English able and talented

[hoxtonbabe]

Hi,

Just wanted to gain an understand of how all this works. So over the weekend I received a letter from school stating my son has been identified as being talented in English which is bizarre given that is his weaker subject, anyhoo despite the school website stating that Children identified as more able and talented will have access to provision within and after school that will challenge them academically no such provision exists and all the letter said was to encourage him, make sure he reads more and to focus on analysing..all of which is a basic standard as far as I’m concerned regardless of talented or not.

So is this “normal” in schools, to basically say your son is capable of more and just leave it at that?

Oddly enough before I received the letter I ordered him some 13+ study books and he’s not exactly whizzing through it/finding it easy so was even more baffled when I received the letter.

What age/year is your DS? Is this a state school in England?

@LetItGoToRuin

Hi, He is in Y7 and yes a state school in London

You need to ask school/teacher what they are doing for him, and what you can do at home.
Doing good on study book don't equate in having a talent in literacy though. Teacher must have seen something special in him, and want to encourage it, I assume.

I'd ask the school how they have measured this. Our school publishes on their website how they categorise the 'more able' students, ie what grades they need to have had in SATS and that is combined with CATS scores, plus some other tests they have done in y7.

For me, that 'more able' category simply means that if DS falls behind in any subject it will be picked up quickly as the school want him to do well in GCSEs. They get extra (optional) challenges in maths and English, and also in all other subjects (dance, PE, geography, history, art, etc).