In my ds school bag today was a letter about nominations for Gifted & Talented scheme

[Peaceflower]

I did a search on mumsnet and found other threads on this, but should I nominate my ds? He is 7 and very able in maths, esp mental maths. He is also a very competent reader and can pick up any book and read it. He's in the top group for maths and english. In his last annual report, the headteacher said he was "very able and intelligent".

Surely it's up to the teachers to nominate children, and not ask the parents to put their children up for nomination? Only the top 5% will be chosen here. Is there benefit from being in the scheme?

There is no universal "scheme" . Each school identifies candidates and may(or may not) offer activities in addition to differentiation in class. I'd suggest you speak to the teacher about what they have in mind.

To be honest, it really should be the school's job to determine who is gifted and talented, based on comparisons with the thousands of children they teach/have taught.

The trouble with us parents is that we really have not idea where our kids are on the pecking order in relation to others. I used to teach secondary so feel reasonably confident in judging whether or not a child is gifted in talented in, say maths or writing, but don't have clue when it comes to primary school.

What does worry me is that the G&T (love the abbreviation!) register lets somone be "gifted" or "talented" for doing lots of 'work in the community'; in my book, that's being a good sort, fine updstanding citizen and all that, but hardly a sign of being gifted and talented.

Yes it is up to the teachers to nominate gifted children. Talented is different - I think that applies to other non-academic subjects such as sport or art that may not be observable in school.

WBMB - mmm,think genuinely being involved in community and contributing is a bit rare and takes a special sort of person.
Could understand such a person as being described as being talented in that area.

Perhaps they are looking for you to alert them if DC has talents outside of the normal school subjects; musical instrument,swimming ballet or gymnastics spring to mind.

Though what the school would then do about this I can't imagine, other than finally realising why little johnny is playing up in recorder lessons because he is already grade 5 on clarinet.

On the acedemic side you'd think they'd have noticed already, surely it is not appropriate for parents to pick and choose which children "deserve" different treatment.

I would agree with Coccypig and others. They are probably looking for sports/music/art or dance etc

One of the girls in dds class was included for dance and they let her coreograph the dance routine in school play etc

Thank you all. I wish this letter had never come home. I keep wavering as I think the teachers should know and nominate, but then again I am not confident the teachers are on the ball, eg ds is in year 2 now and his objectives/next steps for next term are things his year 1 report clearly states he has already achieved!

I think whether you want to be involved is up to you and your family life.

I was probably G&T (ended up at Cambridge after the usual vast numbers of As and GCSE and A-level) but would have hated to be involved in a scheme like G&T if it involved losing weekends to 'extra school'.

However, I'm not of the opinion that G&Ts need extra help/stretching, so wouldn't support it with my own children.