How to handle parents evening

[mrsseed]

So its the start of the school year and we have a parents eve in a few weeks. We are just starting on the G&T trail and want to avoid any problems others have encountered.
She is only in year 1, do you have any advice for us. Do we go with the' is she settling in' like we did in foundation, or go for the' we know she is exceptional, what are you going to do about it style?
p.s. Before any skeptics condem me, this isn't me just thinking she is exceptional, she is top of year(out of 80) and we were given foundation observational scoring to prove it. I just wasnt to learn how best to handle it, cause if she gets bored, she will become a trouble maker which is a bigger problem!

nope, still can't work it out.

I"m a teacher and teach a very unremarkable Year 4 class...lovely bunch, but not very bright at all. ( in non-teacher speak, out of 30 kids, 8 are Special Educational Needs and a further 15 are only operating at a Year 2 level)

The brightest boy in the class is right where he should be for Year 4, yet his parents have got it into their heads that he is 'gifted' and needs to be pushed and given harder work. He does not. If he was moved to a private school, he would become distinctly average overnight.

So please parents, think before you label your children as 'gifted' or 'incredibly intelligent' etc...they may just be part of a rather unfortunate cohort.

Just a comment... ;)

oh. And just FYI, differentiating for 30 children when you should be teaching a Year 4 curriculum is NOT an easy task. Anyone who thinks teaching is easy should come and spend a day in a classroom! (and I've moved into teaching from management, I've seen both sides!) - I'm fully going to relish the long holidays because yes, I WILL need them, but also because I also needed them in management but wasn't so lucky to get them!

Also for info, I was SEN TA in a state primary with v mixed intake: 1/2 ESL, 1/5 grammar school material, 1/3 identified special needs. We had banding y3 on. We still differentiated work within the bands, maybe 4/5 sets to accommodate development.

Listen to the teacher at parents' evenings. There were many clever children who needed eg remedial spelling and writing, help with social skills, excelled in one area but needed help in another. School is a preparation for life and employment. You will find your DD/DS has mixed performance. Having said that, if the school are not providing for your individual, I'd be supplementing elsewhere or looking at different school options.

kitesurf girl yes differentiating is not as easy as having children at a similar level, and is a lot easier if your top group is at a similar level, but it is your job. the bigger the gap the harder it is. be glad that you haven't got a real high flyer amoungst your also-rans.

and yes it is hard to convince some parents that their child is "average" (probably didn' t help that you took your child out of school for 4 weeks to go to homecountry)

IQ rarity chart

This article explains (point 17) how there are far more children with IQ 160+ than the bell curve would suggest

I liked this sentence from the article: "There are far more exceptionally gifted children in the population than anyone realizes"- reminds me of a poster on another thread who was told by a teacher that her dd was unusually exceptional.