Would you want acceleration ? Teacher advice please!

[AnxiousElephant]

DD is due her report and last report (Easter Y1) was levelled as 2a, 1a,1a and I know she has made significant progress since. Example, in reading she can understand and read most books appropriate to her age i.e. Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl, enjoys all Dr Zeus (no problem handling made up words!). Maths she is doing 2, 5, 10 times tables, understands money and value, tells time to half hour, been able to bake a cake independently i.e. weigh and measure ingredients, get out all equipment, read instructions for about 4 months, uses tape measure etc doing division. Writing is always punctuated and starts with a capital letter, uses and, because and some camas. Writes lists, instructions and spells longer words such as chocolate with 'e' missing etc. spells 'instructions' as instrucshons' etc.
So I think she may be 3c, 2c,2c at the end of year report.
Since she is very mature (the KS1 lead didn't realise she wasn't year 2!) Would it benefit her to be accelerated to provide more challenge. I ask because the lament of her teacher is that she daydreams lots and it has been raised on every parents evening! I wonder if she is bored? I have asked what she daydreams about and she says 'making money', lots of enterprises have been discussed, so I believe this is the truth.

My dd is also y1 and has been assessed by an Ed psych as being highly gifted and on the 99.9th percentile, the Ed psych recommended she be moved up a year which school refused to contemplate.
Tbh i used to get really hung up on whether dd was being stretched or not but now i can honestly say my main concern is dd's happiness.
We have found at this age its easy to self differentiate anyway.

OP - my DD is in Y1. She is working at NC levels 2a (reading), 2b (writing), 2b (maths). She also learnt to ride a bike without stabilisers at 4, as well as being able to swim 50m - and this was after breaking her leg at 3 and effectively losing 6 months of physical development.

She regularly writes plays at home, and independently comes out with "projects" e.g. gardening, cooking, making crafts that she follows through. In addition she's popular among her peers and with non-family adults - she's a leader among her small group of main friends and the child at school that everyone else goes to when they are feeling sad/hurt.

In short, she sounds not desperately dissimilar to your DD - but with different strengths/interests.

But ... and here's the point - I've been round enough children of this age to know that she's above average, but not in any way exceptional. I'd go further to say that if she were in DS's school year (some very bright children there) she might only just be scraping into top groups academically.

Oh, and a child reading at Level 3c now is very likely still to be at Level 3 by this time next year (my DS was 3b in reading last year, 3a now - he's made loads of "actual" progress) - it's only at the very early levels that it is reasonable to make multiple sub-levels of progress in a very short time.

I suspect your viewpoint is skewed by your DD being a big fish in a small pond - hence my earlier suggestion that moving to a bigger school might be a positive move.

she sounds very like my ds. finished year 1 as a solid level 2 (with strong elements of 3). He did not progress much in year 2, formally his level is a secure to high 3 but know that much of what he was said to learn in year 2 he had actually done in year 1. But it does not matter, what he did do over the year is grow up and make friends and enjoy himself. so relax op

Captain barnacle how early? 1 year or more. Or 5 or 6 or more?

Actually I think there is a separate GCSE English for "mature" students as they have so much more life skills.

Just one year early. I mark gcse RE papers. As its a short course, some schools get their students to complete the exam in year 9. You can tell the papers from 13/14 year olds in comparison to 16yr olds, yes.

I am another one saying that your DD sounds bright and interested but not exceptional. My DD is in yr1 and the upper end of average in her school, she is on the middle tables. She also writes in joined up writing all the time, writes full stories with good structure, speech and excellent punctuation. She is level 13 in reading and she can follow and write excellent instructions. She also knows her 2, 10 and 5 times table, knows the time to half and quarter of an hour, can do simple division and multiplication and has been riding a 2 wheel bike since before she was 3.

I don't see that as exceptional at all, just good for year 1. There are children in her class who are streets ahead of this.

Captain that's not what I meant really, as I did English a year early too. But you don't hear of kids doing GCSE English at 10, but do frequently for Maths.

Those levels are good, but not exceptional. You may well find that she'll still be a 2a in reading in her report. If she is a 3c, she will probably still be a level 3 (3b/3a) at the end of Y2 as children rarely sustain that level of progress. She made 4 sublevels in reading last year-she may make only 1/2 next year.

When do you actually get her report?

