Do the schools assess for this at primary level?

[SolidGoldBrass]

And if so, what happens? Is there something I should do before DS starts school?
He is 4, can read whole books, follow a tube map (and happily tell everyone how to get across town from specific start point to specific destination) count up to about 500, do simple arithmetic...

Okay, so the name is rubbish and obviously rubs people up the wrong way... but behind the name, surely people agree the idea of the scheme is good?

I understand it as just identifying those children who are bright and so will require different work or support in class, to prevent them becoming bored.

Take for example, my DD. She is 5 and in reception. A few months ago her class was learning to understand the O'Clock system. But my daughter can already tell the time - completely and has been able to for about the year. So Should she go through the motions of learning to tell the O'clocks again (something she has been able to do for two years?) Or should she be given different and more appropriate work to do? Of course, she did a bit on this and I understand was given other work to do.

Equally with her reading, since Christmas she was reading Purple level (year 2 books), but no-one else in her class was - so should she sit and read very basic books that she was reading two years ago, because that is what most of her class is doing? Or should she be able to read books that stretch and develop her? Her school used to send her off to read with children of a similar ability to avoid her just re-learning the things she has been able to do for the past two years.

I don't think anyone could seriously disagree that this is wrong - so she needs a bit of extra thought put into what she can do when they're planning their lessons. Surely this is just good teaching? G&T as a label is rubbish - but surely the practise is good??

agree 100% Karam.

Amidaiwish your school sounds great (envy) - we are also in SW London & if I could be sure he would get a place at a school like that we wouldn't have gone down the fee paying route. However we are lucky that a good school that caters well for bright & very bright kids (which I dont think my DS is) has offered him a place. I think his first exposure to learning & the school environment should be as positive as possible - mine, which was at a good state school, was not! Obviously this now influences my decisions, as I spent all my time, until I started secondary school at 12, completely bored out of my mind, I had no work ethic & thought school was stupid. It did then change but I think it was too late & I would have greatly benefited from some nurturing early on!

I think it is ridiculous to label a child 'g+t' before the age of 7. Children develop so erratically before that.

If you think about it, knowing the tube map isn't so different from knowing everything about Thomas the Tank Engine, but I don't think many people would think of labelling that G+T.

Normal for a 4 year old! Is that similar to the comment when someone says my 4 year old cannot write her name or recognise her letters - can't have it both ways? One way is normal and the other not!

Back to the OP, he is going to get A is for Apple at school and academically the first two years will be very boring. Go in with no expectations and you won't be frustrated. I treat state schools as a social education now not an academic one if you have gifted children.

trickerg, so apart from the label do you believe that the bright ones should be allowed to proceed at their own speed? What would you call a program that tried to ensure this for the top few percent of bright children?

missmen, I'd say either is within the normal range for a 4yo (though I agree that SGB's ds sounds very bright)

the normal range is very wide, children develop at such different paces and there may be enormous differences between one child who can't read at 4 and another child who also can't read at 4 (one may have genuine problems, the other may be enormously gifted and widely educated but simply not have got to the stage where they are interested in learning)

or to put it another way, one child who can't read at 4 (but can do other things) may be as bright as another child who can

when I grew up in Sweden I had never heard of a 4yo who knew how to read- I can't imagine it was because there were no gifted children around, they were simply too busy doing other things

otoh I had never heard of a 6yo who could not bake a cake unsupervised or tell poisonous mushrooms from edible ones, either

my dcs learned to read at about the same age, relatively late for this country (but would have been early for Sweden): one of them is g&t and doing very well at secondary, the other is in the next to bottom set in primary

have to admit, for me it was not their reading that helped me gauge their relative brightness, it was the quality of their conversation: with dd you could have a very mature discussion very early, with ds you couldn't

for SGB- your ds does indeed sound bright: I'd give the teacher a little time and then be prepared to nudge if he seems like he is getting bored

but remember that Reception is very much about learning through play anyway, so time not spent reading is not necessarily wasted time: it's just time when he is meant to be learning something different

Cory, the example I was taking was from our country and what they are expected to know in the UK system. But I know some exceptionally gifted children who cannot hold a conversation and my younger child is not gifted and yet has always had a wide vocabulary. This is to her detriment as the school expect her to be academically able because she is such a good communicator.

Yes, I have still known children in the UK who are clearly very gifted and yet have not learnt to read until after the age of 4. My dd was verbally very developed but not interested in reading until she reached Yr 1. And then she took off very suddenly- by Yr 2 she was reading Tolkien. There is no way she can be compared with her brother who also did not read at age 4, but did not show any other signs of being bright and hasn't since.

Other children in the same school who learnt to read early have not subsequently shown any signs of being gifted or done particularly well in their studies. Being able to read and write neatly is only part of being academically able: being able to think is quite important too

Unfortunately my kids ,sothink^ and do not wite neatly or want to read!