DS1 is going to be 'stretched sideways' next year apparently

[gingertoo]

I'll give you a tiny bit of background.
Ds1 is 10 yrs old and has just finished Year 5 and is identified as G&T.
In May of Year 5 he sat Yr 6 SATs papers and got Level 5 across the board.
During Yr 5 he has been working with Year 6 to extend and challenge him.
At parents evening I talked to his teacher about how she was proposing to work with him in Year 6 (when there will be no older year groups for him to go and work with) She said that she had decided to 'stretch him sideways' rather than starting on KS3 work with him.
Unfortunately, we were only able to have a 10 min slot at parents evening but the teacher said she is happy to meet with us in Sept to discuss this further which is great, but I suppose before then I would like to have an idea about what this 'stretching sideways' involves and whether it is a good idea or not?!

So I suppose I'm asking whether anyone is a teacher or has had Dcs in this position at the start of Yr 6. Do you 'stretch sideways' or crack on with the KS3 curriculum? Which is better?

What do you think?

The majority of teachers are indeed dedicated and hard working. That's not what's in question.

I've first hand experience of how their work cuts into their social and family life. They make many sacrifices. That's not in question either.

The issue is G&T and the fact (the government accepts this) that the system is largely failing the more intelligent children. Why? Would you say teachers don't share any blame in this?

In those schools where the teachers don't know even what the school's policy is on G&T, don't have a single child on the G&T register, don't use any of the G&T resources... they are failing gifted children. And there are some teachers who are morally opposed to extending gifted children because they feel their limited time in the class should be devoted more to helping those who are behind. They may have a case, who knows. But those teachers are failing gifted children.

They may be hard working teachers. They may be doing a great job with most of the class. But they could still be failing gifted children.

I don't have a personal stake in the outcome of the discussions here. My son is okay, Jack. But there are thousands of gifted young people out there we are not really tapping into.

No, I don't think teachers are to blame in any way - as I said IMO they do the best they can with the time & resources available to them.

I would also dispute that many teachers are "morally opposed to extending gifted children" - I don't think morals come into it, it's all about pragmatism & again, they do the best they can, for the majority, with what is available to them.

In many schools they are against the wall half the time dealing with kids who would have benefited from leaving aged 14 to go into an apprenticeship, as in the bad old days, instead of being forced to stay in the classroom until 15...16...17...18 just to make the unemployment figures look better. If they weren't there more money might be made available for G&T provision.