Reading level and language ability

[SwanHK]

My girl loves reading and is particularly good at languages. She is currently 9 yr old with reading age at 15. She is now preparing 11 plus using atom learning. She can finish a Eng paper (50min) time limit in just 18 min with really high scores.

I can't comment if she is gifted. And I don't know how can I support her to maximize her potential. Both parents are not native English speakers. I found that most of the discussion about gifted and talented trend to more in Science and Maths.

Just curious, what are her high scores in Atom? Are they above 130? If yes, then yes, I would say that is good. What about her maths?

The recent Eng mock is about 125 to 130 (finished less than half of the allowed time) . For Maths, it depends, I found the difficulties varies among different school mock tests, most of the time, she cannot finish all questions, and get about 115 to 120.

I would say she is probably smart, but not gifted. My dd just went through the 11+ and the scores you mention are what is needed to get into the selective British private schools. So your dd is off to a very good start and if she continues, she will most likely get a few offers. But she will need to bring her math up. She is 9 though, so has time. To give you an example my dd would finish her math in half the time, but get scores of 137-142. Her English was usually 120-125. She did well on 11+ and got offers to all the schools she applied, including Godolphin and Latymer. It sounds like your dd might be St Pauls level if she raises her scores a bit (which she should be able to do easily in the next year). Good luck!

Thank you for your sharing.

We are studying in state primary and state schools have more support to struggling children but not the capable/ bright/gifted children. This is the reason we would like to opt for selective schools. It doesn't matter grammar or independent.

We target King Edward high school for girls which I think is not that competitive as those schools you listed above.

Yes, my dc are in state primary school as well. It is not challenging enough for them and they focus on helping the struggling children. I am not sure of the school you mention, but it sounds like your dd is at a good level already for it! Good luck on the 11+!

I agree with you that giftedness in maths is more talked about on Mumsnet!

Our DD has always been advanced with her English: she always spoke clearly, and she learned to read early and easily (her keyworker told us she would read stories to her friends in nursery.) Avid reader, wide vocab, great inference skills etc. Her state primary wasn’t very hot on testing reading age etc, but she was always at the top of their age charts, full marks in the reading and SPAG SATs papers, GD for writing etc.

When preparing for the 11 plus (home prep) she always found the VR sections very easy. She did a mock test run by a large testing company, and came 2nd in vocab and 3rd in reading, out of 105 students.

She has no problems with maths etc, but English is where she shines. She got into the state grammar of her choice very easily (West Midlands) and although we haven’t received any detailed subject feedback so far (Y7) I get the impression she stands out in her English class.

I’m not sure whether she’s gifted: she just finds English easy. We are native speakers though, which makes our DD’s ability much less impressive than your DD’s!