellent Grammar School for Sept) he will not know how to handle the workload, heaven knows he is terribly disorganised. I still wonder whether I did the right thing not moving him up in yr 1 to yr 2, but worried about his social skills...
I still do not know if I've done the right thing - parenting huh?

I went to a mad school (secondary) where no-one could be seen to fail, and no-one could be seen to do much better than the others. Competition was seen as a bad thing, and those who were really not very good at school/concentrating were the ones who got the merit marks. The brighter children were ignored. We did athletics, but those who won races were not given any credit (no sports day - too competitive, certainly no competitions against other schools!). As you might expect, exam results were mediocre - the brighter children were not encouraged or motivated (actually, no-one was encouraged or motivated and no-one got told off for skiving). I stopped working at 13 -didn't see the point - no-one told me off if I didn't work, no-one praised or graded my work if I did, and I wasn't sufficiently mature to see that I would be the one to suffer in the long run. I passed my O Levels with very mediocre grades, did A levels, failed one and got appalling grades in the other two. I wasn't the only one - 2 friends failed completely, did a year at a crammer, got straight As and went to Oxford.

Not sure what I am trying to illustrate here - maybe just to illustrate the point that all children need encouragement, and you can't just leave the one who are going to succeed to their own devices "because they'll do alright anyway". It doesn't always work like that...