What is G&T? Do all schools assess for it? What would it look like in Y1?

[JesusChristBenton]

Just interested really. DD1 is five and in year one (youngest in her year so won't be six until August). I expect she isn't G&T although she is ahead of her class in some areas and I think that is pretty amazing given how young she is compared to many of them.

I have never heard anyone at DD1's primary mention G&T and I just wondered whether it is a national assessment and how and when they assess. I also wonder what it means if your child is assessed as G&T. Does the school get special funding to stretch them?

g and t list is not compulsary anymore.

the august birthday at this age sort of confuses the issue a bit with working out how far ahead they are. it has been mentioned that 2 years ahead is "gifted" (somewhere in the dim and distant past on this board) but does that count if your dd is working at top end of y2 stuff (2y ahead on age but only one in school years)

however, the august birthday is an advantage because she is more likely to get wwork at her/near her ability at least in the early years of school.

not sure what ga nd t would look like in y1. it would also deppend on the school. it used to be an arbitory percentage of the class/school but that would depend on the general intake of the school. what would qualify in one would not qualify in another.

also what they do at home and what they do in school are 2 different things. in the peace and quiet of home (i have a screaming ds) they can achieve more than with the distractions of school.

From what I can work out it used to be a register that in the past schools had to keep of the top 5-10% in a year group (some schools still keep it though I do not think it is a legal reqirement now). Children included in the (often) top 5-10% varied depending on the school cohort; so some schools the top 5% may include exceptionally bright children requiring extra work but in other schools it may not.

Assesment was by the school and teacher recommendation/assesments through out the year. I do not believe schools get extra funding. Your school may no longer keep the register.

Different schools treat/treated the register with different resources eg some gave well differentiated work continuously, some offered sporadic courses/master classes for high ability students, some did both. I think the main thing is appropriate work for the child at whatever level.

DS is classed by school as SEN not G and T.

Have a look at the NAGC website: National Association of Gifted Children for more information if you're interested.

There are (almost!) as many definitions of giftedness as there are parent/school combinations - one definition (that's backed by studies - see Linda Silvermann) is that giftedness is an IQ over 130.

Giftedness is different from brightness - as a crude and broad generalisation bright kids tend to be good all-rounders who excel in many/most subjects and are co-operative and high-achieving. Gifted kids, on the other hand, tend to be quirky, challenging, questioning, stubborn little blighters darlings who may only have exceptional ability in one/two areas, and often hide their abilities in school anyway, for various reasons. It's not an easy life.

Hope that helps clear it up!

I think I would like to emphasize the "tend to be" in EyeOfNewtToeOfFrog post. I just do not like stereotyping of children/people .

iggly, she did say crude and broad!

Like others have said Jesus, g&t list is no longer compulsory & the level the dcs on are working at can vary from school to school & class to class. Both my dcs started getting proper information about it when they went into
Yr1.

The kids at their school get differentiated work whether g&t or not, depends on what they are ready for. The real benefit of being on the list seems to they get invites to inter school masterclasses. To give you some idea of 'level' they were at this point yr1, ds was free reader & working approx 2yrs ahead in maths. Dd (currently older yr1,) is on level 9 ORT (which I think is level expected at end of yr2,) & is in a yr2 class setting. Ds (now yr3,) has a very able peer, who is at the younger age for their year & she seems to have come into her own this year, (she was on the gift list in yr1, for 1 subject, but it's only this year, she seems to be getting all the masterclass invites like ds). Perhaps this is around the age the younger ones are able to properly catch up?

Thanks all. I bet DD's school doesn't have the register, if they did I am sure I would have heard of it.

It is hard to know what is two years ahead when you havent got an older child. DD1 is, as I said, Y1 but only 5years 4months. She reads ORT Level 10, can spell well, knows every Y1 keyword, likes to spell words backwards for fun and usually gets it right, can count in 2s, 3s, 5s, 10s and is quite good at mentally adding and subtracting. Oddly she has memorised every country in Africa and can point to each one on a map.

I think it depends a lot on the cohort rhe child is in. DD is bright but not gifted in any way I can see. She is on ORT level 9, probably could be at a higher level but is fine where she is. She is pretty much a good all rounder although probably showing more literacy bias at the moment.

However there are other children at a similar level and so there would be no need to separately identify them as work is differentiated anyway. I suppose if a child were far ahead of others then they would need additional support but depending on the class, this could be at a variety of NC levels. I don't think there is an absolute level at which you can say that a child is G&T. Although true giftedness will be different ie entering reception doing long division, reading chapter books etc.

Those are only my thoughts of course - I don't have enough knowledge or experience to properly have an opinion.

Good point SuitableGirl. I think there are other kids who are similar to DD in her class and the school does differentiate work for them so she is being catered for.

A gifted reception child can be identified as follows :

Will have a bruise on their head (from reading books while walking along and bumping into things).

Will have odd bits of paper in their zippy (little notes they've written for themselves, lists of numbers where they've tried to figure-out number patterns and sums for themselves).

If asked (and sometimes if not!) child will be able to say exactly what coloured reading book every child in their class is on.

Will be able to remember visiting santa a year ago and will very clearly explain the detail of why this santa looks different (he had blue eyes and a grey beard last year mummy).

Will either be the very last child sitting on the mat in the mornings having very carefully shaken out coat, lined-up wellies, changed own reading book, ensured coloured pencils are in rainbow order.... or the very first having dumped thrown and slung all their bits in the general direction of where they should be and raced to be the first, the best, the winner ...of sitting on the mat.

Am slightly concerned that DD would fit a few of those

Or they could be nowhere near the mat, still standing in the cloakroom with one sleeve out of their coat, staring into space and thinking about whether not yet born is the same as dead or whether there are enough atoms in the known universe to number a googolplex.
Seriously, though, stereotypes are not necessarily helpful. You get clever children in all shapes and sizes and personality types.

Rosemary if this had been face book I'd have 'liked,' your comment. Esp bit about knowing everyone else's book bands! Ds once had a friend over to play & i overheard his little sister ask friend what book level he was on. Other kid hadn't got a clue so ds told dd, oh he's on x!

Jesus, sounds like your dd is doing similar things to mine (times tables etc,) so I would suspect she'd be on the gift list in our school. So you may well be right that your school no longer uses one. I've never viewed the g&t list as a indicator of giftedness though, it's just the name for the group who are the top 5-10% in any year group in any subject area. So in some schools/year groups the kids on it may be gifted, but in others they may be 'merely' bright, and therefore the reverse is also true; some kids who are gifted may not get on the list if they are in a particularly high achieving peer group, (although you would hope that in this case a school would use some common sense & encompass all very able kids within the g&t list).