Y1 very ahead or not?

[strictlovingmum]

DD (5.4) in Y1 currently, able and hard working girl, I know it and DD's teacher confirmed it at the October parents evening, but that is it.
DD steadily moved up reading levels now at the purple, sound reading ability, at home will happily read other materials and her favourite poems.
DD has a very mature handwriting, seldom makes spelling mistakes, had her christmas story displayed in the school corridor, it was of a very good standard.
In numeracy DD does excel, mentally will add any two digit numbers, will subtract mentally up to 20, and knows times tables multiplying with 2,4 and 5, what confuses me is following;
Roll on, December interim report states Literacy B working within expected level, Numeracy B working within the expected level (DD needs to be able to recall her addition and subtraction up to 10 mentally), DD can do this in her sleep.
My question is,
Does DD's teacher have very high standards and expectations, or perhaps she just not getting DD at all?, DD's class is very small in non selective independent school.
I am not interested in school acknowledging DD's intellect ( I know breadth of her knowledge), But am I right in thinking that it would be useful if school could tailor more challenging work for her?, Is it unreasonable to expect that form school?
And lastly, why B's in her report?
I can't help but feel DD has been short changed a little bit

TIA

kerala, my DS was the same, reading Harry Potter in Yr1 while school was still keeping him on colour bands. My advice to you based on all these years (he is in Yr5 now) is: forget about the school and let her get on with reading at her real level for pleasure. The list of books is endless and the hours of happiness too. I've never told DS what to read or checked him on it. I have gone with him to the library and have talked about his books with him if he wanted to, but have always kept it as something to love and enjoy freely, not a "school" thing.

strictlovingmum re: the homework, nice but quite standard.

mrsshears - "I just don't think alot of teachers 'get' what true giftedness is, do they actually learn about gifted children during teacher training?"

I have said this over and over! One of dd's teachers is the G&T coordinator for the school and doesn't understand that gifted children: 1) need extra help because they need additional direction/suitably taught material etc, 2) will not have the same ability for everything 3) parents do no need to be given the stare that says I do not believe you/you are taking up too much of my time/I have no other suggestions of what you can do at home cos frankly they don't need it they're already ahead. All I want to do is scream at the wretched teacher, I am beginning to wonder if she is a parent cos she is far less understanding that the other teacher who definitely is!!!

As to SEN, I really wish the children that fell off the top of the ability scale were allowed to be on the list like the children falling off the bottom, then they might actually be able to achieve their full potential too instead of having all their brain cells rotted through lack of use and stimulation while they wait for other kids to catch up! Most people look at me gone out when I say that the top end learners need extra help, as if to say they can already do it why should teacher time be taken up by them. But as far as I am concerned the bulk of the class gets mental stimulation during their learning day at school, those unable to access that learning because they do not understand it are usually given extra help, but none is given to those who sit in class getting no stimulation from the work because they know it already and are looking for new challenges! Children thrive on challenge, my dd has noone in her class that can challenge her, therefore she will not thrive as much as she could if challenge existed!!

strictlovingmum - you are very lucky your school would assess your child. Our school do not believe most of what I say and therefore do not believe my dd needs any more than she currently gets, ie the same as the rest of the class, or that she needs testing. They do not tell you anything about how your child is doing on their assessments and as far as I can tell no children were given a level 3 in last years SATs at our school, which tells me that they are doing a rubbish job of allowing their top learners to achieve (every school should expect to have most their learners on level 2, some at level 1 or 3 and perhaps odd ones at level 4 in the KS1 SATs). So me looking at my dd's reading and thinking she is currently a level 3c (though not in writing though!) and her maths at least level 2a now in Y1, I'm thinking that they are going to bore her to death so much that she will only attain level 2 in both areas next year because they have spent no additional time with her to allow her the knowledge to pass anything higher, which is just a truly sorry state of affairs!!! Also if your dd is in a private school with small classes, be thankful for small mercies, my dd is in a class of 30 and a year group of 120!!!

Sorry post turned into a bit of a rant and whine, rant over!!!

Kistigger - at 6 years old I was writing books full of stories, made up my own tv characters & wrote the scripts along with my brother. I was not gifted & talented. If your child fails to get a level 3 next year then I think that is more to do with the fact they are not as bright as you think rather than the school not teaching them.

