Iggy Juniors - Chilblains and Semolina pudding

[dobby2001]

Hi all

Iggy Juniors
DD age 8 has signed up for this on the recommendation of school. Its our first foray into this type of thing as despite yearly reports saying she is "exceeding all expectaions" and her always being top or nearly top in literacy/numeracy groups etc school seemingly reluctant to confirm or otherwise any G&T as such.

Still thats another story - was really posting to see if anyone elses child is going to be doing it or has done before to compare notes really

Hi dobby, DD is 10 (in year 6) and every year since year 3 has been recommended for gifted and talented reading/writing courses, the latest recommendation being Iggy Juniors. I have just enrolled her on the Plato to Playstation free course for next week-end, she's happy to do it so we'll see if it's any good! Is this what your dd is doing?

We never took up previous recommendations as they involved going away for the week-end without any of her friends and she didn't really want to do that, or they clashed with other things, or they were fully booked by the time we were told....

Ooh didnt know about a free course, we have paid £45 for the Childblains one I am sure DD would like to do the plato one as well but DH has her password on his email account so I cannot sign her up grrr..

The problem we have had is that DDs school has very seperate infants and junior 1 mile apart so we felt like we were starting all over again when she transferred to juniors last year, then relaised belatedly that the 2 crappiest teachers were the yr3 ones - I think they thought they could do the "least" damage This year she has a pretty good teacher but its only now we are making some headway - sounds like its going to get expensive though as she has already suggested we look elsewhere than local state provision for secondary options

These courses are expensive aren't they? I just find that on top of school fees, and lots of extra curricular stuff, there's no money left for these.... So I jumped on the opportunity of a free course Then if it's good, I'll think about paying for another one (dd will leave the indy sector next september so that'll help!).

I wouldn't panick yet about having to go private in year 7, there might be other options around where you are?

I do think though that I will have to keep a closer eye on things than I have before re. what dd is doing in English, it would be a shame if she wasn't stretched bit because she really loves the subject and creative writing.

Let me know if your dd does the Plato course!

i coudlnt do anything called iggy

lol @ on top of school fees

youa re PAYING for a school that doesnt meet your kids needs?

haha

ah

I did wonder how long it would take for someone to post a hilarious/smug/ condescending/mocking comment on a G&T thread.

Aw didums, well I have three g and t kids
(They prefer to play than go on courses.)

if i was paying 5k a term at a private school i would want them to do it tbh

V pleased for you, well done

what exactly are you doing on this thread again? Do you have useful comments on Iggy? Apart from sniggering?

my comment is
go to your kid's school
say wtf am i paying you for,

I know exactly what I'm paying the school for and I'm very happy with it. I do not expect the school to do an introduction to philosophy.

I'm really shocked by this site. The courses seem very expensive for what they are and therefore inaccessible for many students.

ds1 is exceptionally able (according to his teachers. I am continually exasperated by his apparent inability to find his backside with both hands ). But he is continuously and regularly challenged and supported by his regular teachers in his regular (non-selective) state school. Occasionally he is invited to additional 'G&T' activities, but full costs - and transport if required - are met by the school!

roisin I agree the courses are expensive, which is why I picked the free one to try out...

dd's school is excellent in giving her challenging books to read, and getting her to talk about them, etc... I really cannot fault the efforts they make towards catering for her particular 'talent'. The fees happen to be possibly the lowest at junior level where we are, and include numerous school trips, extra-curricular activities, clubs, etc.. that's why I never had a problem with the school not paying for extra 'G&T' trips (as they already offer plenty of support in school as part of the fees).

I think it's great that your ds gets these opportunities for free as part of state education. I wonder if that'll be the case for dd next year when she leaves the private sector?

To get back to this thread though, I am very curious to see what dd's course will be like, I cannot quite imagine how it works, but we'll see.

wow i have a break from the pc and come back to lots of comments on the post - great DD will have lots of other kids on her course methinks - oh no just grown ups judging others choices instead

Well our schools OFSTED report came out this week and despite improving they have weirdly been downgraded from a good to a satisfactory - one of the points made was their failing to meet the needs of more able students

The Iggy junior course is the only thing DD has ever been offered so I am happy to pay £45 to see how she gets on.

Oh frog princess I have managed to get DD booked onto Plato to Playstation for 17th April

I've not heard of this before, thankyou

OMG, please get real-it's a racket !

princessparty can you please say how? Most similiar workshop type things I have seen also charge a fee of some kind? The Plato to Playstation course is free - how is this a racket??

It might seem obvious to you but it's not to at least 3 posters here I would really appreciate some consructive information?

Isn't it run by Warwick University Dobby? I think they are the forerunners in work with G&T children in the UK. I am sure they do a lot of work with schools.

