School don't seem to care

[king1001]

My son, aged 10 is just finishing year 5. He has just had to redo his maths paper. He did a lvl 6 paper and got 4 questions wrong 96%, which gave him a 6C, so I made him it sit a paper at home. The lvl 5 to 7. Which he scored a 90/120 without doing the mental maths section. He took it to school and showed his teacher who, asked him to sit a different lvl 5 - 7 paper at school. Which again he managed a 90/120 already giving him a 7C without the mental maths. He is gifted in other subject, too.

I am slightly concerned that without my having him do the higher level test at home, then he would have got the 6c with nothing more being done.

We have tried to contact the school and was waiting for a phone call or an email but nothing. They seem to not care about this.

I am not sure how we handle to situation we try with the school to get him on education trips with the year 6s but get told that its unfair to others in his class. We previously asked for him to go up a year which was denied. We are looking to move school but where to? Another primary school that takes the same approach? A private school that would offer better tutoring perhaps but with that comes a cost we can't really afford.

Where do we go from here?

I think you are getting an unnecessarily hard time OP.

Does your DS gat FSM? If so they should be spending his pupil premium on extension.

I can see that, being rural, it might not be easy to broaden his horizons and opportunities but that is probably the way to go if you can.

Have you thought about senior school? If you would consider boarding at 13 you might be able to get a good bursary for such a bright boy. Pre-testing is in Y6 so now would be the right time to look into it.

If you would consider boarding and are prepared to give your general region people might be able to suggest schools with good bursary provision.

Hakluyt.

No of course not, they supported as much as they could. My only criticism is that they didn't tell us she was on G&T list until the day we left, but that's of no consequence really, but would have liked to have been told, even though we should have known anyway.
They had a specialist come in to assess from the music service also unbeknown to us, apparently a last minute decision when a member of the SMT visited the school. She was working within/ not completed level 8 at the end of y3.
The similarities are the same though and I would quite easily have written that I had given her a song to sing at grade 8 or something, but because I know that she would have managed it, enjoyed doing it and had a challenge. I'm sure this is what the OP meant with the testing.

Sorry, meant to add about the levels.
Obviously they are of no consequence to us as we have left the system now, but I think they are good for when/ if you are applying for some kind of support or bursary, future reference etc. Stating the level does give a realistic indication as to somebodies capability and for this reason I can see why the extra level was important to the OP, not necessarily to make her ds look better or cleverer but to give the true picture.
OP, I wish my dd had half the levels in maths as your ds, her talent stops at music.

The testing referred to are set written maths test papers, that teacher administer regularly (e.g. SATs and optional SATs). Giftedness in music in primary schools is very different to giftedness in maths. Most primary school teachers do not have the musical ability to assess grade 8 music in an instrument or in singing as it is so specialised. There is, however, an expectation that teachers can teach (or find advise and support on how to teach) children functioning well above the level of all their peers).

IsitFriday

I wouldn't have expected the school to do anymore than they did tbh, with the assessment I think they did more than their obligation.
We keep in touch and dd visits to meet friends after school. They are still supportive and interested now, bless them.
The empathy I have with the OP are the difficulties that come with parenting and teaching a gifted child who it seems there is nowhere to go. Once you have exhausted the opportunities available to them and they still have an insatiable appetite for the subject it is difficult.
Personally, we have extended her sideways into other instruments and groups and this does help, but every day is ground hog day and she wants to sing opera. To which all we can respond is nobody in their right mind will train your voice until you are older, now find a nice folk song

Sorry, all I read in OP is that the school didn't give a one off test at the level she thinks her child is working at. As a result of the priority the OP is placing on tests she felt she had to re-test him at home (without even suggesting we start a discussion on how a child can achieve better results in tests administered in a non-classroom environment). I am not doubting the suggestion the child is very able. What I am trying to say is that just because he wasn't given the higher level test it doesn't mean they can't assess him at a higher level, provide suitable work and meet his learning needs in maths, as well as the rest of the academic and social aspects of school life. Is there a bigger, untold picture of why "the school don't care" (a very emotive and maybe even insulting to the school term?) beyond him not being give a higher test paper?