I don't think that the SATS are a measure of intelligence so IMO it is therefore quite possible to not reach a Level 3 and yet still be G&T.

I fully agree with all of you in thinking perhaps levels are a bit mining less when it comes to G&T, maybe there are no reliable measures(unwilling teachers to dig deeper) to asses gifted child accurately, and that is the core of the problem.
Agree with you also Imnotinterested, work that they are sending home for ME TO DO WITH HER is pretty standard, it isn't exactly stretching her, but we are doing it so to comply and keep us busy[sceptical] What good will come out of it? I don't know.
Reason we are taking it easy at the moment is I don't know what else to do, I feel "I have rocked the boat" put it this way, IMO class of 12 or indeed 30 it is obvious schools staff are not too keen on the "nuisance parent". I am not being paranoid, but this last term was not exactly easy on DD or me, I daren't ask another question in worry of repercussions.

I agree nice weather BUT so many posters complain of their G & T child being so bored at school yet a lot say they won't get the highest SATS levels? Surely intelligence is about applying what you know??? My eldest dd is bright & on the G & T register at secondary now (got told this by her school - she was at primary too but not told till she left) & could answer maths questions she hadn't covered by using what she did know to make sense. BTW, she isn't the gifted or talented in the way I percieve those things to be but she is bright.

Red Helen, I do agree that intelligence is about applying what you know and it would be hard to get excellent SATS results without being intelligent. But, they do not necessarily measure all aspects of being G&T such as creativity, originality, lateral thinking, opinion. Some children with dyslexia, dyspraxia or other learning difficulties may not be so easily able to apply and show what they know in a conventional way.

Probably not relevant to the conversation but I notice that in lots of threads about 2B sats level is taken as the 'norm' and being 'on track' if 1B at the end of year 1. 2B is the minimum level that a child with no learning difficulties should achieve. An 'average' score should be more like 3C imo. No parent should be content if their child is on track for a 2B and is capable of more.

And the writing assessment is more than punctuation AFAIK - using connectives, adjectives, adverbs etc. Spelling is only a small part as well.

RedHelenB the SATs papers as I understand it are different ie there is one paper for level 2 and a completely different one for level 3 (unless I have misunderstood somewhere along the way). Which means that if all children in the class are given only the level 2 paper there is no way she can achieve a level 3!!!!! Also for higher levels there is certain things that they will be unlikely to just know, they will have to be taught them, without some basic prior knowledge they cannot get the question right irregardless of how clever they are! That is like asking a child who has been made to sit through Y7 lessons for 5 years (while their brain shrivels and they begin to think about every way possible to kill themselves, the teachers or the school) to take all their GCSEs, yes they may be able to apply some knowledge very well but other areas will simply remain a mystery!!!! Certain things just won't happen by themselves, without resources/books/equipment/'teaching'/first hand experience as a bare minimum, the child cannot learn certain things! I'm not bothered actually what grade DD gets, it is a general principle that the school should be helping her achieve her potential not making her sit twiddling her thumbs waiting for the rest of the class (including those who are struggling to achieve the expected minimum!) to catch up!!! You are right G&T is subjective and everyone has a different idea of what it looks like, all I know is that DD's brain doesn't work the same as most other children in my experience and currently no one is giving her challenge, in my eyes that means her school is failing her, they are failing to provide her with appropriate age and ability education which is what the law requires and that is unacceptable. Children need challenges and other children who can challenge them, so they learn together, challenge each other etc, it is vital to their development, DD is missing out, she challenges her class and has brought their reading and maths levels up considerably, good for the school but not for her (other parents in the class, her teacher and TA have said so)!!! In fact I couldn't give two monkeys about the G&T programme which is meaningless in primary schools anyway, I just want a suitable education, I didn't think it was so much to ask for, but clearly I was wrong!!! Plus the G&T thing did not exist when any of us were kids so we can never know which of us would have been on it or not, so to describe your situation and say you were not on it is somewhat meaningless too! Sorry this has come out as somewhat bitchy, I'm not trying to be, I've simply had a rough couple of weeks with all of this stuff, sorry if you feel like you got the brunt end of it!!