What should I expect?

[CURIOUSMIND]

My Ds1 currently in y2 is doing maths level 6,(between 6 n 7).He worked with three year 6 children for the past term. I know a secondary school teacher came to work him once or twice a week and he goes to year 6 once a week.I generally always feel this teaching is not on a daily regular basic. Headteacher got frustrated too as he never saw a ks1 child worked on ks3 level.I know he reported to LA and they then reported to London and then what? We had 6 meetings last term to discuss about this, so far I haven't been given a plan for september.
From your experience , what should I expect school to do next term and even in the next 4 years?

My DS was a L5A in maths in Y2 (he's now 9 yrs old).

You're lucky you're in a school that seems to give a damn.

The problem is they can't do much.

DS got a secondary teacher come in once a week, got some funding etc., but gifted children in state schools just don't fit! Square pegs, round holes.

They'll do you an IEP and follow up and do another IEP and in a few years you'll be pulling your hair out that the school is far better at talking than doing.

what should I expect school to do next term and even in the next 4 years?

Nothing! You can bang your head against a brick wall as much as you want or you can take charge of his maths education and either home school him or get him a tutor. State schools aren't geared for kids like your DS and mine.

I would second what DadatLarge says and just say you would be very very lucky if they did progress him at the pace he is capable of, simply because of lack of resources.

You might ask the Headteacher to find out if there anre any county wide schemes to support what he and other teacehrs do in school. Whilst it is not common to find children working at that level it is not unheard of either and it may be that the LA have things on offer. Ds recently went on a day with 20 other children from all over the county (years 4-6) for a maths challenge day and thier class teachers all had a days workshop on how to work with children working at this level in maths.

I think it is unlikely that the school will be able to meet all your ds's needs, but that doesn't mean they can't meet some. Once my ds finished the KS2 curriculum secondary teachers gave advive on workschemes for KS3, 1:1 sessions with a secondary teaher, 1;1 with a sixth former who came down to the school to look at practical applications of maths so that ds was offered something other than just accelerating him through the curriculum. School pretty soon worked out that it was no good doing that too fast as he would have nothing left to do at secondary as he picked up everything very quickly and mastered it with no problems. Although it is not a view shared by everyone, accelerating too quickly in maths is not considered a good thing by top universities. Either the child has to go to uni early, and that causes huge headaches, or they have to stop doing maths, which in the words of a maths professor friend at Cambridge, is the 'kiss of death' if your dc wants to be a mathematician - like peaking too early as an athelete. It's not an easy thing to manage and I have sympathies with many of the frustrations expressed on this theme. And my ds is in a great school who have bent oevr backwards to be supportive.

Cultivate a good relationship with school. Read everything you can, encourage your ds to extend in other ways (like engineering/computer/music/chess etc, things that commonly appeal to mathematically minded children).

It is very interesting to read these reply.
I don't mind teaching him at all. My problem is I don't have good materials.I got some ks3 revision books, none of them is good enough.Where can I get some text book?Any quality practice papers?
Ds1 is also registered on arts.He is working on Grade 5 piano as well. All seems easy peasy.

I am currently homeschooling my 6 year old who is also doing the gcse curriculum. I have bought lots of workbooks from the book people and have printed every single maths worksheet from www.superteacherworksheets.com/ My maths is terrible so i have to look at the answer sheet!

Wow I have never heard of a 6-7 year old child doing grade 5 piano. At what age did he start? Did he pass grades 1, 2, 3, 4 or is he skipping straight to 5?

To:Love the harp
He started when he was 6+8months.The first two weeks he struggled, (although he enjoyed he could make interesting tune))then started to understand what this is about.He was given first exam piece after 2 months,the week after the teacher was left speechless.He skipped grade 1 exam.When we moved, I was told to book the ealiest grade 2 exam.During the 3 weeks ,before first audition with the new teacher ,he already played Grade 3 very well.He was there straightaway and he just undertood everything, I mean everything! So I followed mother's instinct ,booked grade 3 exam.He had 7 lessons for grade 3, and scored 135 this March. While 2 pieces got 29 out of 30, another one got 25 only which is our piano's problem(I was warned by the former teacher already). The new teacher is fully aware his talent.He didn't take grade 4 exam, but We knew he is ready to more challenge.He is working on Grade 5, aim to take the exam this winter.

