Starting secondary school a year early.

[Mumski45]

I was wondering if anyone on here has made the decision to send their DC to secondary school a year early and if so what were your reasons. I am considering this for DS2 but have lots of questions such as

• what are the benefits

• what are the downsides
• how do I go about it

- do i need the support of the primary school or just the secondary school - should he miss year 5 or year 6 (currently in year 4) - will he have to take the SATS a year early or can he miss them out Am also interested to hear from anyone who considered this but made the decision not to in the end. Thanks in advance to those who take time to give me your thoughts.

Thank you so much everyone for your experiences and thoughts. Despite it not being possible to "extrapolate" from others experiences your comments have definitely helped me think through the issues.

In particular thanks to Ilikebeanswithketchup for the suggestion of a CAT test. I am going to look into this with the school - and to chopchopchop for the hint about the Iowa Acceleration Scale. As suggested I have researched this and am considering buying the literature (not an easy decision as it is pricey) but in doing the research I found this report which looks like some interesting bed time reading. I also found reference to a scale which gives a measure of "giftedness" and refers to different approaches for children at different levels of the scale. EG a moderately gifted child would be about 3 in 100, whereas a highly gifted child would be a 7 in 1000 etc. If I could determine where DS sits in this scale then that would give me an idea as to whether "enrichment" or "acceleration" would be the best approach for him.
All I need to do now is work out where he is on the scale maybe the CAT testing will help with this.

That's relatively straightforward, as a decent Educational Psychologist will be able to test and give you a report which will tell you exactly that. We did this, and it was in fact the EP's report which suggested skipping as we hadn't considered this before. There are a couple who specialise in gifted kids but it's not usually too difficult to find someone in your area.

You might also find this useful.

In the meantime and independent of researching school and year moves - a couple of suggestions for enrichment just in case they aren't already on your radar. (read the beginning of the thread a while back sorry if I'm repeating stuff!)

The nrich maths site is great for children at all levels, and he might be able to take problems from it in to school to work on when he has run out of things to do. I'd also strongly recommend getting him music lessons if at all possible.

My DH and friend both did this. Not a lot of difference one way or other.
The woman did a longer degree but it all comes out in the wash so to speak.
If you want extra work and to be challenged I would suggest doing additional reading at home so he gets a well rounded education. How about doing another language if he has spare time?
I see far too many clever grads who have no clue what is going on in the world because they are so tutored. It is a shame for them.

I have 3 DDs. Dd1 and DD2 both skipped in primary ( more common in France than the UK) DD1 went to secondary not long after her 10th birthday. She was small for her age so was tiny compared to the others. She coasted through school without being exceptional. Had some anxiety issues in her final year (don't know if age was a cause) but has got into a good Uni. It is now that the age really shows. I wish she had been a year older. She is really struggling living on her own.

DD2 needed to be pushed academically to stop her annoying the rest of the class (borderline HA) . She has continued to excel - is top of her class, has no problems socially and is very happy. Her chosen path will mean 2 more years in a boarding school environment so age won't be an issue there.

So right decision for one but maybe not for the other. Overall I am pleased that DD3 hasn't skipped. She thinks that maybe it is because she isn't as clever as her sisters - but she maybe the cleverest of the lot.

I suppose every child is different when it comes to social interaction but I wonder how much of it is down to age or being in a new environment.

A November born child is only 4 months younger than August born child. If they are nor physically smaller will they not just blend in with the rest of the class if one does not keep emphasising to them that they are the youngest?
Just wondering.

If I could determine where DS sits in this scale then that would give me an idea as to whether "enrichment" or "acceleration" would be the best approach for him.

Bear in mind that this report is (a) controversial and (b) was written for the US education system, which is completely different from the UK education system. In particular, the US education system is considerably behind the UK education system, especially in primary. So a child who is so ahead in the US that acceleration might be a reasonable option would not necessarily be ahead in the UK system.

And furthermore acceleration is much more common in the US than in the UK, so these percentages have very little meaning in the context of the UK system.

More generally, just because a child is in the top x% in terms of ability, this does not mean that acceleration is the right choice. My DC are very high percentile in intelligence and ability but they have different personalities and socialise differently. Despite having very similar testing profiles, different school choices are appropriate for them.

I know of 2 examples (I was one of them, my nephew is the other). Both times not successful socially and no long term benefit academically. In both cases we opted to remain our original year later on - me by taking a year off before university so want just 17 when I got there, dn by delaying entry to sixth form for a year (home schooled for GCSES).
Really wouldn't recommend.

