Moving up a year group as an answer to chalkengimg a child-what do you think?

[Molehillmountain]

Seems that a good school should be able to challenge the able children within their chronological group. A friend has been told her child needs to move up a year group as the teacher can't differentiate effectively. Is this normal/good practice? It's a small private school.

Quite normal for children to be working within a wide range of ability and teacher to differentiate up and down. It would concern me if a school couldnt cope with something so basic.

Presumably more common for private schools where they'll have tailored their intake. State teachers will normally be expected to cope with a wider ability band in one class.

If I were your friend I'd be wary - it could cause problems if her DS needs to change schools - particularly if she ever wants to move back to the state sector.

I moved up a year in a state school - tbh though it doesn't do anything but get you out of the school faster as you've generally caught up with that year within a term - after all, the kids in the year up are just older, not more intelligent.

If your friend's child isn't challenged in their own year, they won't be challenged after the first few weeks of the year above so really the school needs to come up with another plan to deal with them.

I moved up in P6. Wouldn't recommend it. I was a Jan birthday anyway, which made me even more young for the year I was put in. Not too much of an issue when you are 10, much bigger issue age 14.

It does happen in state school. However, the teacher should be able to extend children who need it.

Have seen it occur in dd's school with the result that the child concerned suffered socially as throughout their time at school they have worked and played with the children in the year above. Come the last year the child's friends had moved to the next school leaving leaving them no one to work or play with.

Our daughter was moved up a year from yr1, and whilst it did solve the immediate problem (when she was in reception/yr1 and fluent reader and being forced to sit through hours of basic phonics), it really only postponed it to a later date. And resulted in various friendship issues... given the benefit of hindsight, I wouldn't go down that route again!

I've had mine put of year group and have a friend with a child also ahead a year. It has had a negative knock on effect in many aspects. I've now put my eldest back in his year group and although he is bored witless (was bored anyway just even more bored) he is now thriving and being given the leadership roles and other responsibilities that he never got being the baby of the class. My friends son is the class clown and always seeking attention in order to fit in. He too is moving school and being put back in his year group. In both instances it's been the parents decisions as the schools have been fine. If I could go back in time I would have just put them in school from year 1 and missed out reception rather than move ahead a year. Actually, if I could do it all again I would have just home educated!

As for teachers being able to extend: we'll if the teacher has only got a basic C in GCSE Math and the sixth year old is already past that level then how can she extend?

I think socially it's a minefield, and often not the answer academically. Mine are all ith younger part if the year group anyway.,

Colleger- why shouldnt a decent eager be able to stretch a 6yr old with high level Maths skills? I would imagine self guided work would be a lot of the work anyway and the teachers role would be to direct study, not know all the answers

There is such a huge gap in ability and achievement between the highest and lowest ability at any given age that it's very a bit unrealistic to expect all teachers to be able to challenge all their pupils equally.

FWIW the (state) school our daughter will go to has 55 pupils in 2 classes. All the children progress at their own pace through the curriculum. The school is rated outstanding in all areas, and attainment is superlative. Age boundaries are a lot less important that you might think in the right environment. Maturity is more of an important factor imo. A bright but immature child may well experience social problems being moved up a year that a more mature one might not.

This is all really helpful. Supports my gut feeling-it's a problem of differentiation at the school. I've had children working at well above a year ahead of their chronological age, had to go as far as year nine work for a year six. But it's rarely across the board with associated advanced social maturity and so I've coped with it that way. Same as children who are working up to three years below their chronological age. Going up a year wouldn't have removed the need for differentiation which seems to have been the issue.

That said, I'm also sure that more flexibility would help lots of children who would be better suited outside their artificially imposed chronological year group. Can't happen unfortunately without throwing the system, especially state but private too into disarray.

They do it in my DS school on the regular basis - it is called to be "accelerated" :).
As it is a prep school, "accelerated" children spend last year being preped for scholarships exams.

DS was moved a year up after Christmas and to begin with it felt like he was thrown into the deep end as he obviously missed a whole year of teaching.
But he seemed to already caught up and done very well in the end of year exam.

Socially it was a bit of a challange but he is seemed to already esablished a group of friends and coping well.

I live in France and its fairly common for children to be put up or down a class according to ability. There are 120 children in Dd's school and 2 or 3 are ahead a year (including dd) and about 5 or 6 who have stayed back a year.
Thing is, it is taken very seriously. DD's teacher referred dd to the school psychologist who spent 3 full days with DD. She did IQ tests and also tested her maturity levels before advising us that she would fit in better with slightly older children.
DD is now 10 and has had a great primary school experience. She is still top of the class academically but gets on much better with her peer group than previously. She's off to secondary in September so we'll see how she gets on there but I'm pretty sure she'll be fine...

One of mine is a year ahead of himself, but has chosen not to go to university till next year when he's 18 (we're in Scotland). He's going to work for a year, so that he's in a group of people the same age as him when he goes but he has chosen to go straight into second year at University.

It hasn't been a problem for him till this last year at school.

I was a year ahead as a child and have been all the way up to A levels.
I hasn't been a problem at all for me but I was also more mature than my peers and therefore fitted better with that age group that with mine.

I would be very weary to move a child who isn't mature enough to cope with children a year older.
Eg: ds has been in a mixed class and was working with children a year ahead of him. He was well integrated because he was mature enough to 'fit in with them'. (As he was only playing with them at play time not with the children of the year he 'belonged' to, etc...)

Also depending on the admission criteria, they might end up doing Y6 again as the secondary school will not accept them.

I think really it does depend on the child and maturity as someone else said. My 6 year old, although not streets ahead across the board, is very able in all areas and in honesty is currently working mostly with the year 2 children (mixed ks1 group) so when they move up she will lose her friends (she also plays more with the Y2 girls) and a teacher passed comment that she didn't realise she wasn't Y2 which suggests she has the maturity beyond year 1. I feel she would be better in the year ahead as this shouldn't be such an issue later. We intend to send her to an independent prep next year where there is likely to be a higher proportion of brighter children in the class than there is in her year group.
I think my question has to be 1) if she is reading at an average end of year 3 level, how do you integrate the guided reading? Surely a book chosen for the top year 2 i.e. white/ lime will be too easy, when she can read Enid Blyton/ Roald Dahl???
She also knows much of the science curriculum already since before starting school.

DSs teacher commented at parents evening that he could easily move into Y3 (he is Y1 working in a Y2 class this year) as he is one of the most mature boys in the class and is academically able.

The independent Junior school had suggested a while back that they could think about him going into Y3 (they had no Y2 spaces at the time) but we were adamant that he needs to be with his correct age group. Both the school he is at now and the junior school differentiate really well so I don't think there is a major issues.

In an ideal world it would be better if he was able to work with a Y3 class or the academic stuff as it has been great for him this year and must be easier for the teachers.

Anxious is she the only child at that level? My DS is the only level 3 but there are a few that are not that far behind so I don't think its a major problem at his particular school.