Could you talk to me abot what happens in secondary schools with G&T children?

[KevinAndMe]

As I have no idea how the system works (Not british...).

Basically dc1 is starting secondary this year. He has spent most of his primary year being bored/finding things easy even though all the teachers have recognised that he is way ahead.

He has had one teacher with a solid background in maths/science who has commented that his knowledge & understanding in science was at GCSE level. He was in Y5... A lot of the other teachers just haven't been able to understand what the heck ke is going on about (and then some have grown quite ressentful about it).

Now this is a background where we have NOT being teaching him anything at home. He learnt from books and TV programs and asking questions.

Now that he is in Y7, what can I expect from school? They are streaming from Y7 in maths, Y9 in science but will that really be enough to finally challenge him a bit?
If not, what would you advise to do to keep him interested? I don't want to 'teach him' new concepts as such. This will just widen the gap even more. But what else could I do?

I agree. It will get better, and soon.

All your son experienced yesterday was the outcome of attempts to provide reassurance to everyone in a mixed ability class that they'll be able to cope at secondary school.

Do you know if the school will do / has already done CAT tests? (Cognitive Aptitude Tests i.e. IQ tests). If the school does them, then they will probably give the children a few weeks to settle down and then use the tests, plus what the teachers have witnessed regarding attitude to work and behaviour to sort the children into sets. Then the lesson content will improve dramatically.

No idea about CAT test but they do have a couple of maths test coming in the next 2 weeks to put them in sets.

It's not just the maths though. It's all the rest too. Eg in history, the teacher started to ask if anyone knew about the crusades. Big blank, apart from dc1 etc etc.

I know it's the start if the year so some children won't dare talking at all, even if they do know the answer. But for him, it was very disheartening. He is still feeling the odd one out iyswim

None of them have even ever watched robin hood?!

I know its disheartening, and maybe you are wondering if you've made a mistake. TBH i've asked myself that several times this last year too. Unless the school has really really low expectations (in which case you definitely HAVE made a mistake!), then it will get better.

Tell him he's not the odd one out. lots of children know that sort of stuff. Its just everyone feels quite shy on their first day.

I agree it's probably just to set the majority at ease. Dds school is selective, and on her induction and taster sessions they still did stuff below the level a child would need to be to even get a place, in order to set them at ease and account for kids that were nervous/shy. Not to mention that they still need to get to know the kids actual ability over the first few weeks.

Tell him to give it a couple of weeks. He'll probably find that most of the other kids didn't feel able to speak out yet. And everyone's finding their feet.

Does the school do UKMT Junior Maths Challenge? If he does well in the challenge you could ask the school if he could go on to the mentoring scheme in year 8. It would mean them providing a teacher to set and mark the work, but there are bound to be others in his year with the ability and enthusiasm to benefit from it.

What is the UKMT Maths Challenge?

Here is the website

They run 3 levels of challenge: junior, intermediate and senior throughout the year. Their questions challenge the students to think about how to solve maths problems. If you look on the mentoring section you can see what that involves as well as some past questions. Even if his school does not do it, it is still worth a look, because the past papers and mentoring questions provide depth of thinking to a student's maths skills.

I am not sure if this is what you are planning to do anyway, OP, but I strongly suggest giving it until at least the end of September before contacting the school, unless there is an urgent problem (such as bullying).

Schools seem to take it slow at first, probably to make the children feel at ease and to give the teachers an idea of ability (and who are the ones who can't sit still, and who are the ones who like to chat and who specifically needs to be well away from whom, etc., etc).

I think it will be October before you start to see what the school will really be like. Personally, I suspect that it may challenge your son for a while, but he'll soon get on top of the new work and be bored again. However, that's just a guess based on your description of primary.

Wait until it happens though, if it does happen at all. Otherwise your conversations will get you nowhere but may well make the school less open to listening and considering what you have to say.

no plan to go in just right now .

Tbh, I have been trying to adjust my expectations. I have always been told that teachers in Primary would adjust to the level of the child. My experience is that it's just not happening.

From what I can gather on this thread, it's not going to happen in Secondary either. At least now I know and I can stop hoping it will happen and concentrate on doing other things.

I will be keeping an eye on the sets and have a chat with the teacher in October, depending on what the results are and how dc1 is responding.

You are right that things will probably be OK (ish) for a while. You have the novelty of the organisation, different teachers etc...