I am being unreasonable to expect only parents with so named 'G&T children to post on this thread

[virgo]

...I have 2 children ds and dd. DD has been 'officially' lisetd (for what that is worth) by the school. I never would have dreamed of posting on this thread if she wasn't listed as such.

As a mum I think both my children are fantatsic and 'gifted' in all sorts of ways - as I am sure we all do.

Isn't this topic supposed to be a helpline for parents of these listed children to give them ideas as to what the shcools ought to be doing and what as parents we can do to help these children achieve their potential.

Every now and again I look on the threads to see if there are any useful postings and it seems to be full of threads about 'is my child gifted???' 'he's reading ort dtage 8 at 2 is he gifted?'etc etc

peppered with postings from other irriated parents...

We'd not even considered this about our dd - the teachers at shcool call you in and tell you about htis list and that your ds or dd is on it - FULL STOP. You don't tell them, they know their job...

so far ds has
chinese
spanish
french
biology
physics
chemistry
art
music
maths
statistics
RE (grrr)
history
geography
IT

soemthing is going to go I think history/geography
We are going to protest at RE being a compulsory gcse topic -

The problem is with the term "gifted and talented" It is not well defined, or to be more precise there is a British government definition but no one seems to pay full attention to it.

A g and t child is a child in the top 5 % of the range, as identified by teachers (plenty of room for unreliable judgement here ) in that PARTICULAR school. So a child could be G and T in one school and not in another. In otherwords its not even in principle a fixed standard.

There is an article worth reading about giftedness in Wikipedia, where the use of the term is more broadly discussed.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gifted

We don't 'do' G & T in Scotland so does that mean we can't post?

What a pile of tosh.

Piffle - why are you going to object to RE being a comp GCSE subject as a matter of interest?

It is compulsory under education law that children study RE at KS4, so a lot of schools decide that they might as well do the (short course) GCSE while they are at it.

swedes - because he is going to have to drop a subject to take it - a more valuable subject such as history or geography.

What exactly does your child have to do to become labelled as G&T? It's not something i have come accross before i came on here.

Do they have something like that in Scotland?

I'm asking out of interest by the way - not to stir up trouble or anything - my motives are innocent!

First let me qualify, I am a parent with G&T children. I understand the need for people to ask "is my child gifted?", it is not always easy to know... A child might be brilliant all-round, but that does not necessarilly make them gifted... also a child can be gifted in 1 area & yet be almost remedial in another. Here are some helpful links www.gifted-children.com.au/index.html & www.giftedservices.com.au ... I have been there, & fully understand.

It is a tad silly, not to mention irresponsible, to generalise & tell parents that if their child is G&T the school will let them know. Only about 3% of the population are truly G&T, and schools play a numbers game in relation to how many classes they can have. Schools don't always have a policy, our school only just started developing theirs when my eldest G&T son was in kindy... & they did this because parents were asking & pushing for policy & opportunity classes. Also the thorough tests are expensive (not always available within a school's budget)& have to be given by a school counsellor (again not always in a school's budget) with the parents permission & even then tests aren't always conclusive.

Also, if the threads that start "is my child gifted" annoy you... don't be petty & try to dictate what others post...the answer is simple, don't read them!

Unfortunately, yes YABU. I feel that I can say this b/c I have never yet posted or started a thread on ds1 on this topic without it going down in flames. I once posted in a quite depressed state about some issues we were having only to have several MNers demand to know examples of how I knew he was gifted. I had not thought that I would need to qualify this if I posted under the appropriate topic. Evidently I was wrong.

We are in the US and there are support groups around for parents of gifted children. We have not joined a group as of yet but have benefited greatly from talking to other parents. It is a long, hard road and most of the time people will not understand what you are going through. They most certainly will not sympathize with any problems that you may have. Being the parent of a gifted child is not easy and you have to give up a certain part of your life to it. Once you come to a point of acceptance it becomes a bit easier.

I wish you all the best in dealing with this. My close friends know that I consider it both a blessing and a curse. I do not discuss it with anyone else for obvious reasons.

I think it should be mentioned that not all gifted and talented children have problems. I have known some extremely gifted children who were fortunate enough to also be socially and emotionally mature. Almost seems unfair that any one person should be getting so much...
Sometimes it is spelled out almost like an axiom that if your child is gifted then they must struggle socially or develop behaviour problems. The truth is that gifted children, like anybody else, are individuals. Some are lucky enough to be able to solve problems with potential boredom in ways that don't get them in conflict with the people around them.
I see G&T as a whole complex of possible combinations of talents. Some people get a full hand and are both academically gifted, musical, artistic, sociable and good at sports. Some are academic and musical only, some are academic and sociable. Etc etc.
But you can't judge somebody else's child from your own.

yes
back in NOvember when this bleeding thread was actually going

I'll stop posting then.

My kids school doesn't have a G and T regester, so they can't be on it.

My only interest in the topic is the fact that I teach G and T outreach for the secondary school I work with, I do G and T outreach for what was NAGTY, and I'm working with an accademic in Oxford university trialing better ways of identiflying G and T children without class bias.

So, obviously I know cock all about the subject.

No -one. other than a parent of a G and T child could possibly have anything useful to contribute to the discussion then? [bigger hmm required]

Well,.....how exactly would I find out if my child was potentially G & T if I didn't start the thread "IS my child....."

Unless I started it

"My child ISN'T gifted and talented. Or IS he? Mwah ha ha ha ha....."

Sorry - in a strange mood today. Actually had a full might's sleep last night

This thread title is one of my all-time favourite mumsnet titles.

Oh sorry, forgot, I shouldn't be posting here, I don't have a child on a G&T register.

fennel - was it reveived to cheer you up, then?

This is a NOVEMBRER 07 thread!

get a life!

i would have thought if someone else had a child they believed to be gifted and talented this would be the thread you come to for friendly advise not snobbery

just because at the moment there parents believe them to be gifted and talented the correct thread as ytou have all been there can offer advise

they too will be listed when seeking out the right route but some people would like to talk to others who have been there and can offer some understanding

just because you have listed children which is fantastic does not make you superior to anyone else seeking advise who's child may be equally as talented or even more you should be grateful to offer someone else help it would make you feel a better person

it does not say listed gifted and talented thread only it says gifted and talented and all our children are in one way or another there for all of us should be able to come on and expect support from others

If the parents of G & T parents are here for support then they must have misgivings about their child's predicament, or at the very least concerns. This group isn't called look what my child can do, is it? I don't understand why there would be a smug or snobbish response to a post 'Is my child gifted because....' Afterall there is no real advantage to being gifted in the real world, statistically these people do no better than the avergae Joe and sometimes worse with respects to a well rounded life. So let these parents have their group for support and company as it must be nice to be able to talk about their issues without someone feeling defensive or as if they're boasting.

On seeing thread title I thought G&T was gin and tonic (not being facetious, there are a lot of booze related threads on MN) . What is the difference between 'gifted' and 'talented'? Can you be one but not the other?

Well you know virgo there are lots of people who may think that their children are G&T who may politely enquire.

I check these threads sometimes even though my children are not designated G&T just to see what is going on.

G&T is a label that applies only in the state system. It appears to be the top decile. Which really doesn't seem particularly special to me. I expected gifted children to be just that - gifted special unusual - not every tenth child you meet in the street.

Funny innit?

I'll admit that I only posted on this thread out of perversity though - just because my children aren't designated G&T -

My children's school also does not have a G & T register.

I have a feeling my dd may be talented and my ds possibly gifted, but who knows, he may just be bright (we even considered Asperger's at one stage so maybe I should efinately stay away from this forum)