Thanks Bruffin, DD is really looking forward to it and is checking the Iggy website every couple of days for updates.

Really hoping as the school were the ones who gave the info to us at first that their recent crap OFSTED report has made some change and the brighter kids get some better support - failing that i need to earn more money for something better

DD1 did one of their courses last year and really enjoyed it. I thought it was a bit pricey too and there does seem to be quite a commercial angle to the whole venture which doesn't sit easy with me although I understand it, and for that reason she won't be doing any more, but she got some useful feedback and the exercises all seemed well structured and challenging. It was also a good way for me to find out what sort of things she responds to outside school's way of teaching, which I found very useful. Hope your child enjoys it.

Hi dobby,
thought I'd let you know how the Plato to playstation course went. Dd spent between 2 and 3 hours on it, she absolutely loved it. There was an ethics test to start with, so I sat with her at first to make sure she understood how to think about the questions, and then she just got on with it and found it very interesting. There was some info on philosophy and what it means, then a forum to put into practice some of the ethics ideas. Finally there was a test to see what the children had remembered from the bit about what is philosophy, and then you could go back to the forum and start your own debates.

There was little feedback, although dd was moved onto the top group very quickly, so there are moderators in the background keeping an eye on things. On the forums, the moderators only intervene if the discussions veer off course.

I wasn't sure how dd would enjoy this, but she really got into it and got the idea that there is a specific way of thinking in an ethics debate.

She got a certificate yesterday for it, with a handwritten note saying that she had come first out of 267 children. I was a bit perplexed by that as I didn't know how they had graded the children, and also was this just a marketing ploy! So I phoned Coral who was in charge of the course and had a very informative chat with her about the course and Iggy in general. There was absolutley no selling in there, she just sounded very professional. She explained that all the children start in 2 average groups, and some get moved up depending on how they're doing during the course. At the end of the course they look at the children in the top group and divide them again into two groups. The top group there had 20 children in it, and these were the ones who understood how to think about ethics and had made interesting contributions. They then graded the top 20 (obviously the grading is subjective). She said that the top 20 children are the ones they would like to keep in the Iggy community (and they give them a discount).

I don't know whether dd will do more courses there, we're going to keep an eye on the site for now, but it was a great success for her

I hope your dd enjoys Chilblains and the Plato course, and I would also recommend phoning the Iggy people if you have any questions, they are very nice and helpful indeed!

awaits cynics' comments

That sounds great frogprincess well done to your dd what a clever girls

DD started chilblians this morning. There is quite alot to do 4 core assignments plus a further evaulation assignment. There are also additional non compulsory activities and discussions related to differant aspect of the book and author. DD completed three assignments today and has had her first one marked - she did this completly on her own and did not write alot but still managed to be a B+ merit and 85% with some very useful (and tactful!) feedback. The other assignments she did struggle a bit with (to be fair one was discussing colonialism - not a topic they have covered at school methinks! )and I had to drag her off the computer to take a break and get some time to think through her answers as shwas very determined to finish!

She went to bed with the book to read through again as I think this course has made her realise that sometimes she needs to work a bit harder than school have let her to show her abilities

Glad to hear you were happy with the experience, fingers crossed we will have a similiar expereince!

That sounds great dobby, it's lovely when they really get into it! Hope she has plenty more fun tomorrow with it.

We're off to London tomorrow for some less intellectual fun (we're seeing Wicked )

Hi Dobby and Frog Princess

My dd did the plato course too, she's yr 3 and loved it although she was ill that day so may be didn't join in as much as she might have.

Anyway we got her certificate through today and she can 2nd!

She started doing DVG just before the start of the holidays and has really enjoyed it.

She's also doing the Chillblains course
at the moment and has really got into that. Our 2 have probably been chatting to each other!

I am still slightly cynical as she has got 95% (A - distinction) for each assignment and I'm not sure they are that good! However she is enjoying it and she's said she'll read books ticw now which she'd never do before.

Thats great Rivvy, and yes our DDs probebly were chatting to each other

DD has really enjoyed getting her grades and feedback, although some of this seems a bit generic (although given the turnaround and number of children on the course thats to be expected a bit) aside from her first assignmnet, all her others were distinctions with 90 or 95%. I thought after spending all weekend on the computer she would have had enough but talking about it tonight she said " I cant wait till next weekend for Plato Mum"!

We talked about how hard it had sometimes been and she surprised me by saying "but if its too easy thats no fun", and "you do have to work sometimes to learn new things" when I checked to make sure some droid had not beenn switched for my daughter I gave her a big hug and realised that the course has helped her learn a great deal more than I had expected