Many common problems for a little learner don't exist on him at all.He read music just like he read his book, once he was on the runway, he took off!
He natually got that feeling of the keyboard, the way he touched the keys is very mature.He natually used two fingers working together.He is 7+10 months now.

Gosh, your son sounds exactly like my daughter! She loves playing the piano, started off playing nursery rhymes when she was in nappies on a little play keyboard that only had 5 keys! lol And now plays everything under the son, the only diff is she doesn't read music, just plays it by ear. I'm hoping to get a tutor in as i am completely musically disabled!

Jasmin,
Your daughter is very special.Is that the reason you homeschool her?
I am very good at maths and physics myself, but there are many things I am not good at all, such as history,geometry, sports.So, I don't dare to think about homeschooling.
Will you tell me more about how do you teach your daughter ?Do you give her plenty of worksheet to do?You said you printed out all the papers from that website.Do you use anybooks? Do you follow the national curriculum?
How do you teach science at home, you don't have a lab ,do you?

I always wanted to home ed and it was later set in stone because my daughter was a very sick baby. We were later told by the neurologist that she was highly gifted. She was reading and writing at 2. I am a qualified teacher so have many years of teaching experience, we do most of our work through art and play. I am a very structured homeschooler though, lesson plans and all. The only time i use worksheets is for maths, she goes through tons a day. Today she did 4 on Algebra, which she loves atm! She gets the maths and music abilities from my hubby who was also very very bright at when he was a child and she gets the language and arts from me. I knew if she went to school she would be sharpening pencils for most of the day! We do a lot of science and i own everything under the sun, yep even a bunsen burner! lol We raised caterpillars which then turned into butterflies, worked with tadpoles and watched them change into frogs and so forth. We have worked on the Solar System, both my kids can tell you the names of all the moons of each planet, names i don't even know! Today we finished our lapbook on the Human Body, my daughter can tell you exactly, word for word what each system of the body does, both her and my son have had the giggles since they learnt about the digestive system and the word 'anus' LOL. If you go to this link you'll see what we get up to on a daily basis: www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=164014243270

I absolutely love homeschooling, gifted or not, i trained as a teacher because i knew i would teach my own kids at home. I am due to give birth so will be taking a few months off but as soon as i am fit and well we will be doing our lapbook on Ancient Egypt :)

Have you downloaded past exam papers? They are great for practice and also you know what is covered so you can work on that further x

Dadatlarge,
Did you end up send your DS to a independent school? What do you think you did the best for your special DS(regarding to his math progress)?

To,Jazmin,
The website you posted seems very interesting.It will take me sometime to investigate!
I am very curious to know more about you and your daughter's experience. For the moment, just wish you the best for the new baby!

CURIOUSMIND, thanks for calling him "special". I don't know how to take that :)

Seriously, though, at first I thought he was special/gifted. Let's face it, not a lot of kids can hit a L5 in maths at the age of six (Y2). So if he could do it he must some special ability. Then I found my DD1 was pretty much at the same level when she reached six. If she was a bit lower than DS it may have been because I had less time to play the "maths games" with her that I did with DS. Now, after many years of working closely with the school, volunteering with them, being a governor, being an authority on G&T in our LA etc., I'm convinced that my kids aren't that smart after all. A lot of kids in their class could have done what mine did. They don't because our schools are crap and teachers aren't half as good at teaching maths as I am (or are severely restricted by "the system").

I'm not talking the OFSTED failing schools. I'm talking the outstanding ones.

