What next?

[teeththief]

DS, y5, is brilliant at maths. Levelled at a L6 at the end of y4 but we were told that he is so capable and he could easily cope with GSCE maths if taught to that level. I don't 'do' maths, DH is quite good but doesn't know how they teach it. So, his teacher has said they really don't know what to do with him next year and asked what we want to happen. He's already completed the KS2 cirriculum after having lessons with the top y6's for the last 2 years.

What can we expect from them? Does anyone have experience of this?

I was very lucky to be able to home educate. Not everyone can.

OhYouBadBadKitten What was your experience of primary? Was your dd's ability recognised and catered for? If so, how did they assess her to know she was advanced at maths? IME the things dd did at home were not recognised as they did not teach to this level at school.

It was awful JustRichmal - they didnt assess her at all, it was so obvious that she was exceptional but because they didnt measure it at all they just said theyve had other very bright children and that if I wanted her catered for we would have to pay for a tutor. She cried a lot in school. If I'm completely honest I feel that we really let her down. But we didnt know what to do either, so we stretched her in music and hoped it would get better. I didnt realise that it didnt have to be like that.

Step change in secondary, within a couple of months they took her off the curriculum and gave her enrichment instead. Some bits more successfully than others (and one very crap teacher for part of a year) but overall, given the limitations of a large comp I think that they have been doing a good job.

Yes I know the feeling of letting them down. OTOH, you must have done something right if her enthusiasm for maths is still flourishing. It does seem, from the admittedly small anecdotal evidence in this thread, things do improve in secondary.

It does seem that in other countries mathematically minded children are better catered for; even encouraged and praised for their skills. While here children standing out from the crowd are a problem best dealt with by persuading them their abilities are the imagination of a pushy parent.

DS also yr 5 is v bright at maths and luckily at a private prep school where the head of maths gives him one-to-one teaching. Even so it is tricky to know what to do. We have talked to heads of maths of senior schools where he might go, who all immediately say "DON'T let him do GCSE early as he'll get bored jumping through hoops. Keep him interested.'

He does a lot of old Intermediate Maths Challenge papers. I think they are good because the questions are very varied and 'out of the box'. He is also learning coding... that might be a way to go?

PS But yes, be warned, teachers often do not understand. At his pre-prep, his teacher was flummoxed by him and kept saying 'He's memorised all these big sums'. She couldn't seem to get that he was calculating, not memorising.

Yes, I had similar when I looked round primaries and told teachers she could already read. One said she was probably just memorising books. I felt like saying, "Well, she's memorised about 50, several of which she's never seen before."

How many sums did they think your son had memorised? Surely such feats of memory are more remarkable than mere calculation.

I like UKMT material and their advice for educating able mathematicians.
Balanced and wise: Enrichment not accelleration.
www.ukmt.org.uk/about-us/able-students-policy/