Can my 11yr old skip a school year?

[hayley76]

Hi, My son is very intelligent he is top of his year and all of his teachers say that he could easily skip 2years of school, I don't think 2 years would be good because he wouldn't be as developed emotionally, but I would consider a year as I don't think he's at all challenged and is very bored.
At the moment he sees a councillor because of his behaviour and she says this is down to his unbalanced emotional and intelligence development which creates allot of frustration.

but I am told that in northamptonshire its not possible for children to skip a year.

Has anyone else had this experience?

I think in the state sector it's not possible to skip a year. He could be challenged more by the school giving him some more difficult work to do. He could take up some challenging hobbies - maybe a musical instrument to keep him busy.

I skipped my last year at primary school - many years ago - when it could be done. Academically it was probably a mistake.

You could ask whether, he could do some subjects with the next year, my son did for one year, in primary particularly maths and english. It meant he stayed with his peers for most things but the problem of him being bored was solved. His school were very helpful. However he is in a private school now, as it wasn't possible at secondary. I am not rich, he won a scholarship which pays 25% of the fees and I work two part time jobs to pay for the rest. Its not an easy choice but the bored disruptive behaviour scenario is common. Talk to the school, see what they say about giving him more challenging work.

Skipping a year will very rarely meet the needs of a gifted child. It would be far better to find ways to extend and enrich his learning - both at school and out of school. Learning an additonal language or a musical instrument, can work for some students.

If his behaviour/maturity is not fantastic atm - and it sounds as though it isn't - then putting him up a year ahead of his chronological peers is unlikely to help IMO.

Just wanted to mention that it is possible to skip a year in the state sector (my DD did it, going from yr 1 to yr 3, and is 12 now) but it needs very careful consideration.

Is your DS at secondary school yet or is he going in September?

I know at least 6-7 children who have skipped a year, so it is possible, the only downside to it is that sometimes they are forced into decisions/environments they are not yet mature for yet, for example:

Have a friend who started university being just 16, when I met him being 10 (at secondary school) the other boys bullied him big time (it didn't help that even being 2 years younger he had the best grades of the... school), another one who was only advanced a year but who always thought she was in some sort of disadvantage within her peer group as she was too little, too young or didn't have the motor skills developed enough yet to participate in certain activities at the same standard as his classmates. Her DD is very advanced but she has preffered to move her to more challenging schools as she is completely opposed to the girl being moved a year forward.

My older sister was also advanced one year, very hard working and very intelligent but she is so used to be the "baby one" everybody thinks she is younger not only than me, but than my younger sister!

So who knows what is best.

it depends on your LEA - some will allow it, some won't - if yours won't then your only option is to go private

Dont know if still relevant but I skipped the second year of senior school (long ago now) due to moving from a country with a more advanced school system (apparently) - and I really regret it. It was damaging to me both socially and academically.

Social death

If his emotional development is lacking compared to his intellectual development (and my ds1 will always have that problem) then you need to work on his emotional development, and CERTAINLY do not put him in a social situation where at 12, he will have to face mature 13 and 14 year olds.

12 year old boys are children. 14 year old girls are little women, mostly with little/no empathy as this comes later, and will rip him to shreds on a daily basis, just for their viewing pleasure.

For the love of your son, don't put him through that hell. His self esteem will plummet.

Great post there by colditz. I agree completely.

I agree with colditz. Help him with the social side-it is so important. There are lots of things that are intellectually challenging, outside school, as extras.

I teach in the state sector and I have known a few children do this. Two particularly stand out though:

One boy was moved up but I think this was mainly because of very pushy parents. He was quite immature for his age and didn't get on with his peers. Intelligent, but not amazingly so. Certainly capable of straight A's at A level but ended up underachieving mainly due to laziness and arrogance.

More recently, a girl which was much more successful. She was already September born though so it wasn't much of a jump. In her year group she certainly was the highest achieving (6 A levels - almost full UMS scores) but there were a couple of boys who were almost certainly a bit brighter. She was, however, incredibly hard-working, modest, popular across the board, and mature. She skipped the last year of primary to come to secondary early.

TBH there are lots of children I have taught who could easily cope academically with being moved up a year or two. Hardly any who I would consider it to be the right thing to do in the longterm though.

I know one who skipped year 6 but she was an October birthday, physically quite large for her age and mature, no one would have noticed that she was in the 'wrong' year.
I also know a boy who is very advanced in Maths so he took GCSE early and is working with the 6th form when he is in year 8 but only for maths-he is still one of his peer group and not particularly gifted in other subjects.

Thank you so much for all your replies! My son is due to start secondary school in September & I am currently trying (& struggling!) to arrange a meeting with his new head teacher so I can discuss options regarding his education. In the meantime I have booked him an IQ test with Mensa. I figured if he is accepted then there will be activities or clubs which will help stretch him academically so even if his school is unable or unwilling to help we may still make him feel happier in his own skin

I would wait until he goes to secondary school - there will be a lot of bright children there 9it's a bigger pool than Primary school) and he may meet more like minded friends.

I'm not sure that MENSA would help - although I stand to be corrected. Isn't the important thing that he learns to interact with all sorts of people, rather than just with his intellectual peers?

I second the view that actually most bright kids could cope pretty well with being moved up a year or so academically...but oh no not emotionally.

I'm also fairly sure his new school will have information about him and be aware that he's bright.

I think start of secondary might be a bit too late to skip a year - I agree with StewieGriffinsMom that it would be better to have a flexible timetable where he can work on his best subjects with older pupils. You just have to hope the school is sympathetic and prepared to be flexible.

I skipped a year and it worked absolutely fine for me: Jan birthday but was tallish for my age, skipped yr3 primary, had no social problems whatsoever, and was still top of the class academically all the way through. But by secondary stage classmates would be much more aware of what's going on, more likely to tease or exclude him, and there would be missed curriculum to catch up on.

Also of course he's bored now. That's the whole point of the last term of primary school. You're supposed to get bored, so that you're able to cope with the emotional and intellectual challenge of moving on. Just like getting bored with pre-school before you start Big School. I fully expect my DD1 to be really quite bored in two years' time.

Putting aside the (very important) aspect of emotional development the other problem with skipping a year is that very bright children often learn things at an accelerated speed. Its usually the pace of learning at school that is most frustrating not the actual things being taught. Skipping a year only solves this for a very short period.

And also: if there is an imbalance between his emotional and his intellectual levels, then moving up a year or so will only distort this further, because if he is working at the level of a 13 year old rather than a 12 year old there is a bigger gap between his 'real' age of 11 and/or his 'emotional age' if that is younger.

I agree it would have probably been best for him to have skipped a year in primary school, but as he wasn't receiving therapy then we weren't really aware of how it could have helped with his emotional issues. He isn't bored at school due to it being his last term, he isn't bored at school at all - he has an amazing thirst for knowledge & is constantly reading & learning new things even when he isn't at school. He has behavioural problems that his therapist & year 6 teacher believe may be helped by being stretched more at school. I can't say I have much experience of the matter but I'm told gifted children often display behavioural/emotional problems due to their frustration which stems from school work being to easy.

You will have to excuse my apparent contradiction re the 'bored' comment. My husband posted the first message & I should have read it more thoroughly before adding my own comments. I don't think he is bored though, just frustrated & a lot of the time unhappy

I've never seen the point of Mensa. I once did a test and got invited to a centre to take it under test conditions, but when I read all the literature I couldn't see what I was paying for-just the chance to say 'I am bright I belong to Mensa'-so what? There must be lots of brighter people around who have never even thought of it. I would concentrate on getting on with all sorts-a much better preparation for life.