Midyis

[Dannya]

Hello all

I’m new to the forum and would be very grateful for some advise regarding my 12 year old son. He is in his first year at a Scottish State school and I’m not sure whether the school is being supportive enough for his needs.

He has always been exceptionally good at maths, working some three years ahead of his peers at primary school, but now he’s gone to secondary school, everything is mixed ability and he’s very bored. They all follow the same work in the first year.

He has just had his Midyis Results and he scored 150 in maths!, but not quite so well in the other sections - 115 for vocab, 122 non verbal and 108 skills with an average of 134.

In your option do you think the school should do more to support him? We asked at parents evening and they fobbed us off and said they didn’t like pupils getting too far ahead. To put this into context, his school is in the top ten state schools in Scotland.

I didn't want to let your post go with no response.
Yes, it sounds like you have been fobbed off. And yes, of course they should be doing more. Whether they will or not is a different matter.
In England and Wales, the Department for Education policy/guidance is quite clear that individual provision should be made. My understanding is Education policy in Scotland has been devolved, though not with good results thus far. However I don't know the local policies well enough to comment on how they'd affect your situation.

Re: "they didn’t like pupils getting too far ahead". This practice/attitude is referred to in gifted education literature (generally with contempt) as "cutting down the tall poppies". See this paper by Gross.
You should ask yourself (and them) why they don't like pupils getting too far ahead (a.k.a. making progress commensurate with their ability). Is it for the administrative convenience of the school or the (supposed) benefit of the child? How do they think stagnating for several years will benefit your son and where is the research that supports their view?

It sounds to me like they are confusing equality of opportunity with equality of outcome. This is indefensible. To make an analogy, it's the difference between "everyone has a right to read books they find rewarding and interesting" and "everyone must read the same book".

If you want to supplement outside school (and you may find you have to), possible options might be:
Free:
nrich nrich.maths.org/
Brilliant brilliant.org/
UK mathematics trust: www.ukmt.org.uk/
MEI: mei.org.uk/

Subscription (generally £100 - 200 per year):
www.conquermaths.com/ . This goes up to around AS level.
equivalent packages based for the US market and going somewhat higher include:
art of problem solving : artofproblemsolving.com/
thinkwell www.thinkwell.com/
EPGY/ stanford : giftedandtalented.com/
CTY / Johns-Hopkins : cty.jhu.edu/ctyonline/index.html

apps:
dragonbox.com/ (has 2 cheap-ish apps covering algebra and geometry)

Books:
Anything by David Acheson, Ian Stewart, Tony Gardiner, Glenn Ellison worth a look. A few suggestions:
ellison
Gardiner
acheson
Stewart

Thank you very much for your honest and thorough reply.

I will look into the information you have provided. We are going to speak to the school again after the holidays using some of your arguments/points and see what they say. The school did tell us they have never had a pupil so far ahead and their system isn't set up for early entry of exams/extension work, rather they offer enhancement work round the topic the whole class is learning.

Thanks once again and Happy Christmas!,