IQ test fallout

[Au79]

Sorry, long...

Ok imagine I have 2 kids, coming from very academic family. Younger one has always been in-your-face clever, it's very plain to relatives friends teachers parents. Reads obsessively and incessantly.

Older one has done fine, above average with flashes of brilliance in areas that grab her, but often seems away with the fairies, teachers don't rate her as very special but some are impressed with some products-like I said, as long as they are among the few that appeal to her wide and quirky interests.

Both want IQ tests out of sheer curiosity, so I have two done, one English language based and one non verbal, by a well known provider, supervised, official-not a full Ed Psych job just a taster (me economising!). I had thought about it in the past but the £500 each put me off.

Now just say that younger got to top 1% of the population (age normed) in the English based only. Elder got top 1% in both.

Ya ya I know this means nothing, very narrow, dated, etc but that said, assume they are both chuffed and it has boosted their confidence (and mine-I've always said number 1 was just as quick just not so focused and obvious).

What would happen if I told school about it, in anyone's experience? Good and bad stories or failing that your predictions? I'm talking about KS3 secondary school and an underestimated child who is having some underachievement and alienation (before the test!) issues.

Honestly, I don't think the school will be that interested. Nice for you and DDs to know, but if she is underachieving, there are other issues that need to be addressed, surely?

Cool. Unfortunately our current education system doesn't cater for some of the more creative, non-conformist intelligent types. You may have to look at extra-curricular activities for her, e.g. music/art/drama/sport, to see what she can thrive in.

Mmm...interesting one.

First of all, I would ask myself if the school already knew. Many schools do CATS or similar, particularly in KS3. Are they simply keeping this information to themselves?

I think I would be interested, in your shoes, to establish why DC1 is not achieving as she might. Is there a working memory problem? Or maybe a processing speed problem? Your expression 'away with the fairies' could point to one of these and mean that she drifts off in class. Equally, she could simply be a bit of an introvert, highly creative and bored! How far adrift was the NVR? A large gap could indicated a problem.

As far as DC2 is concerned I would want to know that with that sort of ability DC is achieving in line with expectations. With that sort of ability you would expect them to be doing very well indeed.

Oops, forgot to answer main part of the question!

We did discuss with school. The school were receptive, but then we knew that they would be already. It did not make a huge amount of difference but was useful in a 'the more we know about your child, the better' sort of way. It has also been useful in asking for extra support, but then the school do test anyway and shares the information with the parents. We already had this information before moving our DC.

I think a lot comes down to the culture of the school, their attitude to more able children and their approach to the parent partnership.

Hi and thanks for all the views and input. It's really nice to have some human beings to talk to about all this! It's the eldest I'm focused on right now, who has scored top 1% in both types of test, and yes I agree maybe more types of tests might be useful like processing speed. But I do think IQ is a big part of it- she feels a freak, isolated, also summer born which has knocked confidence in some areas -hence the boost to her to know she is very smart, not crazy. It's hard to say much to school when she regularly tops the class in most subjects, it's not a bad school but it's not academically stunning in my eyes. She hands in stuff she would have been ashamed of in infants, and still gets okay marks. Most of the classes aren't set and there are kids on level 3 (which she got age 6) for reading/maths in her class (y 9). It's a big comp and trying hard to be inclusive which I agree with in general, but they don't do well with the outliers-and maybe this is why she doesn't quite gel-she's a outlier in more ways than one .

On the other hand they clearly have got the wind up about ofsted now looking at able kids achievement not just D to C success- so I am thinking of trying to communicate. She is disorganised and prone to give up at any criticism real or imagined. She is doing so many things that she is worn out but won't hear of cutting back or prioritising.

The younger got 14% in NVR so not shabby - it's funny how she is the one everyone twigs is bright and her primary school has worked hard to keep her engaged, plus I think she is just more focussed and finds school work rewarding. She does talk more. They both do well in maths now it is more interesting so the NVR doesn't seem to measure that much in their case.

You should have a look at the Potential Plus (NAGC) on under attainment and DME.

All three of mine are supposedly g&t - however the one who always made everyone go "ooh, he's very clever" from a very young age is the eldest who was very advanced verbally. He had an IQ test done at primary as part if an investigation into why he wasn't producing work which matched up to his teachers' perceptions of him and his score was in the top 0.2%. As he matured his work started to match his potential, however (and it's a very big however) he still underperforms. His GCSE targets were all A*s, he got 5 but the rest were As and a couple of Bs. He still gets sky-high scores in CAT tests but they're easy for him as he doesn't actually have to concentrate or learn stuff. On some ways knowing he's very bright has been a bit of a millstone - he sea convinced that everyone he meets will automatically be assured of his brilliance (!) but doesn't appreciate that he will be competing with a lot of other bright teenagers who have actually proved they can match their potential. If your dd's confidence needed boosting it's not a bad thing for her to know her score, but without concentrating and working hard it's fairly meaningless

Incidentally, the other two are much less 'flashily' bright but will almost certainly outperform their big brother in exams

All ours have had them done as part of a psychological assessment (one has mild dyslexia but has done really well at school and another dyspraxia which did not stop them graduating - both work hard and are fairly bright but needed extra time or to type the exam papers). I did not tell the school about the IQ test level although they needed the reports for the extra time or right to type the paper application and I assume most schools do their own IQ tests anyway.
Some would not tell children the scores so the children do not compare themselves with siblings.

KS3 is horrible - the wilderness years. A lot of DC think that they are the only one like 'that' . By KS4 they have usually come through it and found others like themselves or found understanding mates.

It might be an idea to work with DC1 on 'effort' rather than 'achievement'. You can only get by on raw talent for so long. A few years from now, when she is out of her small goldfish bowl, she will find that there are an awful lot of other clever people out there that she is up against. In your average school year there are 500,000 pupils. Being top 1% means there are 4,999 just like you out there, some of whom are very focussed. If she wants to do something with this cleverness then she needs to up her game (but she's got plenty of time yet. I'm trying to sound encouraging without being too harsh, but probably failing miserably).

I'm not quite sure what you expect the school to do with the IQ data. They already know she is getting top in tests.
It might be better to phrase it differently: not "I have proof she is clever, what are you going to do about it" but "what data do you have on DC1, what is the plan for her. Let's discuss this together"