My teacher wife and I visited some indies (about 10-15!). I was not impressed. Some are worse than the outstanding state school we used. A few were better but not by much. Asking questions, listening to the terminology they used etc., we got the impression these indies were like state schools but with smaller class sizes. Speaking with the maths teachers and seeing work they considered "challenging" was a laugh. Because I've had so much experience coming up with work to keep DS amused I could see how pathetic their attempts at the same task were. We can't afford the Etons of this world. In some other indies teachers get paid less than the Burgundy Book (state pay scales) so not necessarily the cream of the crop.

To answer your question: What I did worst for DS was trusting the school's competence to cater. What I did best was pulling him out of school to HE him and let him learn at his own speed. Some days/weeks/months he may be slower - or faster - but he progresses in all subjects I've chosen at a speed that keeps him happy to learn. As my other DCs do. They are all HE now.

You know how, when you have a baby, people gently remind you that when she's 23, no-one is going to care whether she walked before the age of one, or rolled over later than every other kid at Bumps and Babies.....?

To Dadatlarge,
I feel every single word you said!
I totally agree with you that there are always very capble parents behind very advanced children. Generally our schools,teaching systems, like many other things in this country, are complicated but unefficient.
Would you tell me more about what resourses you used?I'm particularly interested in text books and outstanding quality (in contents)practice books.
What is your opinion on independent school?Do you think they can do better?

I'm thinking of putting together a book at some point, but there is much you can find with just some simple searching online.

As DS is particularly keen on mental maths (perhaps because that gives him more scope for showing off!), I spent considerable time teaching myself vedic and Trachtenberg techniques, for example, so I could explain them to him when he was little. Among computer programs I've bought have been a couple of Trachtenberg practice programs where you set the level and work to beat the computer/improve your time.

I let his interests guide me. When he came across fractals and was fascinated by the concept, I explained the formulae behind fractals and downloaded a fractal creation program for him to play around with. When he showed interest in origami we made flexagons (from the murderous maths site) which kept him and his sisters occupied for days!

I'll try and dig out some bookmarks and post them later.

In no particular order here are some quick extracts from my bookmarks:

www.coolmath4kids.com/
mathssquad.questacon.edu.au/mobius_strip.html
www.coolmath-games.com/
www.educationcity.com/
www.nace.co.uk/bookshop/bookshop_core.htm
school.discoveryeducation.com/brainboosters/#lateral
www.primaryresources.co.uk/maths/mathsD1.htm
www.mathplayground.com/
nrich.maths.org/public/
www.murderousmaths.co.uk/
mathlesstraveled.com/
wordsmith.org/anu/java/spirograph.html

I've got tons more on my home PC, but you get the picture:
Kid's interest -> Internet Research -> Cool Sites.

PS: As you can see I'm more into good programs, websites etc., rather than books but we do have the murderous maths series and numerous other books. My last purchase was "Prime Curios!" (Caldwell and Honaker)

Oh yeah, and Professor Stewart's Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities

Last post. Promise.

Tip: If you're using Amazon for buying the books, they'll suggest other good books for you based on your previous purchases. They have an awesome analytical engine behind those suggestions so do check out the books they suggest.

DadAtLarge

Thanks for those addresses - daughter number 2 will love to look at them.

Dadatlarge,
Appreciate!

Murderous math?I have full set.Ds1 is reading his set everyday, first thing in the morning and last thing in the everning!

Hi Curiousmind,
My Ds is very advancd in literacy and maths. I do not HE but my son is at an independent school (12 per class). I am very happy with his education and most importantly he is happy , enthusiastic and has lots of friends. I think in theory yes especially at this age children will advance quicker with HE, BUT at what cost to them socially. He has been introduced to lots of sports and arts activities and languages that I could not do in a home environment. My son's work at school is set at a level individual for him. The school have been very proactive (they called myself and dH in at the start of year) and we have never had to go in since.

The advancement by HE is also likely to only be quicker than that at school in select areas (eg parents' forte).