No G&T at this school!

[Darem]

Hi there. My DS is very bright at maths - in year 5. He goes to a smallish village school who don't believe in any form of competition. In year 3, when he started here, I asked about the G&T programme and if they offered anything. I was fobbed off (and didn't want to get the "pushy parent" label so said nothing else). Every parents evening I've been told "he's at the top of the class for maths, he's great at problem solving".

His last maths marks were a 5A at the end of year 4 - if that helps! He is getting very bored in class.

I spoke to the headmaster yesterday and he said that the local secondary school don't offer anything anymore so there is no G&T at the primary school.

Am I being fobbed off again? Feel like a fool if I should have been pushing more! Does G&T even still exist with the new government?
thanks for any advice!

Whether the school has a G&T register or not, your son needs to be taught at the appropriate level. Talk to the teacher about what they are doing to differentiate work.

I spoke to the teacher and she said he was absolutely fine and she felt he was being stretched enough.
However, my son had a music lesson which meant he missed half of each maths lesson - and he still managed to pick up what he'd missed out on (without help from the teacher!)

There are a LOT of disruptive kids in his class and the teacher is spending a lot of time trying to get these children up to speed.

When I've spoke to my son about various subjects he just shrugs and says he gets on with it as he can see the teacher is busy.

Finding myself getting more and more annoyed as the school seem to like taking the credit for his hard work when they don't seem to be spending a lot of time actually teaching the child! (SORRY - REALISE I'M VENTING!)

You're right g&t register is no longer a Government requirement, so some schools use it & some don't. However, as Honey suggested it really doesn't matter, schools should still differentiate for able (as well as less able,) children. Sounds like your child is not really getting the best out of school at the moment. Part of the problem, from what I understand, is that he is so high achieving. 5A is a very high level even to achieve at the end of yr6, (at the moment I think its actually the highest primary level possible, but level 6s are supposed to be possible again soon). So as your ds is actually now ready for ks3 work & the school isn't really geared up to deal with him. S

orry, to be the bearer of bad tidings, but tbh, as you've now been told the local senior school doesn't offer anything for g&t kids anymore, I think you may well find a stagnation for your ds in school, (unless he is very lucky with his teacher next year). I've read a lot of other threads on here where dcs have basically had to wait until high school to get beyond their 5a ratings, but also a lot of positive things about how parents help their dcs themselves. I notice your dc already has music lessons which I would have suggested otherwise so it might be that you need to look at other side ways extensions to keep his interest, like chess, suduko or a foreign language, or something. I'm sorry I can't really be of much help as my own dcs are still only 6 & 8, but I hope you get some posts from parents who've been through the same thing & who'll be able to advise you how to talk to the school.

Joyn,
Thank you for the information. I try to expand his interests in many other things (think it's very important to try new and varied activities). I had exactly the same frustrations when I was his age - but back then no parents ever disagreed with teachers so spent a lot of boring years!

From reading this site I think a lot of parents just want to do the best for their children and just don't trust the schools to do THEIR BEST (a lot of stories showing justification for this!)

As you say - I guess it is up to the parents in the end to research and do the best they can. So good luck to anyone else in a similar situation, I wish you well.

Bump! Can anyone give Darem more constructive advice.

Is there a TA/ trainee teacher available that could take a group for exta maths during the maths (maybe some from other years, as I do not believe there will not be others from higher years in this situation).

There are some great KS3 (eg Letts) work books available they could pick a topic, how about probability or mean/median/mode etc.There are lots of projects available for those topics.

They could do the relevant pages in the work book (teacher/TA could look at relevant subjects in a text book), if access to a computer game do that as well.

I understand though this could be difficult in large classes where help is needed elsewhere, or if maths classes through out the school is at different times. It may only need be 1 lesson a week to help encuorage them. This would not substitute differentiated work elsewhere.

DS school to my knowledge have no G and T list. I have always been very happy with their efforts (far better than my stick him on a computer approach to anything). I realise I am very lucky but wish others to realise it is not all doom and gloom.

Thanks for the responses!
Calming down as I'm realising it's not just us in this situation.

When I mentioned G&T to Headmaster - the look on his face! You'd have thought I'd asked for DS to be taught Martian or something like that!

DSs school have "extended maths" where, for one lesson a week I think, the two or so brightest from each of the three classes are taken out for "enrichment" sessions. IIRC, DS2 was doing Y7 work in these when in Y5.

g&t is a misnomer.

what you want is work differentiated for ability. no teacher will look at you as if you're asking for martian if you discuss appropriate differentiation for pupils.

'g&t' is a phrase that has never left my lips in rl. i discuss appropriate differentiation plenty. maybe it's not what you're asking for, but the way you are approaching it?

there are lots of ways of doing this. one way (which you are already doing) is to have an enrichment class in another direction eg music. so, in a way, your ds is already having work differentiated - he only needs half of the time to do the math programme, so he is using the other half wisely to learn a musical intrument. sometimes differentiation is about broadening the sphere, rather than growing it in a particular direction.

but a maths club or small group work for the more able students is something that is usually fairly easily accomodated within resource. and i expect that whilst the secondary school does not offer 'g&t' (i know not a single school that does) it will stream for maths at some point in the run up to gcses. which is differentiation by any other name. it is trickier when the dc are the top age group in a school, as it can mean borrowing resources from another setting rather than another year group.

maybe ask the secondary which subjects they stream for? and when? this might give you a better idea of how to approach the current school. or time to plan for an alternative school if you feel it does not offer what your dc needs.

What a terrible situation. The school really really ought to be able to at least think about what to do to keep your son interested. I think you need to go back and ask to see the SENCO.

My ds achieved a level 5 in Year 3 and his teacher in Year 4 made considerable effort to provide additional activities. In the end ds was taken out once a week for sessions with a secondary teacher and also worked with a maths sixth former, working through a KS3 revision book at his own pace. He was tested again at the beginning of Year 5 and is now a secure level 7 (they just used KS3 papers in place of usual end of year tests. It is getting quite difficult for the school to accomodate him now, but the bloody well try hard to! And for that I'm thankful.

Your ds cannot just sit for another 2 years learning nothing. Ask to see the SENCO, make some suggestions, maths club a brilliant idea. I was lucky in that my ds used to cry because he was so frustrated, so the teachers noticed.

cubscout, my dd is like yours and wasn't "allowed" to take a higher test to see what maths level she was on. She was stuck on 5a for i don't know how long and it did frustrate us both but was told that she couldn't get any higher because the education authority wouldn't allow it! She was doing high school work in her maths and english lessons but it still wasn't enough. She was on g and t register but school didn't even tell us what it was and i don't even think they knew to be honest. Apparently she had been on it since year 1 and they didn't tell us til half way through year 6 and they assumed we knew. We didn't have a clue. Glad to say that now dd is 12 and is getting above her targets in all lessons except for pe and has gained A* maths in year 7 and is predicted A for subjects. Although this seems a bit mean to me as she is only supposed to get level 6 for targets and she is already on 7a or 8c? Anybody know about these gsce predictions? Thanks.

"appropriate differentiation, appropriate differtiation, appropriate differentiation"