just been told DD is G & T - Y1 hurray... but help!

[Amiable]

Just been told at parents meeting that DD (age 6.2) is on the school's G & T list!. Obviously v proud, but also a bit in the dark as to how this is gauged, and how we can best support her at home.

Out of the list of 100 words she is expected to read by end of Y1, she got 95 correct by October, and recently scored 195 out of 200 in the Y2 list. She is reading purple level books with ease, highly articulate, great writing, good numeracy, and a bit of a madam!

I've tried looking up what the book levels mean, is there a standard for all reading schemes so the same colours are the same level? I'm keen to encourage her without "pushing", and really need some background as to what it all means, and what standards there are, how they are judged etc.

TIA!

It varies from school to school OP There are no standards. Who may be classed as G&T in one school - and from what you have said she wouldn't in my DD's school - may not in another. It's all a bit daft, really. The purple books are the book banding scheme.

I agree with you Iamnotminterested. It is all a bit daft. I think the result is gauged on CAT tests the children take?? G&T hasn't done anything or helped my dd at all. She has been getting high levels at school by herself and not by g&t. Primary school said it meant nothing. I was given no literature to read about it because school didn't have anything. Yes, she was always much "brainier" than her classmates and now in year 8, she is still top of her year. No mention of g&t at all. When i asked about it in year 7 the form tutor said it was a bit of a nonsense. Dd is set 1 for lessons and they are all classed as g&t but not on any register. So yes it is a bit daft. Amiable, just do what i did and encourage but don't push. Let her do her own thing. Don't take much notice of the book bands either. My dd just took whatever book she fancied regardless of "colour". One teacher earlier on tried to tell her off because she took a book for an older child. I soon put her straight. Dd has always been mad on reading. A book is a book. I expect the teacher was trying to hold her back as usual. Eventually dd took her own books into school and didn't bother with school books as they were sometimes a bit "babyish". Best wishes.

Just take her to your local library and let her choose her own books

ibizagirl dd's teacher once approached me and said that she was a bit concerned as dd had taken in one of her older sisters books(it was her own) and would not go out to play at playtime and instead just wanted to sit and read this book, the teacher thought that there must be a problem at playtime to make her not want to go out, er no she just wanted to read her book

Amiable, i agree with the others G and T is a seperate thing to being gifted and is really the top 10% of that particulair cohort, by all means encourage her interests at home though,that is never a bad thing

The best thing you can do to help is read to her and with her, both fiction and non fiction books. talk about the books, what is happening and why, what she thinks will happen next. look at contents, index and glossary pages.

A teacher or parent may simply be concerned about inappropriate content in a book for older children. A book may be in an older year box simply for that reason. With a good reader care has to be taken re content I think.