How to get the best out of school for my bright-but-not-G&T year 1 son?

[FamiliesShareGerms]

DS is just finishing year one. He really enjoys school, which is a really nice single form school. It's not an "outstanding" school, but "good with outstanding features", which pretty much sums him up too! He's very advanced with his reading, pretty good with maths, pretty poor (but now making good strides) with his writing, and is generally enquiring and has a good memory. He struggles to maintain concentration for long, but I don't think he's significantly worse for that than many other six year old boys! I don't think he is gifted and talented, just top end of average. Does that make sense?

What I'd like some advice on is how best to support his education. It seems that at school the top 5% G&T get extra support and help to stretch them, the bottom 20% get extra support to help bring them up to average, and the ones in the middle just bob along. Maybe it's not like that, but it looks like that to us. Eg few stretching or extension activities to push him from being good at something to excellent at it. I know the reality is that with 30 in a class and one teacher and one TA, they have to focus their attention on those most in need of it. And the school really isn't very pushy or competitive, much more the "it's the taking part that counts" ethos, which is really lovely in lots of ways, but it does seem to mean that they are happy to settle for everyone to be average.

So, other than go private and hope that smaller classes and possibly a more academic environment would bring him on, what else can we do with him at home? We already do plenty of reading, visits to museums, talking about stuff we see etc etc.

I should stress that we aren't trying to line him up for super early Oxbridge entry then prime minister or anything like that, just make sure that his above average trajectory continues and he doesn't become average by the end of primary school.

Thanks for your thoughts - and please don't flame me!

Your school sounds similar to ours - I have a child in year 3, and a child in reception. I am quite involved in the school in different ways, and am constantly amazed by the way in which the teachers do make the day to day work relevant to each child, and there is actually very little "coasting" going on.

I actually think the best thing you can do us to support what the school do (which I'm sure you do anyway). So, spend proper time on homework, read around the class topics and extend knowledge at home. Basically, encourage him to enjoy learning.

If he's progressing at school, what are you expecting in addition to that? How do you know his work isn't differentiated to bring him on?
Perhaps he doesn't need extension activities, because the work is differentiated well anyway.

You seem to be basing your opinions on your 6 year old's interpretation of the teacher's plans.

I definitely wouldn't flame you (or indeed anyone) as it's a very reasonable query. You want to ensure your child is achieving his potential and not just being ignored because he isn't struggling.

Is your son's class working in ability groups? If so, how many are in his group and are they doing the same work as the rest of the class?

In any case, it's worth asking the teacher how to challenge your child in an appropriate way (i.e. without going ahead of the curriculum). My dd's teacher told me the ways that she differentiated and I was happy with that. She also gave some tips for what to do at home (reading and lots of real-life problems). My dd was totally oblivious that her group's work was different by the way, so they are not always reliable witnesses!

Something that always puzzles me is that how people know their child's potential. What does that actually mean?

Thanks for the replies.

Girls - parents evening coming up in a few weeks, so we'll talk to his teacher again then. I think it is those sorts of tips we're after. In terms of groups, they have four groups for reading, maths, and writing and three groups for phonics (phonics is shared with Yr 2), so quite small number of kids in each.

I'm not sure if I'm explaining myself very well, but for example, we were told at the start of the year that our kids should soend about 20 mins a week on their maths homework. DS does it in under five mins each week. So I make up extra tasks for him. Of course homework should be fun at this age (I don't think I even had homework until I was 11), but surely it should also be a bit challenging?

Flexy - I guess realising potential means different things to different people. For me and DH, we think that DS has the ability to do well in a number of different fields. He desperately wants to be a professional goalkeeper at the moment, though, but he never will... But he could potentially be a doctor or lawyer, say, because - at the moment - he seems bright enough to do the study and with the right sort of personality. So we want to be able to give him the opportunities he would need to do that sort of thing. Disclaimer - we'd be happy with him doing none of these things if he prefers!

I don't see why the OP has to explain herself.. It's normal to want your child to realise their potential so that they have choices. If they underperform for their potential, this is a shame as they may have fewer choices, be that as a goalkeeper, a nurse or a lawyer.

I am a year 2 teacher. I am also parent of a bright but in the middle 10 year old, a G&T 12 year old and a G&T 7 year old. My primary school which they all attended/attend is OUTSTANDING!

