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Gifted and talented

Talk to other parents about parenting a gifted child on this forum.

Instead of starting threads taking the piss out of G&T children why don't you all just...

507 replies

PhantomOfTheChocolateCakeAvena · 10/11/2008 22:05

stop it. It's pathetic.

Thanks.

OP posts:
BoccaDellaVerita · 12/11/2008 18:43

Right. Am off to start a non-sleb twaddle - plinky toy piano - boasting about our own and our offspring's achievements thread in 'chat'. Please join me there.

alleve · 12/11/2008 18:49

Martianbishop, how do you not tell an 11 year old that the school has put them on the G&T register, they sent a letter home should I have burnt it straight away.

Perhaps schools shouldn't tell anyone, perhaps they shouldn't have such a thing at all.

Blandmum · 12/11/2008 18:57

This guys comment was that if they know that hey are 'G and T' it can have a detrimental effect on them if they try to do something and fail. Often children will then move away from the topic, as G and T children they feel they cannot 'fail' at something, so the something is avoided.

I have to say this this is my experience of working with quite a lot of G and T children.

He felt that G and T groups were not the way forward and that children would be better being stretched inside the classroom with their peers. I can personally argue this one either way, but if it is to happen in class we probably need time to prepare resources etc.

My feeling is that many registers are missing the very children that it is most meant to support....the bright children of more deprived families.

many of the tests for G and Tness are based on vocabulary, and are such tend to be biased in favour of middle class children. and the middle class children tend to be the ones who can be more easily stimulated at home, since it is more likely to have access to the internet and lots of books.

My experience of G and T schemes (and I've been involved in a few as a teacher) is that they are very often divisive, mostly ineffectual, and very often miss the kids who need them most. The scheme is a classic case of 'We need to do something, this is something, we'll do this'

fircone · 12/11/2008 18:58

Poor old Kerrymum.

The thing is, she often complains that the area she lives in is not, shall we say, top notch. Her kids, therefore, stand out as being extra brainy. I understand this. Ds started at a 'sink' school. He seemed like a genius there. We moved somewhere else and although he is obviously very clever, there are quite a few other children who are a match for him. Ds plays chess and competes in national tournaments. So do three of his classmates. One is the suprema of southern England.

Point two is that I think Kerrymum is short on family. I have zero family and that means I have no-one at all to whom to boast about the dcs. Or even say that they've got a cold, or whatever. It came as a stark realisation to me that after my mother died, NO-ONE would be interested in my dcs apart from dh and me. And that applies to Mumsnet too. Self-deprecating funny stories, yes, or appeals for advice. But you can't possibly expect other people to rejoice in your dcs' achievements. It's tough, but that's just the way it is.

alleve · 12/11/2008 19:10

What about CATs test they have numeric, science and english batteries. Therefore not biased. FWIW in our case it was the maths and science that stood out. English just slightly above average at the time but 3 years on sailing ahead in English too. Probably because the reading bug was caught around that time.

ketal · 12/11/2008 19:10

MartianBishop wrote:

"He felt that G and T groups were not the way forward and that children would be better being stretched inside the classroom with their peers. I can personally argue this one either way, but if it is to happen in class we probably need time to prepare resources etc."

I very much agree with you on this. I did some work on G&T whilst I did my Masters in Education, and much of what we looked at said pretty much the same stuff - it is best done in class, but that teachers need time to do this properly. To do G&T properly is a lot harder than people assume. I also did some stuff on this during my PGCE, 10 years ago now and my uni had a special centre for researching and teaching G&T students (way before it became 'mainstream') and again, similar things were said then - best done in class, but it is hard to do it properly!

tortoiseshellWasMusicaYearsAgo · 12/11/2008 19:13

Thank you SSB!

alleve · 12/11/2008 19:18

Again in our case so a limited experience there was only classroom stuff not taking out or different treatment, just a couple of trips that inspired her. What it has done is to instill confidence in DD for her to achieve. BTW we are not middle class. I'm a single mum so you could say she was one of the dissadvantaged ones, but of course I've done my best.

tortoiseshellWasMusicaYearsAgo · 12/11/2008 19:18

KM, please realise people aren't taking the piss out of G&T children. It's the whole 'concept' of G&T as currently described by the education system, and the effect this has on a certain type of parent. I have witnessed it myself - parents being so 'proud' that their child is a whole reading level above another child - it's crazy as all children develop at different rates.

There may be the odd child who does need an IEP because of their 'giftedness', and who may suffer from bullying etc. But tbh that is not going to be the typical child even within the G&T topic/register. The typical G&T child as described by the definition of 'top 5 or 10% of the class' is going to be a fairly bright child, probably with parents who help them along with their reading at home.

And then the 'G&T' babies/toddlers who are sometimes described on here just 'need' a bit of laughing about - simply to bring the parents back down to earth - if there's anything more likely to disturb a child it's expectation of greatness from being 9-12 months old. Remember the 2 year old who was admitted to MENSA because 'she could tell the difference between pink and purple.'

Blandmum · 12/11/2008 19:18

all of the CATs tests have the need to read fluently. You can be exceptionally bright, and not good at reading if you havent had the right stimulus as a small child. Plus you can also have issues like Dyslexia/praxia/calculia.

