Does anyone flexi school because school isn't enough?

[RoboJesus]

How did it work for you? Was it hard to get the teachers onboard? Could you have your child sit out of yer exams in the school? I'm trying to look into whether doing it would be a realistic possibility or not

@RoboJesus

you don't understand the system at all.

It is easy and pointless to have 8 high grade GCSEs by the time you are 12. (As don't exist any more)

However, the only ones a sixth form or university will count are ones taken together over a 12 month period, ( sometimes and 18 month period)

all others can be discounted, and will be for any highly competitive course.

I enrol for A level courses, we discount totally maths A*s taken below the age of 15! You can't use that to get onto a maths A level course, you have to retake it.In fact, you need a maths GCSE taken with at least 4 other GCSEs in the same sitting to get on A levels, so even if you are not doing maths A level, you still need to resit maths to get into ANY A level course)

( similar for any other subject...)

You really don't know much

If a kid can get an A* or whatever it is in Maths before the age of 15, they are very welcome to do A Level Maths at my school or any previous schools that I worked at. I would bend over backward to have that child going to my school and do everything in my power so they are taught by the best mathematicians in the school.

The UK school system in general does not deal very well with extreme outliers. I can’t give much advice as I only know about my subject, ie Maths. If your DC is good in every subject then I have no idea how to deal with that to be honest.

My daughter is g and t. She's done very well in state system. Village primary, joint years, 80 ish kids in total, huge spectrum of ability. Had the best time. It's not all about academic learning, it's the friendships, school trips, school plays. They all make for a more rounded child. She was given additional work by the teachers. They know their job and work with the abilities of the kids. From there she flew through the 11+ un tutored and into ss grammar. She met amazing kids there and has had the best education we could have wished for. Now off to Oxford - something we would never have dreamed about when she was little. What I'm trying to say is let her go to school and make friends and enjoy the experience it gives her. Don't get hooked up on levels and reading ages, they really don't matter at her age. Let her enjoy her childhood for what it is. Exams happen, there's no rush. Dd' s school don't allow kids to take any early, they say there's no point. Just let her be a happy little well rounded girl with a loving family

The UK school system in general does not deal very well with extreme outliers

but the issue is, getting maths GCSE early is not an indication of ability, especially no indication of being an outlier.

It tells you far more about the parenting than it does about the child's mathematical ability. The child will still be required to demonstrate mathematical ability by retaking maths GCSE in circumstances in which they are not able to concentrate soley on maths, and they are not being given extra attention and intervention to support their maths.

In other words, as part of a normal, concentrated GCSE load of 5-12 exams taken together. 5 being the absolute minimum, this is what would be expected of children of lower than average academic ability.

If you take one GCSE every 6 months for 6 years, you would be expected to have 12 top grades, nothing there to show any academic potential, ability or anything at all, other than a parent mad keen on accumulating GCSEs in the easiest way possible

Claire Dd has gone on to A level maths. It depends on the school. She will not be resitting GCSE.
getting maths GCSE early is not an indication of ability
It is an indication that the child has the ability to do GCSE maths, otherwise they would not have passed. Any GCSE results are gained due to a combination of genetic aptitude and education. The GCSE exams taken at any age only test a child's ability, not how they came by that ability.

@robojesus... Please listen to the posters who have come on, like me, and said they have very gifted children and they sent them to school, and expanded their education and interests at home.
We seem to universally say our children are happy, we'll rounded and confident and have done brilliantly well.
What more do you want for your little boy?
Go and watch the documentaries about child prodigies... See how many turned out Normal, happy, successful not only in careers, jobs but in life... Not many.
Try to turn you focus to what you need to do to support your talented child to be a happy child rather than the kudos of how many early gcse he gets.

Dd has gone on to A level maths. It depends on the school.

I am glad it worked out for her, you can't guarantee that though

The GCSE exams taken at any age only test a child's ability,

not if taken one by one, that is the issue, you cannot compare 10 GCSEs taken one by one with 10 taken in one sitting

A perspective- I Home educate a child who is ahead in areas (maths, history, science mainly but strong in reading).

The social side is fantastic. He tried school, he actually switched off from learning a lot, and his lack of progress was obvious. Home educated he thrives in his strong areas, maths if he wanted to he’ll be GCSE ready soon. However he also has a wonderful time in many activities, some of which involve acting his age (or younger...) with peers and playing a lot. I’d admit freely that whilst he loves learning he is poor at doing it at a directed rate at a set time, he buggered out a bit.