No-I wouldn't recommend acceleration.

I think lots of you are right in so far as it is partly my own poor experience that skews my views. I was really bright as a child, never challenged by academic work and was the child who had an answer for everything which drove my parents to hitting me for back chatting all the time. I don't remember getting on well or feeling as though I fitted in with my class and although I got invited to plenty of parties and seemed to others to be popular I never felt as though I fitted in. I was referred to as an 'old head' by my mum. Due to the lack of challenge/ effort needed I didn't work hard. I also feared failing and lacked confidence. I didn't feel clever at the time but clearly the potential was there as I have completed a Pg Dip (masters level work). I have always been lazy with studying but have always achieved anything I put my mind to do. I just don't want my dd to follow my pattern, to float along easily for her school career and never learning study skills or a good work ethic.
I will wait and see what happens. Despite what people may think I am neither pushy nor complacent, I don't spend hours doing homework with her. We spend lots of time visiting places, some museums (dd1 and 2 enjoy it) and mostly parks, walks, cycling, catching tadpoles We do loads of arts and crafts which is dd1 favourite activity, lego small worls stuff. She does normal child stuff and isn't a geek.
My post makes her sound like a brat - I need to clarify that she will read on her terms the books she is interested in, just not levelled reading books. She prefers the outdoors which makes it a challenge to rope her in to homework and is very sociable with her friends who all happen to be older than her.
Someone mentioned Aspergers/ ASD and this has on occasion crossed my mind due to her constant daydreaming, disorganisation and horrendous emotional outbursts at home. At school she doesn't display the outbursts and is really well behaved.

2 things.

1. Well done, OP, on your gracious reconsidering of what you've said/implied so far. Good advice from other posters.

2. Does some of this not illustrate how mad it is for us to know what 'levels' our dc are at age (barely) 6? Many, many children will be very good readers quite quickly and a little bit slower at maths and writing - though maybe still above their peers, most of whom will catch up. There seems to be a lot of paranoia caused by the actual levels being disseminated to parents either by those whose children are 'slightly above' or 'slightly below' average at this very early stage in their school life. Madness.

KitKat I do think it makes us more paranoid, but on the flip side I failed to achieve through my abilities not being recognised. So yes in short it is stressful but hopefully by being able to understand my dd I can be understanding of how she thinks and the constant questioning/ critical way she sees things. I am thoughtful about it but don't tell her or agree all the time with her criticisms of her version of events iyswim. She is disciplined, I don't just excuse her behaviour because she is intelligent........but I do understand it and this helps me to deal with it .

In answer to your question, no, I wouldn't be seeking acceleration.

Your DD sounds like a wonderfully active, bright and interested Y1 child. Although she presents as a very mature 6-year-old at school her daydreaming and seemingly short-lived interest in activities led by others suggest to me that Y2 (provided the teacher does a good job of differentiating the academic work) is the right place for her to be in September.

My own DD is now in Y2 and whilst I would describe her as bright and as a quick learner, I wouldn't describe her as being academically exceptional. She taught herself to swim aged 4 and a half, could tell the time accurately (to within 5 minutes) within 48 hours of being given a watch when she was 5 years and 1 month old, took an afternoon to master riding a 2-wheeler bike, loves reading (this time last year i.e. when she was finishing Y1, she read the unabridged versions of Heidi and The Little Princess), enjoys doing the Sudoku puzzles in the newspaper..... you get the picture. She's not a daydreamer though and she has been fortunate in that all her teachers so far have kept her challenged and interested. However, whilst her halo is well and truly polished when she's at school, at home she has the same meltdowns and strops as the rest of her friends!

FWIW her writing was externally moderated as being a 3a and her reading is at least the same. We've not had the final maths level through yet but it's within L3.

Within my own Y4 class I have children who are working well ahead of the nationally expected level. Do they need to be promoted out of my class? No! I just ensure that I teach them where they are at. If that's L5 or L6 maths then so be it but it's often about broadening understanding and exploring concepts at a deeper level rather than reducing everything to becoming about zooming through NC levels.

