What is your experience of G and T in primary school?

[ProfessorGrammaticus]

My DS1 has been marked by the school as G and T. This was not at my request - it seems to be in an effort to get access to extra resources for him. The teacher who has his class (yr2) does not seem too sure what difference this will make in practice. I wondered what other primary schools did?

I know DS1 will not want a big song and dance made (nor would I) but on the other hand, he is beginning to get bored in lessons and I would not want this to continue.
I would like to know what experience others have had and am crossing my fingers for a constructive and maybe even supportive thread

The state schools where we live are extremely inflexible about out-of-year placements. I don't know anyone who's been advanced, though I do know a handful of children with special needs and late summer birthdays who have petitioned the LEA to be held back.

There are a number of very able children in DS2's class, so the teacher is differentiating on a daily basis.

Eek! It is a "done deal" now (as soon as we said yes this morning they said he can move tomorrow!), so I guess I need to poll around the three possible village schools (all more or less the same distance away) and see what they think - at least then we will know whether we have to prepare ourselves for him "repeating" a year at some stage. Actually I effectively did that myself - moving from a montessori primary to a very straight-laced secondary school - I "learnt" nothing for a year - but did learn how to survive in a very different school, write neatly, take tests, etc - all the things not important to Montessori's - and it stood me in good stead for the rest of my education. I think (I hope!) a year repeated later will do less harm than him getting bored / demotivated now.

I'm afraid that LEAs look at when the child's b'day is and not how close to the cut off they are. That said-if you are looking at small schools then going back to his age appropriate year group may be less of a big deal. As SG has said, a good teacher should be used to providing differentiated work.

Hope he's happy in his new class.

Quite a lot of small schools have mixed age classes, which I think can work out well for bright children in the lower age group. Your LEA may be different anyway!

Hope your son enjoys his Reception year.

I guess all I can do is talk to the heads of the various schools and see how we go.

On the basis of one day's experience, DS says reception is "more fun" than the nursery class - so, so far so good!

"Well in the private sector clever children are called "clever" and put in the scholarship class and get a scholarship or two and an extra A level in the end. And then go to Oxbridge.Seems a much more sensible way of dealing with it.Don't need a whole topic for that, really"

That's the environment my children have been in. Daughter 2's school was North London Collegiate. There were reasonably clever girls there like my daughter and then those who are so bright it's amazing and they will get 11A* GCSEs and go to Oxbridge but the point is that they were stretched from 5 or 7, first by just being in a class where there was so much academic competition to get into the school in the first place and then by not being allowed any coasting at all because they can work at the level they want.

The very gifted will get full academic scholarships to a private school with full fees paid if their parents are poor enough.

I do wonder if G&T is just a kind of trendy label in the state sector which is all about money. Are the gifted really just those who would have had an IQ of 120 and passed the 11+ and got to university in the old days rather than being truly gifted.

Xenia

Are you saying it is a good thing to be stretched from an early age then?

Exbury - would be keen to know how your ds gets on, sounds similar to mine (also a Nov birthday in Reception)

New to Mumsnet DS has been labelled as G&T even though he has just started primary school. Been put on an Individual education programme but they think he may be suffering on the socialising side of things with the other children in his class he tends to want the attention of the adults more. They says it's him searching for someone at the same level as he is but to me he seems to get on well with other children. Some of the targets they have set him still seem not to be strtching him but I don't want to sound like a pushy parent any suggestions?

Ds is G&T . At his junior school he was one of 6 kids out of over 300 who was flagged up as such.

Th six were taken out of lessons one afternoon a week and expected to work independantly on a project (different subject each term) . At the end of the term they made a presentation to their invited parents and a couple of representatives of the charity which funds G&T at his school.

Honestly I dont think it stretched him or improved him. It seemed to be more a question of the school looking like they were providing support rather than actually provding it.

Btw he is 13 now and in a senior school with no G&T provision.

I think G&T extra support is very patchy indeed

" Been put on an Individual education programme but they think he may be suffering on the socialising side of things with the other children in his class he tends to want the attention of the adults more. "

we let him stay where he is and learn to get on wiht peopel his age.

he is only an infant fgs

He is still in with his class they don't take him out or anything they just do his new tasks within the class. Don't get me wrong I'm not trying to alienate him from the other children at all but it can be frustrating when he comes home and tells me what he has done at school and realising that he is going over and over things that has already done!

Bump for WillowCatkin - it would be good to compare notes... DS is doing OK and it was definitely the right decision overall, but they do seem to have hit a phase where they start finding things to tease each other about - so DS is being teased about the fact that they will all be 5 before him. He seems to have been placated by the fact that his cousin will have a whole month longer to wait than him - how is your DS doing?