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 skipped the last year of primary school and went from being the brightest (by far) to just being slightly above average.

Not in itself a major issue, but the social aspect was definitely a problem. When my peers were turning 15 I was only 13 (April bday so late on anyway) and my parents wouldn't let me do any of the things they did. No underage discos, no travelling back from the cinema in the dark, no first dates with the boys in our social circle (not that the boys we mixed with would have wanted to date a 13 yr old anyway).

It was tough. As was going to uni underage and having to be an illegal drinker for most of the year - I got turned away from clubs more times than I care to remember when my mates got in.

I would say that it would be very very hard.

DD is late August birthday and even that has been quite hard (physically smaller so has affected PE/sport at which she would otherwise be quite good, later to qualify agewise for DofE and similar and obviously more of same waiting to come with driving, alcohol etc.)

She is fine academically but I would much rather she was 2 weeks younger, oldest in the year with all advantages even if it meant being a bit bored.

I skipped year 4 at primary school; I am April birthday so the younger end of the year anyway and as a result I was a full 18 months younger than some of my class right the way through school and university. I agree it is a big risk socially; I had an unhappy time socially at school, though I'm not sure how much the skip contributed, there were other issues too (I missed a lot of school being ill). It may well have been much the same in my own year. I was lucky in that physically I hit puberty early (started periods at 11) so I didn't look 'behind' in that respect. I did appreciate being able to put the whole school experience behind me a year earlier than I would otherwise!

Academically it was never a problem, but I agree with the posters above who say that it doesn't solve much either. As I remember it, it was exciting for a few weeks at the beginning of the year after the skip, while I caught up, but then I went back to being pretty horribly bored. In year 9 I sat in on year 10 or 11 English classes for a bit, and that I did enjoy - I think accelerating for certain subjects rather than skipping years completely is a good idea.

My feeling about it now is that if a child is far enough ahead to make the skip seem worth the social and emotional risk, it's probably also true that it will only help in the very short term, if at all. So on balance maybe not a good idea.

worked well with 2 of my nieces, not so well with my nephew. As mentioned maybe a girl/boy thing?

Ds skipped year 4 in his prep school. He wasn't invited to parties but academically I have to admit that it was better. I moved him because of the attitude of the new head, partly because he disagreed with the old head's choice to allow ds to skip a year and partly because he had no idea whatsoever about the needs of a very bright child. The school he moved to wouldn't allow him to remain in his year group so he ended up repeating year 5 (despite the fact that he'd been assessed at the start of year 5 (should have been year 4)at the previous school as having a literacy and comprehension age of 16+ (off the scale) and a maths age of 14. The school he moved to was a nightmare, he was very bored and the extension work he was doing wasn't hard enough for him. He's now in a different private primary where his work is being differenciated, within a month of him starting the head asked if I would consider ds sitting his GCSE maths and english the following year as he would be ready for this. Ds is due to move again for secondary school in September, it's in the top 80 with alot of very bright boys there so I shall see.

In an ideal world all children would recieve work that was tailored to their ability rather then their age. This rarely happens though, even in some private schools it never happens. It works really, really well when it does. It's better to keep a child in their age group and just change the work to meet their needs but in all honesty, it probably doesn't happen as it's alot of work for the teachers.

Mensa won't offer anything, it's a bit pointless to have IQ's assessed because you can't get anything out of it. Very bright children sometimes find the social side of school difficult because they feel isolated. I'd work on this first, private schools do often give out scholarships to bright children, families on low incomes can also recieve additional funding, there's alot more scope for extra curricular activities then I've ever seen in a state school (not saying there's no good ones), ds's have a reading group, debating society, chess club, philosophy and morals group etc. Maybe this is something you should consider.

Is there a way of encouraging him to take up some really challenging hobby? If his behaviour could be improved by being challenged at school, is there any chance that the same result could be achieved by being challenged out of school? I don't ask because I don't think schools should be responsible for challenging gifted students, but simply because of the point raised by other posters, namely that moving him up a year probably won't solve his problems for more than a short time. Outside of school he might be able to find an interest that is ageless and has unlimited capacity for stretching him. Things that have worked for gifted children I know have included composing music, learning languages, drama; there might also be science clubs, crafts.

I was bored during primary school and according to my mum became a bit of a bully. I was advanced up to Y6 in Y4 for both science and maths and this worked for a bit. Then I got into grammar school where the work was harder and had no behavioural issues.

See how his transition to secondary goes. He will have new subjects, new teachers, setting possibly for the first time and this may meet his needs. If it is becoming clear that perhaps it doesn't then speak to his HOY and ask about whether it's possible for him to join another year group for the subjects he's talented in.

An academic prep school should be working 18 months ahead of state schools so this may be an option for you if you can get a scholarship/bursary. You should look at Maidwell Hall if you're in Northamptonshire. He'll also be learning French, Latin and Greek and will not be ahead in these areas initially which may be good for him.