I really hate this section .. can we change the title so that every time I see it I don't want to go

[Twiglett]

'arrrghhh the G&T programme as dictated by government is so not about gifted or talented children but about clever ones'

maybe we could call it 'clever kids'

and then have a 'thick kids' section too

no?

The GCSE's look pathetic to an adult who has done O levels. And yes, they would be challengng to a 16 yo who has only been taught at that level.
But if you compare the courses to what was taught 10 or 20 years ago they are incredibly dumbed down. I am shocked cos it means A levels have already had their content reduced and the knock on effect will go to the universities.
So our kids will have degrees where they don't know half the stuff a decent education system should have taught them.
It will affect maths and sciences more.
We home educated our lads from old textbooks and they both entered school at 13. At 13 they knew more than the entire GCSE course. ds1 is now in Y10 and bored rigid even though they made a special stream 0 class for him and 2 others. ds2 will face the same thing. I don't think they are 'gifted', just clever but the current stuff in schools is way too easy compared to how it used to be. Its shocking. the teachers admit it too.

I agree NMC - i saw an old o level maths paper once - no way I would have passed that. I'd have passed Sciences though!

I took GCSE's and it's fairly telling that out of 10 classes taking Double Award Science - 3 were Express, and all 3 Express had run out of work by May of the examining year. This was 12 years ago (sob).

I have heard that you may now start an AS level if this happens - but why is it happening?

Because GCSE's are easy enough for nearly everyone to pass.

phew need more coffee RESPECT

yes gcse's are tosh

ds got an A* in french last year after attending an afterschool lesson only for one hour a wee - a total of about 16 hours

he is no genius - i thought he was crap to be frank but hey

luckily my dc's schools have dropped the dual award science as it really is not worth the paper it is printed on

i was at a biology teachers house a couple of years ago and picked up some work that they were marking I KID YOU NOT i thought it was year 7 - it was GCSE and they were filling in the gaps 'chlorophyll' 'osmosis' perleease are these the scientists of the fututre

PYBF, I don't dispute that the science GCSEs are easy, but don't delude yourself that seperate science is much if any better. Unless you school does iGCSEs the seperate science course is exactly the same as the dual award with a bit more dross tacked on as well as far as I can see.

I teach Double scince and triple, and they are both awful. Doing triple dross isn't going to make them scientists!

tortoiseHELL, my comments yesterday were not aimed at you in particular. I think you mentioned a benchmark and the differences from school to school. Its just that it always brought up on these G&T threads that your DC's would not get look in at our posh selective schools.

Everyone gets worked up re G&T but put it into this context. Our school put approx 5% into NAGTY in my DD's year. Thats say 6 out of 120 pupils. They dont wear a badge with it on as they might if they were picked for house captain for eg excelling at sports. If 4 houses picked a house captain and a deputy that 8 out of 120. Would seem silly to think this system should be abolished because it's elitist and unnecessary.

Sorry if that a bit rambled rushing it through at work as my broadband is down at home. B----r.

Gawd. It must be so demoralising for all teachers if you feel that you are teaching dross. Dont know what can be done about it. I dont know much about the system except to go to parents evenings etc

FWIW the stuff we teach at A level tends to be good. The only thing that really irritates me about the A level course is that the students are expected to apply information from one area to a related subjects, and the poor little buggers have spent their school life being 'taught to the test' and find it had to actually think. And we don't have enough time at A level to rectify this.

Friends I have who teach at University say that this is one of their biggest problems.

the new KS3 curriculum has less in it, so theoretically, we could have more time to teach them to think, but we still have to cover enough for them to succeed at GCSE.

The new courses are full of 'Ethical decisions' when the kids don't understand the basic science underpinning the decisions! Farcical

I don't really "get" the G&T topic. IMHO I have seen very few threads that could not be better set out as a specific question about a specific issue on a general Education thread. They would get, I have always thought, more precise, practical, constructive and empathetic responses that way.

The implication that people are saying "my child is great at sports", "ooh my child is good at music", "well mine is good at maths - let's all huddle together onthe same topic" always makes me smile

OMG snorkle

my ds brought home his latest module results for single sciences

i shall say no more other than you are right snorkle

one boy got 100% 100% 100%

I think the topic ought to be about the

Olive, I am crying with laughter about your 'holds pen like a knife and can't wipe own arse' comment. Wiping her own arse would be a 'gift' to me and a 'talent' I wish DD would aquire she says that wiping her own backside is 'boring' by the way, so maybe its a sign that she is far too clever to be intersted in menial things

I wonder if Einstein would have qualified for G and T? He was a late reader and did badly in exams on leaving school, not getting into University.