Y2 advanced daughter bored and frustrated

[Justhearforadvice2023]

Our daughter has always been clever. She’s always been ahead of her peers and this was picked up at nursery. She’s an October birthday.
She’s now in y2 and really frustrated.
She was frustrated in y1 but because she’s at a small village school she was taught with y2’s so the issues weren’t as highlighted.
The school has now got more students and enough to have a separate y2 class.
I understand that most schools are taught with schemes now. Do these accommodate children that are faster learners or already have the knowledge? I can see how bored she is which is such a shame as she loves learning. She said they rarely to independent learning and when they do she finishes before everyone else and then has to help the other children.
I’ve spoken to her teacher who promised to give the children that were more able, additional challenges. It seems this has lasted 5 minutes.
I don’t really know what to do. She wizzes through exercise books we buy for her… then I’m worried we should be leaving it for school. But she’s inquisitive and genuinely loves learning.
Please don’t think we are pushy parents either! I’m still trying to get our 5 year old son to count to 10 but literally anything and everything is more interesting!

@namechangefanx you are mixing up too things.

1. State schools often lack the resources to provide sufficient challenge to the most gifted (up to the top 10% differentiation is easier). I'm a school governor at a state school and am really aware of the issue. They also lack the resources to support children with SEN appropriately. This might be the financial reality but it doesn't mean that its okay or without consequences for the kids whose needs aren't being adequately met
2. Your child has found ways of challenging herself to avoid / deal with the boredom. That's not the same thing as it not being boring or that all kids will react the same way faced with the same circumstances. For many kids, it can instead lead to disengagement, underperformance and behavioural problems.
3. Not all children have parents with the resources to support them academically outside of school and so the lack of differentiation actually disproportionately impacts gifted low-income children damaging the role schools / education play in social mobility in our society

I would visit an Ed psych and get her assessed using WISC V or similar to find out where her strengths and weaknesses lay I always knew DD was bright but it turns out shes extremely gifted in certain areas, but processing and working memory are comparatively lower (still high average but lower none the less). This mean I have been able to work with her in these areas and school work is presented to her in aural and written form.

I tried to avoid going over core curriculum activities with her but deep dived into her interests Shakespeare, geology, specific countries that hold an interest, marine environment, weather. Obviously schools touch on Shakespeare and types of rocks and materials but there are huge areas left to explore

Maths and English take up 2 hours of a 6.5 hour school day.
Regardless of research, that is what it is. 4.5 hours include break times and lunchtimes and socialising with age appropriate peers. Plus other subjects including topic work.
And topic work, art, science etc, isn't about being taught and then just understanding. It's about getting creative and completely projects.

I taught a class a DT lesson on how to make a step pyramid. All the clever, academic kids could not complete the task as they had never learnt to be resilient. The children who found learning tricky and had learned to put in the hard work; completed the task with ease.

If you spot your child being gifted and talented, then use the time outside of school to extend that learning and talent.

A good teacher will always provide greater depth learning, but they cannot be expected in the structure of the education system, to teach different year group maths. In the same way, a child who has an EHCP needs that extra funding to reach their age related expectations

Building resilience really is key, at some point whether GCSE, A Level, Degree or post grad the gifted children can start to struggle with the teaching techniques or content or level of independent study and those that had always sailed through give up much easier than those who used grit and determination to progress.

@lemonsandlimesx but how are gifted children meant to build resilience without academic challenge? That's exactly the point and why its important.

Also, being bored out of your mind for 1/3rd of your day is a lot... Even most adults would find that incredible painful to endure. For many it leads to disruptive behaviour and a strong dislike of school

@Singleandproud I agree 100%. There are real consequences for gifted children who never experience academic challenge. The lack of resilience is what is linked to the elevated risk of underperformance

Resilience can be built in other aspects of life. Finding maths and English easy is great. But turn taking, group work, creativity, etc...
As many posters have mentioned above. English- you can let your mind lead you. It's not a yes or no answer. Get creative and use the lesson to write at the greater depth level. It's not all SPaG.

Maths, many concepts are taught. It's not a case of a child being bright and bored at school because it is too 'easy'. I actually think that's a very 2 dimensional way of thinking.
Use the skills out side of school and during extra curricular times.
Resilience is built in other lessons and also by being bored. Using initiative, helping others and checking work is actually correct.

This is it. Daydreaming in class became the norm for me . I spent a lot of primary school , daydreaming , reading my own book , colouring and endlessly explaining ( very badly because I was not a teacher) concepts which seemed so obvious to me that I was probably not helpful at all . The problems come when you reach the stage when you do need to listen , when you do encounter something that stretches and when the first time that happens you are at Alevel it’s really not helpful.

Academic resilience is best achieved through academic challenge. Academic challenge is best provided in a structured way at school without relying on the children themselves to come up with ways to make it more interesting. I don't think gifted kids have to be grade skipped- extension, open ended investigations and greater depth in a concepts work too. But this needs to come from the school, not the kids letting their minds wonder...

Research has shown a lack of challenge in school fails many many gifted children. Poor gifted children whose parents don't have the resources (time, knowledge, money etc) to provide extension outside of school are the most disadvantaged by this approach.

Its fair to say its difficult for state schools in the current funding environment and school structure to deliver on the need for challenge. Its not reasonable to say there are no negative consequences to gifted children to not receiving adequate academic challenge in school. The UK government clearly says all children including the most able need academic challenge as the empirical evidence is so clear. Its just that state schools currently aren't delivering on the statutory requirements for a variety of reasons largely out of their control.

God I remember stuff like this with DC1. The school told us how bright he was etc etc, but they couldn't give him work that matched his ability because they didn't;t have the resources. Poor child was bored stiff. We took him out at the end of Y3 and managed to get him a bursary to the local private school, which he loved, and really thrived at. I will always remember him excitedly telling us at the end of his first day there how he'd learnt about Nelson's battle tactics, and started building a siege tower in DT!!! He was just so happy!
Don't be scared about approaching private schools for a bursary. you may be surprised. We were, and it was the best thing we ever did for DC1.
Good luck.

you can pay for additional tutoring to challenge her and start preparations for 11+ exam to grammar school

She is Y2. In Y6 may be completely different story

I sympathise - I have a 6 year old (Year 1) in this exact position.

He gets sent up to the Year 2 classes every day for his maths lessons and his English/Phonics lessons, but when he goes back to his Year 1 class he says everything is boring because he’s being taught stuff he already knows.

He’s got the reading and spelling abilities of an 8/9 year old so when he’s sent home with Year 1 reading books and spellings it’s just a ridiculous waste of time.

We’ve got Parents Evening next week and we are going to discuss it with his teacher because it’s getting really difficult now and very frustrating for him.

They don't level out. We've been waiting the whole of primary school and her interests have got wider (astrophysics, classics, mandarin) compared with her peers who may be working "above expected" but it's nowhere near to a truly gifted child.

Expand via music - theory and practical, coding and computing and extra curricular like chess. Languages - French, Spanish, German.

As the reception teacher told us, the biggest skill is to learn how to learn. Once you can do that, you can read anything to whatever level you like.

I can understand you, OP. My DS was the same and was bored at school. We ended up moving to a different school which had a reputation of being academic challenging and he is thriving there.
Agree with others here that you can try other ways of stimulation. Music, puzzles, logic games, reasoning, reading, learn a new language/coding, be part of school council etc. Depending on workbooks, some are not very challenging at all. At this age I would focus on reasoning and logic rather than simply maths and English.

That’s quite possibly the silliest comment I’ve seen on MN- and that’s saying something!