school want to move my dd up to yr 2

[razors]

My dd is 5 - 6 in July and currently in year 1. The school have recognised she is a bright little thing and want to move her in to year 2 after half term. I'm quite happy for her to do this if she is happy to of course but my query is how does this pan out in future years? will she then have to do an extra year in year 6 and all her classmates catch up with her later on in the school or will she go to secondary school earlier? I did ask the Head but her answer wasn't clear and thought I'd ask if any of you have experienced this and how it worked out for you dc's. I'd appreciate any advice, thank you x

Interesting what a lot of people are saying about the work ethic thing - I had (still have?) trouble with that as I was mainly coasting throughout school despite being moved up a year. They did consider moving me up another year, but that would have put me in with my sister (two and a bit years older) and would have caused social problems.

I only really did much work in the last year or two at Cambridge, and even then tbh wasn't working as hard as most people - I was also busy job-hunting, doing up a house and planning my wedding.

And I still find that unless I have a serious deadline I find it hard to get myself motivated. I'm sure part of that is just my personality , but I expect it would have been even worse if I'd stayed in my original year.

I think what Pixie said is right about moving up one year not really working as if you're bright enough to be moved up once, you're going to be working at a faster pace and will soon outgrow the year you're moved into. Staying with your peers and being given appropriate work for your ability would theoretically be better - if the school really does put enough thought and effort into it. I would think you'd still feel fairly isolated from your peers if virtually all your academic work was on a different level, though. And without competition/encouragement from other children working at the same level, it might be hard to keep up motivation.

Ideally I suppose you'd find a school where there were enough similarly bright children of the same age to form an academically advanced peer group - but realistically that would only happen in a selective private school setting here. They have better arrangements in some parts of the US, I have heard.

So how does a teacher in reception/yr1 do a yr 2/3 science experiment or a group discussion on a piece of poetry etc if only a couple of children are at that level? I can't see how it's possible without putting them in a class of other yr2/3s. It's not laziness on the teacher/schools part. It does depend on the school size etc and ds is in a very small school so perhaps that's how they can do it effectively.

science is difficult I think
my dd in reception is doing year 1 maths but she and another boy do it in the reception classroom while the other kids do reception maths.
good teacher, class of 10 and a full time teaching assistant make that possible

private

I was awful at school to olessaty. my mum moved house recently and presented me with my school reports. the kids are shocked and horrified by how awful they are. some of them are very amusingly awful, much blunter than the equivalent would be today!

It can work in private sector because they can have her flow through the whole system a year ahead, but you will have lots of red tape in state sector and secondary trfr could be a nightmare.

An alternative to the normal 'traditional' private school setting (where kids are simply moved into another year and treated the same as the children in that year regardless of social development, etc) might be to see if there is a montessori school in the area? That way she would be moving across the age ranges as part and parcel of normal school life (depending on how montessori it is). I know there was talk of opening a state montessori school in London but not sure if anything ever came of it. If not then there is quite a cost to this route.

My DD moved into a Yr 2 class when she was in Y1 along with another child, and a friend each they had asked to go with. She did some year 2 work, some y1 depending on subject. Good teachers should be able to differentiate between abilities but I think in my DDs case, she was more lower end of Y2 than higher end of Y1, IYSWIM. She went into the other Y2 class with a different teacher the year after, and didn't find it boring etc IIRC. She was November-born though so don't know if that made a difference. She kept friends from nursery/reception (would be Foundation now) and made lots of new Y2 friends.

One of DD's friends was moved up a year in primary and stayed like that throughout secondary, he has started at Cambridge this year aged 17. Birthday is October. DD has said in the past he is more mature than some of her male friends who are in the 'right' year anyway! It really depends on the child involved and whether or not you think she would cope ok.

"If Freshmint is an intelligent girl, which her reputation suggests she is, she does an excellent job of hiding it in Latin. She does not participate in class, does not do her prep, and is rather silly. She is wasting her time and mine."

Oh dear. I was 12.

"I would comment on Freshmint's work, had I seen any."

L6th Physics. That was the full report

God I must hide these from my kids, no wonder they are horrified

Hi, freshmint - you say that the work you did at school was easy and obvious. That just demonstrates to me that you saw schoolwork as jumping through hoops, without seeing the point of the hoops. Instead of seeing what they said in school as the starting point from which you should develop your own thoughts and ideas and do your own research, you thought that all you could possibly know, or were interested in knowing, was what you were told you had to know. By going through school a year or two ahead of your age, you wouldn't have learnt anything more than you did going through at a normal pace, if that was your attitude - you just would have learnt it a year or two earlier.

Yup I think you are absolutely right.
But I would add that nothing they said or did at school made me think that there was any point to any of it, apart from passing exams in the far distant future (which I did, anyway). Careers advice was non existent and there was no suggestion of obtaining wider knowledge

My brother went to Winchester where it was ALL about becoming roundly educated and investigating what interested you, and exams were secondary. I'd have been much happier there.

Thanks for all your input. Some really interesting points made which I hadn't considered.

I think one of the things this conversation has flagged up for me is how brighter pupils do seem to be let down by the system. Less able children seem to get a lot of help and guidance but our schools don't seem to know what to do with the brighter children. Although that is a whole other thread!!

My dd is socially able to deal with this move I believe. I think I just need to get over the fact that somewhere along the line she will have to do another year and hope that she is stretched academically then. The year 2 children were in her early years unit which is separate from the main building so she already knows some of the children and does play with older children already.

I'll talk it through a bit more with the Head just to deal with the queries such as the sats coming up and the disruption of then being held back a year. She will still see her class mates at play time just will be in another class for lessons.

She is already in the top group in her class so why they can't give them year two work and keep her in the same class I don't know? Will need clarification on that too. So thank you all for making me think about all the pros and cons. It's really made me think.