I was in a similar position with my eldest daughter. She was academically far ahead, despite missing out on periods of schooling due to various reasons. I arranged meeting with her teacher who agreed she wasn't being stretched enough (which had led to her continually daydreaming and sometimes chatting in class!). Together we agreed on some ideas to combat this and to stretch her skills and experience. Some of the ideas we decided on were:

• mentoring other pupils in her class in certain subjects
• responsibility for class/school productions, assemblies etc where she acted in a producer/director role and wrote many scripts.
• School pupil representative duties (as a new school was being built there were opportunities for input), involving meetings with council and contractors as well as school. This was great confidence booster.
• Developing school newsletter and 'recruiting' team.
• representing school for various competitions.

These extra duties/tasks helped her develop skills she may not necessarily have had the chance to develop and I feel were far more beneficial than if she had been moved up a year or two. Now a few years on she is in high school and is on an accelerated learning programme. She learns extra subjects (eg Spanish and Latin on top of French) and will sit many GCSE exams early as well as sitting some International qualifications in subjects such as Maths. It has been a challenging time as a parent trying to balance what is important. Recently I had 'discussions' about her lack of revision for end of year exams. Her response was 'I know it all already'! I had to trust her judgement, and she did really well in all subjects. What was more pleasing was the parents evening. I was told by a few teachers that although she could push herself harder to achieve even higher grades they felt her personality and uniqueness (she has a really quirky sense of humour) were of greater importance. They did not want her to lose that as it made her stand out from the crowd. My advice would be to keep your child in her year group, speak to her teacher from September in how best to support her. In the meantime, support her in any entrepreneuraial activities, as the skills she will develop will prove invaluable......

thank you mummy3, that is really helpful to know. To be honest the reason I asked about acceleration was precisely because they remain very focused on the 3 r's and maths at the school in ks1 and although they do 'investigating' this is stuff we have done to death at home. I felt the y3 curriculum would be broader with french, science not covered and history which interests her.
Well I got the report which was as I thought 3c,2c,2c. but to be honest I will just carry on at home as I always have. Tomorrow the dds are making bottle top bills out of containers/ toilet roll holders
I am really pleased with how she is doing and if she wants to be an entrepeneur then I will continue to encourage it. After all I have watched several undercover millionaire programmes where they haven't excelled academically but have done very well. FWIW despite the apparent academic focus on here, I just want her to be happy and successful in whatever she does and to learn all the skills to do this. The achievement isn't important but the challenge she has is very important.

Forgot to add that in class she focuses very well if she is interested but not when she isn't. i.e. she doesn't work well independently in maths because she doesn't like it, yet she does literacy all independently and takes care over her work. She spends a ridiculous amount of time planning everything in detail but often gets little down on paper!

Too many advanced dds for comfort on this post. Where are the ds?

Strikes me that something must be wrong with the way we educate children.

All my high achievers at Year 2 were boys this year ... busy analysing how and why at the moment.

DS, as a 'bright fish in a small pond', was considered for acceleration in Year 1. He was very markedly ahead in reading and maths, less so in writing as he had poor fine motor skills. The SENCo assessed him early in Year 1 as being at at least level 3 in reading and maths, and due to social and anxiety issues he was having at the time along with his learning needs, it was suggested that he move from the mixed 1/2 class to the mixed 3/4 class (ie an acceleration of at least 2 years).

Instead, I took him out, home educated him for a few months, then delivered him to a very different school - larger, higher proportion of high achieving pupils, many more like-minded peers.

He has done really well - perhaps not as 'far ahead' as might once have been estimated academically (5,5,6 at end of year 6), but he is socially fully integrated, has represented the school at every possible sport as well as playing sport outside school to a very high standard, and has very good friends. He is very, very happy - something which, when faced with a clever but extremely anxious 6 year old, who had become a selective mute and had very pronounced ASD-type behaviours, we never thought we would see. Still on the autistic spectrum, but much more mildly affected than we ever thought possible in his everyday life.

You might think you have a good case for acceleration, op, but I doubt the school would agree. Nothing in your posts sound amazingly advanced at all, and you sound like you are watching her like a hawk to find "evidence" of this wholly imaginary genius. Like labelling her diary "abstract humour"
It's like you're ticking boxes, why?
Let her be, she sounds able enough but she will do perfectly well with the rest of her class.

Hi, just read the thread.

Take it from someone who has felt exactly the same way with similar anxieties

... your DD is not academically you and she is also not experiencing your education. So try not to worry that she'll end up with your regrets. Far, far better to be relaxed and allow her the space to enjoy being 6.