Year 5 child working with year 6 class for core subjects

[Ididntseeitsoitdidnthappen]

Hi this may seem like a premature worry but my DC is about 18months ahead of their age in terms of targets and the core subjects. This has meant they have been working with the year above for these subjects which is all well and good, but they're now Y5 and are matching the Y6 in ability especially in maths. We are stretching her at home with Bond books etc but what can the school do to help?

What support should we be asking for and expect for this and next year?

Thanks

What can the school do to help??

Get it's act together and differentiate properly! Absolutely no reason why more able year 5s should be learning with the year 6s.

Yeah that's my thought process but it's how they operate the kids flow through the years so they're learning more at their ability than at their age iyswim. It's good for the less able kids but not so good for the brighter ones

Is it a very small school?

Not especially. 50 pupil intake a year.

DS has just gone into yr5 & is very strong in reading, literacy and especially maths (working higher than expected levels for end of yr6) & he has never gone into the year above.

It is made easier as he is in a very strong year group (for maths especially) so the more able kids are stretched together within their year group.

Does your DD have other kids at a similar level to work alongside with?

My dd is also in year 5. She is working well above the expected levels for year 6, but it has never been necessary for her to work with the year above. Differentiation is provided in her own class. I think it's much better that way.

Id love it if she learnt alongside her peers it wouldn't ostracise her so much

18 months ahead of age-related targets cannot be unusual, especially in a school of that size, so the school should definitely be able to cater for her within her normal class. Can you talk to them about this?

I would be quite concerned if she is getting ostracised by her peers - this really shouldn't happen and suggests that the school may not be very good at handling differences in ability. Taking her out of class really won't help - and I say this as a child who was moved up to the year above in primary school.

Just to add, our school is quite subtle in the way it differentiates, despite a very wide range of abilities in the classroom. No kid wants to feel like a freak!

Are they taught in classes of about 25 or do they have something like a year 6 class with 30 pupils and a mixed year 6/5 class with 20 year 6 and 10 year 5?

It can be difficult for schools with intakes which are not multiples of 30 to have single year group classes as it is obviously more expensive to have 25 to a class than 30.

DC1 started school reading despite being summer born and did phonics with yr 1, and then when she was in yr1, with yr2. I worried about what would happen in yr2 as couldn't go into juniors as v different learning style but she had great teacher who pushed/ pulled/ cajoled/ encouraged appropriately and kept her learning curve going within her class peers which helped her socially. It is possible, just need staff to be inboard and aware. The worst thing is for child to be demotivated. Good luck.

Thanks for your responses it's a whole class of y5 then a 5/6 class with the brighter 5's in the split class and then the top lot of those doing the core subjects in the 'pure' 6 class if that makes sense?

I think it's so the 6's in the 5/6 class can recap the 5 level learning

We had a similar situation - dc and two classmates have been covering year 6 work since year 4. They loved year 5 as they were working at true year 6 work (ds did an internal assessment of a level 5 SATs paper in May and got 97% ).

I was more concerned about this year, as he has already covered the work twice, but his group are now doing extension work - algebra, binary code and base systems so far. He's loving it!

its next year you want to start asking about
(bitter)
ds just got to re-do year 5, essentially

With DD1 (who went to Middle school) the school liaised with local secondaries to bring in suitable work for able children - no teaching in other groups, they stayed with their own class.

By the time DD2 hit Yr5 we were 2-tier but her school just differentiated, they brought in a specialist TA to do more advanced maths and both Yr 5/6 teachers had experience teaching up to Yr8. It wasn't a problem.

My DS is y5 and finished y4 a L6+ in maths. He's now going up to the local secondary school with 2 y6's twice a week for maths. I was dubious at first (due to the 'school should be able to cope with them MN attitude) but he's enjoying it and thriving massively so I'm happy

At the risk of making this into a "Well my child can do x, y and z!" thread, DD is in year 6 and is, according to her teacher, working at a GCSE grade c level in literacy. No talk of her joining high school for lessons, just good differentiation in a normal state primary.