Personally I think flexi-schooling is the worst of both worlds. You end up neither following your own tailored curriculum or really getting involved in Home ed opportunities but being stuck in semi-school and having to fit to it and missing important bits. Many lessons rely on building in learning, eg planning stories and developing them or starting art projects etc. I think it’s pointless, I’ve never seen a family post age 5/6 stick at it long

The problem is, children can be taught maths and science at a much quicker pace than they are taught it at school. There seems to be two conflicting ideas: Go at the pace school goes, because that's what everyone else does or go at the pace your child has the potential to go at. As a parent, you have to decide which is best.

I'm not sure why OP doesn't concentrate on finding out about homeschooling. All that will happen at school is that she will make herself and her child unpopular at school if she is constantly harping on about how poor the school is and how her child is not learning anything. Her attitude will rub off on her child. They won't get much out of the social side of school if her child has been taught s/he is so much better than the other children, that they are too stupid to understand, that she read those books when she was 6months old etc. There are many homeschool clubs and groups that would deal with socialisation. Concentrate on them. You have clearly decided already that school is not the right place so it's better for the unfortunate catchment school and your DC if they don't go.

I hope your little star’s ability to express himself is radically better than yours, op?
I never saw such fudging from someone who actually starts the threads.

Just stick your kid in school and let them be fgs.

theredjellybean
You speak so much sense and are very much like many of the parents of able children we meet.

If I had an exceptionally talented 13 year old in my Year 9 class, I would deliberately argue against putting them in for GCSE early, not out of some professional conspiracy as the OP would suggest, but because I can think of many better ways to stretch and challenge that child in ways that go far beyond answering GCSE questions. I'd like to think that means that when they hit GCSE that the accelerated and higher level content allows then to access the highest marks at GCSE with greater ease and promote a general ethos of scholarship in my area.

Situation A- Parents like you would get that and be all up for the hollistic development of your child.
Situation B - Parents like the OP would claim their child is so intrinsically awesome they would gain nothing.

Over time, Situation A students are the ones who thrive and have amazing attitudes to learning, are well rounded, make the most of a range of extra-curriculars, develop special talents and develop socially and emotionally. Parents and teachers develop brilliant open professional relationships, challenges can be discussed and It's wondeful.

Situation B students tend to end up risk adverse, learn intelligence is about being 'better' than others, shy away from challenging work because it challenges the idea of 'mummy says I am smarter than all the other children because I am gifted and find work too easy. They tend to end up quite anxious, worn down by the pressure and expectations of home and end up less socially and emotionally in touch with peers. Situation B parents aren't interested in dialogue witj professionals unless it involves accepting their parental view of giftedness. If anyone challenges parent B, they become defensive, argumentative and if all else fails start claiming schools couldn't possibly deal with their child's brilliance (or on extreme cases start arguing that teachers feel inadequate and threatened by their child which is why they are deliberately trying to prevent their child learning).

You don't need to be a genius to see which set up is best.

Maisypops... Did you teach my dd2????

We have had mixed responses over her yrs at school. Some teachers pushed to put her up yrs... But I always said no.. You stretch her within her peer group. It's not good for kids to be out of social sync imo.
Others have been brilliant at developing projects and self directed learning for her and other able pupils to really stretch them and teach them new skills while keeping them within the class setting.

I think the OP is setting herself up for misery and an unhappy friendless little boy.
My dd certainly struggled at times with being brighter than peers, and often couldn't grasp why they weren't at her level. Teaching her that not everyone is good at everything and her friends had talents she didn't, and how to be kind and tolerant with others was imo the most valuable lesson a gifted child can be taught.
It is the child that needs cherishing and rejoicing in, not the IQ.

Maisiepops.. You sound a fantastic teacher.

OP... I do sympathise, and think your posts probably come from a place of fear... You don't want to let your son down, your rightly very proud of his ability, you want him to achieve greatness.. You want everyone else to see this too.. I felt the same, but behind the amazing brain is just a little boy, the same as every other little boy

Maisy you are assuming that the OP will tell their kid that. They might think like that doesn’t mean they will teach their kid to think like that.