However, G&T in primary is not worth the paper it is written on. Seriously. Government cuts a few years ago ensured that but even before G&T was a bit tongue in cheek in most schools. Basically, you are doing everything you should to ensure your child gets the most out of school. Hopefully, each child is given work to suit their own needs, through personalised learning and differentiation whcih are big in primary classrooms. Reading everyday and asking questions about what you have read (wither him reading or you reading to him) and then conversation to encourage an enquiring mind. Most 6 year olds how short concerntration! In my class we work all over the place, rarely at tables, to help them immerse in the environment.

Its wonderful you feel he is bright, it always makes for an easy life. As a G&T parent, thats actually very stressful...my secondary school daughter is finally having more needs recognised but all through primary it was a joke! They dientified her and then took her out of one lesson once in a while for a bit of extra. No real help. Same for my son- who is in MY OWN CLASS!! Haha. That is the way it is! However, as long as your child progresses, never mind eh?! I was a bright kid but did the same work as everybody else. In the end, its about your self determination in later life, so teach your son that hard work pays off so he will strive to do well simply because he WANTS to, then he will have a successful life!

Just on your point re: homework - ds1 used to finish his homework in 10 mins in year 2. It was supposed to take 30 mins. We were encouraged to add extra questions etc to make up to the 30 mins.

He's now in year 3, but working for maths at the top end of the year 4 class. His homework is certainly stretching him now (tears of frustration yesterday morning...)!

Hi Familiessharegems:

I agree with girlsinwhitedresses it's a reasonably question.

I'm afraid in my case the issue was that both DDs were struggling so I started researching what was out there. Some really useful websites include:

BBC Learning [BETA - in design stage but available]: www.bbc.co.uk/schools/teachers/ - on the left middle is an orange box with tabs - select KS2 and then select the area of curriculum you'd like to work on.

Also BBC Bitesize has some really good games - you may have to do some previewing - but often they can also help extend learning and you can chose the ability level: www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/

Coxhoe Primary School has two useful aspects to their webpage - in year useful curriculum links - e.g. for Year 3: www.schooljotter.com/showpage.php?id=50219 and also general curriculum links here: www.schooljotter.com/showpage.php?id=35494 just chose subject.

Woodlands Primary school has a very useful Maths zone: www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/index.html and Literacy zone: www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/literacy/index.htm. There general webpage is also full of lots of useful stuff: www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/

Ambleside primary has this lovely times table practice here: www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/mentalmaths/tabletrees.html

Crickweb has useful on-line games/ worksheets/ links here: www.crickweb.co.uk/ - just select KS2 on the blue bar at the top of the page and then the appropriate curriculum topic.

We've found lots of reading and encouraging that (regular trips to the library, exchanging books with friends, getting friends/ family to give books at birthdays/ Christmas) has been a real help.

If your DS is into video games and you want to really work mutliplication and inverse of multiplication (simple division) you may want to try Mathz Attack: www.bigbrainz.com/ - we just use the free-version (although you can pay for versions with many more environments to explore)

CoolMathsforkids; www.coolmath4kids.com/ - has some good stuff, but you'll need to explore through beforehand.

nrich maths: primary student link here: nrich.maths.org/6491 - this is through University of Cambridge and has some great ideas/ games to really extend and challenge maths learning.

If you are in an area for the 11+ - around late year 4 you may want to start investigating the various workbooks out there. We're still slightly undecided on whether to go through wiht 11+ or not (DD1's friends are doing it, so she wants to - but we do have our doubts about it) - however the little bit of work we've done so far has been great. We've learned that a lot of grammatical vocabularly just isn't there (although she understands the concept/ function of words she doesn't know their proper grammatical term - i.e. she knows action words not verbs).

Finally explore other ways of extending learning through clubs/ activities. Beavers/ cub scouts really help with nature/ biology/ geography and after-school language clubs are brilliant. Learning a musical instrument also has all sorts of benefits.

HTH

Hi Familiessharesgem:

Just realised your DS is Y1 (got slightly muddled with sittinginthesun DS Y3): So you may want to be selecting KS1 and Y1/ Y2 activities and it may be a bit early to start multiplication - but good to have these links for later hopefully.

PastSellByDate, thanks, these links look really good, thanks for takingvthe time to post them.

Riversmum, thanks. Your point on hard work is very valid - I do worry sometimes that DS cruises because he can do stuff rather than stretch himself. Hope he develops good study habits in due course...!

I am glad that he isn't G&T!