NOT!
I bow to the power of Mumsnet for giving me advice on what I should do in the situation I have found myself in this morning.
Basically, dd1 (June birthday)started in reception in September of very nice pre prep school. We agonised long and hard about whether to send her or to keep her at home for another year, and indeed agonised over which school we should send her to. The main reason for this is that dd appeared to be very bright ( I say this advisedly) and was already reading level 7 Oxford reading tree, doing amazing things with numbers and writing fairly well. We had meetings with the school prior to her start and they assured us that they would be able to cope with dd and stimulate/extend her in their Reception classes.
Having settled on this school we set out to make the best of it. Unfortunately all the children in DD's class came up from the nursery and so knew each other as did all the parents. The same appears to be true of the other 2 class R's, with only 1 or 2 newcomers. The class rep held a picnic before the start of term as a get to know you exercise, which was a lovely idea. I am not great with new people and felt very uncomfortable at this gathering as I obviously was not party to much of the others shared history. I have continued to find it tricky and don't as yet really speak to many people at drop off and pick up.
Anyway, it has become clear that despite the best efforts of the fantastic class teacher that dd was totally bored and under performing. We approached the teacher on Tuesday after school and, on the advice of the NAGC (National Association of
Gifted Children) asked what the end of year outcomes were for DD. The teacher explained that dd had had a baseline assessment and had scored VERY highly and was working easily at year 1 level and that she had been giving dd year1 work to do in Maths and English. However she was concerned that dd wasnt getting the approriate language and extension questioning which would be going on around her all the time in a y1 class. She suggested that dd went into y1 for their literacy and numeracy lessons but stay in Reception for everything else. We then went to discuss this with the head of pre prep who said that even though she was young in the year she felt it would be better for dd to move up into y1 on a trial basis until half term, which she felt was a real advantage of the independent sector. Which is what has happened. She started on Wednesday and for the first time since she started, has come home full of the events of the day.
Y1 children go to the local leisure centre to swim. Our turn was this morning. The children swim in two groups, dd was in the first group, which then wait around with the mothers of the second group until all are finished and ready to go back to school. As we were waiting I was suddenly aware of eyes on me and my daughters name being mentioned. I looked around and saw a group of 5 mothers all listening to another mother, basicvally moaning about the fact that dd had been moved up (she also has a child in the reception class as well as y1) that she was so young in the year, that she was never going to cope, how her birthday wasnt till June, that she hadnt been at the school 5 minutes, she wouldnt cope socially, how outrageous it was that our demands had been met, how small she is compared to the other children, how it was almost 2 years difference between dd and some children and so on and so on.... I was REALLY that she was speaking with such animosity. I suspect that she knew I could hear as she kept catching my eye. I just wanted to run over to her and confront her.... not quite the done thing at a very naaaice pre prep!
I was standing next to dd's class teacher and couldnt think of anything else to do but tell her and ask her what she thought I should do... her reply was to grow an elephant type skin and ignore it.
It is pick up at 3.30 and I really want to know whether I should approach this woman and say something along the lines of... how dare you speak about us like this ... (perhaps social suicide!) or if you have any issues about the move up please speak to the teacher or me (better?) or whether to wait for a class social gathering where undoubtledly she'll be as nice as pie or to ignore it and accept the bitching as a fact of life. I was so and and all at once.... WHat do I do????
Thankyou for reading!! If you are still here, and not asleep!
Oh and if the mother in question happens to be a MNer... up yer bum you old bag!