I have "profoundly gifted" relatives who have done absolutely fine in state comps, or state grammars

she did say to me on a few occasions ..l never learnt anything in school l didn't know already when she was in Primary

My son (who was on g&t register at primary, and still is at secondary, although it’s meaningless imo) used to say this a lot. I’ve never believed that he was correct even if he genuinely believes this. I think what actually happened is that he either grasped new stuff so quickly that he felt as if he already knew it, or it tied in with bits of knowledge and understanding he already had. There is no way he would have picked up EVERYTHING before meeting it at school. I say this both as his mother (so I had a pretty good idea of what he learned outside school) and as a primary teacher who knows the curriculum.

hope
Perceptions can be interesting.

To give an anecdote (suitably anonymised obviously)
Once I gave a mixed ability ks3 class some a level style questions, had extension prompts for the top and support routes through to structure planning/thinking for more ks3 students.
During student once one child (quite able but with an over inflated sense of their ability thanks to home) began to lecture me on how unfair it was that all pupils did the same task because there wasn't anything for top students. Amusingly enough, that student was decidedly mid-field in the group.
Every parents' evening their parents spent ages lecturing staff about how we don't do enough, they want work second marking because we're too harsh on their child because we want to hold them back (same old shit that the OP was parroting).

Gifted and talented, what a misnomer!
Having a very high IQ isn't a gift, in fact in many ways it can be a curse! It's a biological thing, like blue eyes or a big nose.
Having a high IQ is not a talent.
Talents stop being talents if they are not practiced repeatedly. No matter how high an IQ is, a child still needs to learn. Babies are not born with the ability to pass exams. They have to be taught HOW to do it. I have 2 adult daughters. One has a much higher IQ than the other. The one with the lower IQ earns double than her sister. She has a more sociable personality, is very gregarious and is very hard working. Her sister is quieter, less sociable but can pass exams with minimal effort. Compared to their peers both are very successful. G +T has been proven to be very limiting in educational terms.

You clearly will not answer the tricky questions about assessments done on your genius child, therefore you have lost all credibility. You're just bragging!

It’s rare b cause it effects school attendance records.

There is more to a child than their IQ. Stand back and let your child learn to mix with others.

My DGS is very bright - but he is in an ordinary primary school where he learns to understand that others may not find it all so easy. He has been learning compassion and kindness through his primary experience and I believe his parents have been very wise indeed to prioritise acceptance by his peers and learning caring skills. The others love him and call him The Prof!! - and they know that he will help them if they ask in a non-patronising way.

Children who are that bright will make their way whatever. What this young man will be is a rounded lovable human being.

No need to hot house your child. I doubt he will thank you for it.

Gifted and talented, what a misnomer!

"talented" used to mean in the top 10% in particular subject, could be anything, knitting, roller blading, anything.

"gifted" used to mean either in the top 10% of more than one subject, eg knitting AND roller blading, or ( depending on the school or council policy) being in the top 10% of a core subject, English maths or science.

The cohort you had to be in the top 10% of was normally your year group in that school, so in other words, when I taught in a school for children with learning difficulties, all of whom were in the lowest 5% of the general population, the top 10% of each year group was G and T.

In other words, it meant nothing in terms of the general population. In a class of wheel chair using children, the ones who could get out and crawl on all fours were "talented" in PE, etc.

It was a requirement of a school to show that they had identified their most able students and were offering them something a bit extra.

These things go in cycles, however. "differentiation" fell out of favour on the grounds that it doesn't give everybody the same opportunity, demonstrates lower expectations for some students, etc.

The next time differentiation came round, G and T was no longer the preferred term. Now its "maggots". Maggots are the "More Able, Gifted and Talented" and represent the top 20-25 % in every year group.

This too will pass...

Yes claire.
At one school I worked at the G&T students were top set... and top set was a C/D borderline class.
Meanwhile in my current mixed ability KS3 class I can happily give extended essays to the whole class and only 1 is identified as MAT.
This too will pass...
Indeed. Too true.
And teachers will continue to get to know the students in front of us and help them make progress.
And the majority of supportive parents will continue to be lovely, rational human beings capable of professional, respectful dialogue.
And the minority who want to was lyrical about their child's giftedness and why schools are useless and teachers fear their exceptional (probably a bit above average) child which is why we want to hold them back will continue to be the pushy, unreasonable ones who are a PITA and will argue conspiracy theories if they don't get their way.

@maisypops

And don't forget that tiny minority of parents who will complain because the school just don't recognise the extreme brilliance of their child just because he happens to be coming out as middle of the road in his school work. Clearly there the teachers are unable to spot his well hidden giftedness.