The KS3 sats test sat by 13 year olds have had a reading age of 15 some years, effectivly biseing the result in favoiur of the fluent reader

tortoiseshellWasMusicaYearsAgo · 12/11/2008 19:22

MB - that's interesting - dd's teacher always says 'get the reading sorted first, as so much depends on it' - she thinks that reading is the key to EVERYTHING academic because of the need to read questions - you can be brilliant at maths, but if you can't read the question then you will score nothing.

alleve · 12/11/2008 19:24

OK I can see what you are saying but, and I'm trying not to boast, in our case the reading came out at 55%, maths and science 97% so she was eligible for NAGTY based on that. As I say she is now getting A* for English so even at 11 they can still level out or improve greatly.

Piffle · 12/11/2008 19:47

to be fair though some babies are showing signs of giftedness. I know better than to post details on here but sometimes things in isolation do seem silly.

But I digress...
I have a dd age 6 who is being limited by her dreadful writing- she has Reading age of 8 and can spell most words from memory - and very numerate too. Identified as g&t blah de blah but now falling behind in many areas as she struggles with writing.
This is due to visual SN and fine and gross motor issues.

She is being assessed by ed psych soon.

Point being um erm dunno but the pressure on dd about writing is madness. If anything her brightness in other areas makes me sure that one day it will catch up.
Am on verge of home ed tbh
She is being demoralised by people trying to bring out the best in her?
I just want her at home sitting and reading with me, talking and growing.
I am disillusioned with primary education for anything but social value.

tortoiseshellWasMusicaYearsAgo · 12/11/2008 20:12

piffle, I'm sure they do. But a typical thread on here goes along the lines of 'my 4 month old lifted their head a week early, and rolled over 2 weeks early, I'm really worried that our local school isn't going to fulfil her academic potential'. Which is frankly mad.

PhantomOfTheChocolateCakeAvena · 12/11/2008 20:20

www.mumsnet.com/Talk?topicid=behaviour_development&threadid=186058-i-finally-have-a-gifted-and-talen ted-child-dd3-crawls#3833283 Old thread but WTF!

OP posts:
motherinferior · 12/11/2008 20:22

I am very interested and heartened by the Sideways Stretching view, Tortlyness. Not that my beloved children are in any way Gin and Tonic - by MN standards they're positively Neanderthal, what with only learning to read at school and all; but my older daughter definitely tends to stay in her comfort zone. And our tactic tends to be to push her out of it, into learning to swim and play the piano and generally do non-academic (I use the term in its loosest sense, obviously) stuff that she's less comfortable with.

MumToJaydenAndArmani · 12/11/2008 20:22

Some friends of ours had congratulations (for being G&T) cards displayed on their mantelpiece (to their DS from relatives). Their DS applied to get into my sons' school at 13+ and was put on the reserve list for a place. So he may well be G&T at his current comp but he is barely selection material at an academically selective school.

PhantomOfTheChocolateCakeAvena · 12/11/2008 20:25

www.mumsnet.com/Talk?topicid=gifted_and_talented&threadid=176107-has-anybody-found-an-easy-way-to-ge t-the-pips#3654348 seriously!

I don't think I'm being sensitive here but some of the threads are an absolute joke don't you think?

Can we leave KerryMum alone and get back to business?

'What do we do with the pushy parent....?'

OP posts:
PhantomOfTheChocolateCakeAvena · 12/11/2008 20:27

That's terrible MTJAA. That poor child, his self esteem must have been so low knowing he didn't get in and was a reserve.

I'm all in favour of stretching sideways and for children to be children.

OP posts:
tortoiseshellWasMusicaYearsAgo · 12/11/2008 20:39

Was the thread from enid meant to be a 'look at this deluded parent' or a 'this is taking the piss' thread. Because I don't think it is either - it is just tongue in cheek and enid is lovely.

MI - I'm sure your children are NOT neanderthal in any way! But I'm sure stretching sideways is the way to go - gives a broader view on things, and stops inherent weirdness being developed I think!

tortoiseshellWasMusicaYearsAgo · 12/11/2008 20:40

And I LOVE Tortlyness!

BoccaDellaVerita · 12/11/2008 20:44

Please come and post about the sorts of achievements which led indirectly to this thread - Stockhausen on a squeezy footed octopus and so on - on the new non-sleb twaddle chat thread .....

alleve · 12/11/2008 20:44

There is no point posting in this topic as it most often ends up in exagerations and jokes. Any posts that highlight good experiences of G&T are ignored.

motherinferior · 12/11/2008 20:47

DD1 is G&T at telling her piano teacher she's given up piano

(her father was quite impressed, given she had the cheque to pay him in her school bag!)

tortoiseshellWasMusicaYearsAgo · 12/11/2008 21:49

haha, ds1 is G&T at telling his teachers he HATES orchestra....

actually I almost started a facetious thread after his 1st week at orchestra (this was over a year ago she hastens to add) - when he achieved a first for the orchestra - he got his bow stuck in his shoe and had to get the conductor to stop everything to help him get it out...

Swipe left for the next trending thread