Sorry that should read: rejoin our original year

I do think it makes a difference if they are at the older end of the year. My dd is summer born, so would have been nearly 2 years younger than some of her classmates, had we agreed to accelerate her. She is small for her age as well. For an autumn-born child, the gap obviously isn't quite so great.

True biscuit Dn and I are both summer borns so maybe we fared particularly badly because of that.

I can only speak from personal experience where I went to secondary a year younger. Academically I wasn't challenged in secondary, however, socially it was a massive problem and as an 11 year old in a class of 12-13s, I was severely bullied and it was really only when I went to university that I actually got past that.

Firstly, I don't know anyone who has done this in recent years. When I was in primary schools - in Canada - yes some children were moved up a year and other children were kept back and repeated a year. Either way, I don't think it's a good idea generally. I don't know about bullying much, in my experience those who were moved on a year tended to have very few friends.

DS is of the 'high ability' category and it wouldn't even occur to me to move him up a year, as I prefer to focus on extra curricular activities to stimulate him and we don't do any tutoring, or extra support academically at all. He plays various sports, is taking coding lessons and plays three musical instruments, which is making him very happy at the moment. Our school discussed with us that he could move up a year in Maths but we didn't want him to. They are all very personal decisions. I just think that he is a very happy little boy but also fiercely independent and want to learn at his own rhythm, if we push him there is a risk that he will be unhappy.

For us, acceleration wasn't the right choice. Each to their own though.

A little boy from our primary did this and he got into the only selective school in the city.

He scored the highest pass mark when he was still 9! I've heard he is still doing amazing and thriving.

His sister applied last year but didn't make the mark. This boy is extremely gifted and some of the teachers said that they would only expect to see 1/2 like him throughout their whole careers.

I know his mum. She is extremely academic. I've seen his dad at school but don't know him or what he does.

They are immigrants and the mum told me that they have always pushed him hard to achieve his potential. Seems to have worked.

When I moved countries at the age of 14 I was assessed and new school decided to place me one year group ahead. Whilst i am summer born it didn't make a difference to my social life. If anything I would have felt even more at home a couple of years ahead. Girls in general tend to have older boyfriends and then hang out with their bf's friends and my bfs at school had always been 4 years older than me. I then started uni at 17 which again was not an issue, I think I would have been ready at 16. I was still top of class, but never have been gifted. In fact, I am positively useless at standardised tests and all kinds of puzzles. I ended up at Oxford and Princeton and enjoyed it so much that I stayed on to do my doctorate.
So when I eventually left uni I was actually older than most graduates, so it all evens out in the end

DS2 is twice exceptional (2e). He attends internet school and has just started iGCSEs in 11 subjects. He is 12 and would have just started year 8 in a brick school.

He tried brick secondary for the first term last year and it was a disaster - he had to be signed off by his GP. He wasn't even due to be in top set for maths even though his maths tutor says he would get close to 100% in GCSE now. He works at twice the speed of his iGCSE class and is set extra work to allow the rest of the class to catch up.

The social is invisible and he fits in fine with text based interaction with other DC in the live lessons.

My dd skipped a year (from 8 to 10) and I am therefore wondering if her younger sibs should be skipped earlier while in primary as they are also both significantly ahead too!

I would certainly look at the possibility carefully at the time of moving to secondary. My dd has a terrible year 8 as she was not stimulated coupled with feeling out of the water socially, being so much more mature than her peers. She functions at least one year older in all areas and looks a lot older than her chronological age too!

We were pushed by the school to skip dd as she was testing academically at the top of the year above the one she was in. We wouldn't have thought of doing it but it was totally the right decision.

They were trying hard to stretch her within her true year group. They have several schemes for extending girls ( results focussed single sex school). But recognised it was actually socially as much as academically she needed to move.

There is a lot of information available at the following sites:

www.accelerationinstitute.org/

www.hoagiesgifted.org/acceleration.htm

www.pegy.org.uk/acceleration.html

education.arts.unsw.edu.au/media/EDUCFile/Releasing_the_Brakes_Overview_A4__Nov2011.pdf

Regarding acceleration / year skipping decisions for an individual child:

1. Iowa acceleration scale:
   www.accelerationinstitute.org/Resources/IAS.aspx

2. International guidelines on Suitability for Accelerated Progression (see appendix 1 of the article):
   www.davidsongifted.org/Search-Database/entry/A10487