Hugs (((( ))))

This is all really interesting and strikes some real chords.

Firstly Freshmint, yes I was also freak from the planet freaky for much of my school career. In some ways it's a good thing - I trust my own opinion and so on - but heaven knows it was hard work when I was twelve. But moving up a year or not doesn't really make much difference to this.

And funnily enough I was sitting in the bath the other day and thinking how little of a work ethic I have and how I either coast through things or don't do them at all. No one taught me that some things in life are worth working at and trying and trying again.

I'm thinking about this a bit right now as DD is showing signs of taking after me (and I would really rather she didn't, it's not a route to an easy life) so these are things we are going to have to deal with quite soon. We've been thinking about sport for her - as a way of showing her that for some things in life only practice can make you better.

stillsquiffy love the sound of a state montesorri - I wonder what came of that?

freshmint your reports are too funny :) but yes hide them from dc for a while !!

I must ask my mother for my reports - I have a feeling I also had lots of good marks for achievement, with frequent comments about lack of effort....

I was worried about DS (yr8) going in the same direction, but recently he seems to have noticed that putting some effort into things does actually affect his grades, so he is doing a lot more. He is in a selective school with lots of other bright boys so isn't automatically top of everything, which I think is very healthy for him. The school also gives effort grades equal prominence with results on their reports, which is also a good thing.

I could quote nearly every school report I had, because they all say the same thing "very bright, but talks too much in class and distracts other pupils". I still talk too much when I am around other people, even though I would say I am a bit socially inept.

One of my DS's friends was moved up a year in a state primary.

The child in question is incredibly bright.

The school were very vague at what the future held suggesting the other pupils might catch up if this boy hit a plateau. But he didn't and ended up with the best marks in Year 6, despite being a year younger.

Secondary transfer was a nightmare as it had to be done by special arrangement.

The secondary viewed it that my DS's friend was depriving another child of a place in an already oversubscribed school. They were not helpful as it is an unusual situation in state schools.

In the end the new head teacher of the primary was able to "blame" his predecessor for moving the child up in the first place and come to a special arrangement.

OP - Don't let them move your child without speaking to possible secondary schools about the effects of this in year 6. Our old head was keen to move the clever boy as there were too many in that class and it was convenient for him.

Also I would say that this friend is struggling socially because he has actually been deprived of appropriate peers by moving up. His social development HAS been affected and his Mum did suffer some nasty comments from other parents who did not see why their DCs couldn't move up too.

Its very flattering for the school to request this for your child but in the state sector I don't think its a decision that should be taken lightly.

Good luck.

Also need to consider things like games and music. My mum was a year ahead and June birthday. She got labelled as bad at both. As an adult she realised that actually she's quite reasonable, but they're things at primary that it's hard to compete with older ones. Having been labelled as bad at them at a young age she never threw that off.

I didn't think they did this any more? I would not be happy to move my DD out of her class where she is very happy with her friends and into a group of older girls - more sophisticated, different dynamic (it changes as they get older). It strikes me as a bit lazy as well - shouldn't they be challenging her within the classroom alongside her peer group?

Something just clicked when I read the work ethic thing. I was moved up a year (at 7) and have a Feb birthday. I've never really learnt to focus on work very well and have muddled through lazily! People seem to think I achieve a lot but I always wing it.

Emotionally I think it's hard. One of my dcs stood out as v bright at primary but there were mixed year groups which worked lower down but certainly not by Y6 when she'd already been working in the top group for 2 years! I think it needs careful thinking out. It certainly doesn't seem right these days for a child to be sitting at the back of a Y6 class - able children should be integrated into the group. A friend's son spent a very unhappy last year at primary as he'd already been in Y6. Quite put him off education.

This happened in DS's old school to another child - a girl was moved up. Although she was clever, I am very sure the motivation was the number in the class as their class ended up with 32 due to appeals and in the beginning of year 1 they had two teachers which couldn't be sustained. Year 2 had 28 and Year 1 32 and so the plan was for two to move up.

School suggested DS should move up. We felt flattered but it would have been wrong and we stood our ground. They then worked through other children. In the end another girl went down to reception although given her needs this was a good decision. Not sure what has happened to the girl who moved up.

DS wasn't exceptional - now in a different school as we have moved he is towards the top but there are some v clever children here. Would have been total mistake for him to move up.

I didn't think state schools moved children up a year anymore - sounds like you have an enlightened Head who wants the best for your child. Not sure how it pans out in later years but good on your school for wanting her challenged!

the thing that would cocern me as others have said would be what would happen further up the school. socialy i dont think that it would be too bad as its only one year and im sure she would get on fine, as you said that its a small school and they all mix any way.
if they would take her early for secondary then college/sixth form it would be fine but i would wont those questions answerd before i committed to it.

my dd is in a mixed y1/2 class which is lovely for her as a y1 child as it means that she gets to do work with the year above. im not sure how it will work out for her next year when her year are the older ones as she does all her guided reading ect with children from the year above. but there are bright kids in the current y2 and they seem to be fine with the other ones so in sure it will work out.

good luck with your desicion.

I'm afraid not, twopeople, although I'm sure it's the way most people see school!

rabbit - I think I saw a lot of the stuff I was taught at school as fairly useless, pointless knowledge I had to absorb and regurgitate in exams before I could learn what I really wanted to learn.

So in the subjects I wasn't interested in, I did the minimum of homework and exam revision, and spent a lot of time in my early teens reading anything and everything - fiction, science, anthropology, evolution, teach-yourself anglo-saxon, Chinese philosophy etc etc - before I decided what direction I wanted to go in.

I was very glad that I wasn't stuck a year further back and therefore a year further away from being free to pursue my own interests without history o-level and so on getting in the way.