Isitfriday your last posts reflects a lot of what other people have posted. Lots of people have asked the OP about the school generally and whether the school provide appropriate level work as the norm. The OP still hasn't answered that question as the OPs focus is solely on the test issue.
I have to admit that when my DS was at a state school I was hung up on test results but I now realise that my reason for that was that I knew he wasn't being provided with challenging work. I knew he was bored and not working at the correct level. I knew that his teacher didn't want to progress him further as that would require some differentiation and she wasn't prepared to do that. My focus on the tests was misplaced.
We have now moved DS to a new school where he got more than 96% on his end of year maths tests but I couldn't care less about the test results because I know that he gets stimulating and challenging work in the classroom. His teacher is well aware of his level.
I am wondering if the OP is in a similar situation where I was with my DS. It is easy to get hung up on levels and testing if you feel that the school are unaware of ability or are aware but not prepared to differentiate the work.

But the OP ( or the OP's wife/husband-I got confused!) said that the questions DS got wrong were things he hadn't been taught, so presumably he HAD been taught the rest!

The 5-7 test is a little misleading as there are plenty of questions at levels 5/6 to gather enough points to gain an impressive score, even one that reflects a level 7 without having actually mastered all the elements of level seven"ness" ( which is where teacher assessment is so important). So care needs to be taken when simply relying on test scores for a level ( which is why Year 6 teachers are asked to submit teacher assesment levels to the DfE BEFORE we receive test levels back as these are more reliable)

OP - I think this whole issue could have been solved by the school doing one simple thing.

When your DS took the L3-5 paper and scored highly, rather than being given a level of 6c, he should have been levelled as "working beyond the level tested by the paper".

Would that have made you happier, no material different end result, but would have correctly stated your DS's ability.

Please do read the posts - my DS never took the level 3-5 paper with the rest of the class. He took the level 6 and got 96%. Not sure what everyone's issue is.

Some useful comments, some just not.

My DS is very bright in all subject, maths being his forte. We were asking advice about next year and the school in general. We were not asking for comments saying we were doing the wrong thing with him sitting a level 7 paper - we were not asking for a breakdown on the type of questions in the level 7 paper, nor were we asking for everything we said to be picked apart in minute detail just to find some irrelevant point.

As the saying goes, if you have nothing useful to say, don't say anything at all.

He's age 10 in year 5 and he's a solid 7C. How we got there is irrelevant and not why we were asking for advice in the first place.

So. The usual.

Useful = things I agree with
Not useful = things I don't agree with

I don't understand why you need advice?
Your son is clearly making excellent progress, what leads you to believe that that won't continue next year?

If he is happy at school and already doing so well then there isn't a problem is there? Let the school crack on with him next year.

OK- would you like to start again? I honestly don't understand what you are asking. I think my first question is what would you like the school to do that they aren't doing, or you think they won't do next year?

Well next year, the school will continue to teach him, extending his current knowledge and adding to it!
Level 6 or level 7 is not unheard of in primary schools!!

Its about the restrictions in the primary school. Its about him having peers at a similar level.

JodieGarberJacob

So. The usual.

Useful = things I agree with
Not useful = things I don't agree with

haha except he's my son so am perfectly entitled to not agree with things which are not helpful/ are not relevant....

I gave advice (find ways to stretch him sideways out of school and look for a bursary for a selective senior school) but you ignored me.

Go for one of these.

"sigh> Its about the restrictions in the primary school. Its about him having peers at a similar level."

I still don't understand. What would you like the school to do? What do you think they aren't doing that would help?

What restrictions? As far as I'm aware, we don't have an "upper limit" on what we can teach!

He's level 7 in maths and 5c in other areas, plenty of scope there for extension, a quarter of my year 5's are level 5's at this time of year. Level 7 is good, but it's not stratospheric!
But if you don't trust the current school to continue to extend your son's learning then look for one that you do.

It can be tricky not to have a peer group. My ds has this problem at secondary school in a couple of subjects-not because he's super bright,i hasten to add, but because he's in a school with a very low number of high attainers. The teachers make sure he has appropriate work, suggest things for him to read and do outside school, or sometimes in lessons where differentiating is impossible. But usually he just joins in with normal lessons- producing more or higher standard work but on the same topics. But there are enough lessons where he is not streets ahead for it not to be a real problem. And there is a lot more to school than academic lessons.

It's quite easy to differentiate in maths Hakluyt

Absolutely, mrz. But certainly my ds sometimes misses having a group of peers to compete and work with.