Opinions wanted. Infant primary or primary junior for educationally advanced kid?

[Athena404]

There is a lovely little school near me I'm thinking of sending my child to. Trouble is it's just an infant primary (ie only until year 2). I'm not sure if this will cause an issue as recently his Paediatrician assessed him as being 2 years educationally advanced from his corrected age which would mean 3 school years. There is a primary junior close but it definitely doesn't seem as good or nice. But I don't know if that would be better for him. Has anyone gone through this before? What would you suggest?

Infant schools are for children up to the end of Key Stage 1 (Year 2 - age 6/7). They would then move to the Junior School for Years 3 - 6 (Key Stage 2). So your DS would probably move through both of them if they are connected to each other. Skipping years is incredibly unusual and doesn't really happen in the UK. Teachers are very used to differentiating for a mixed ability class.

If they are state maintained schools you are unlikely to have the option.its very rare for children to be educated out of year.

I'd also say that a paediatrician isn't qualified to assess whether a child is two years ahead in terms of curriculum expectations.

I'm not talking about putting him in a different year. Just that the the primary junior (thats reception to year 6) would have resources from higher years available to them and the infant primary wouldn't surely?

I'd have thought that 2-3 years ahead of average age-related expectations is well within the range of normal, and the vast majority of schools are probably well equipped to cater for a child at that level. The range of ability within a typical primary school classroom is enormous, assigns teachers are generally pretty good at dealing with this.

Are you in the UK? How old is your son now? I'm guessing just 3 if you haven't applied for school yet. As pps say, you are unlikely to be able to skip years, certainly no chance of starting him at a junior rather than an infants of he hasn't started school yet. You can look for a primary that has reception- year 6, but he will still be taught within his own age group. Schools are well able to cater for children performing at a wide range of levels. It isn't that unusual for children starting reception to already be reading and writing, for example.

X-post with your comment about a primary having more resources.

No, that shouldn't be a problem at all. I work in an infants school, we have plenty of resources to suit all abilities, and can get more when we see a particular need. The class that I have coming to me this year has a small group working around 2 years ahead. I'm looking forward to challenging them.

A junior school covers Y3-6 so he couldn't attend unless the LA agreed to allow him to skip reception Y1 and 2.
I'd personally take the paediatricians views on being educationally advanced with a pinch of salt as it's unlikely they know the expectations for each year group so not in a position to make that judgement.

MrsKCastle that's good to hear! Do you know if it's the same across the board or is your school particularly good?

mrz im talking about primary junior not junior school. And that was the point of the visit, to test his educational ability. It's what this doctor does.

My limited experience is that the ks1 and ks2 bits of an all through primary are kept quite seperate so I'm not sure if it would mean they have access to more stretching materials. You'd probably be best asking that particular school what they do.
I'd also say you get a huge range of abilities in a class - your child might not be the only one ahead of average.

fucksakefay yeah, reception to year 6. I didn't realise people call it different things.

A Junior school will just have years 3-6, not reception, 1 or 2, which is why people were assuming you wanted your child to skip years.

At this age, I would go with the one you like best and get the best feel for, having visited. A good infants school will have children in every year working at 2/3 years above age related expectations, and it won't be hard for them to differentiate for this group. To start with, your child being happy and making friends is just as important as his academic career.

"mrz im talking about primary junior not junior school" so a primary school not a primary junior?

grasspigeons that was what Im concerned about. When I was little I moved to a just infants school from a primary junior for year 2 and learned nothing the entire year. But then again it was a terrible school. I really hope he's not the only one so it will be easier for him to make friends

I think you should really check out each school.
Like grass says, KS1 and KS2 are totally separate at my ds's school.
My ds was sent to KS2 during KS1 for a while, but it didn't work out so well(time table and different building being a big problem), but maybe because it is a huge school. So if school is small it may work out differently.
Ime, it really depend on each teacher. Some are very willing, some are totally uninterested. But even the teacher is great and willing, due to limited time and resources, it doesn't workout so well sometimes.
Another factor is how far ahead your dc is. If your dc is a true outlier, state school may not be able to cater for him.

Why would he not be able to make friends? Does he has other needs? Being "educationally advanced" doesn't normally prohibit children from making friends with their peers. Though it would if you only wanted him to be with children that you think he should be with.

Totally agree with MsJ. Who he become friends with got nothing to do with how educationally advanced he is, unless you choose his friends.

Irvine how did that come about, going in to the KS2 lessons?

MsJolly make it easier ≠ can't make friends. Like minded children develop bonds easier.

Visit both schools and ask lots of questions. A good infant school will be well equipped to teach children who are 'advanced'.

I've never heard of a paediatrician assessing educational ability - how did that come about? (if you don't mind me asking!)

I agree with brokenbiscuit. 2yrs ahead is well within the range of normal all teachers will be used to dealing with.

I also agree with mrsjolly. The social issues for highly able kids are related to outliers, and it doesn't affect all of them. So no reason to think that being slightly ahead will stop him making friends.

I'm also wondering why you would want to get him tested? Because at that age it really doesn't tell you anything other than that development isn't linear.

I can't answer for Irvine but dd ended up out of year group for some stuff because school themselves decided it was needed.

I think he was tested at the start of yr2 and got old NC level 4 in maths, which was expected level for end of Yr6 at that time.
Teacher made some arrangement with lower ks2 maths leader and decided to sent him to yr4. (don't know why yr4, as he could have coped with yr6 maths, but maybe they thought he wasn't emotionally mature enough to cope mixing with 10/11 years olds.)
It didn't work out well, work was still too easy, time table was nightmare. He missed literacy to go to yr4. So he had double maths, one in yr4 and another in yr2, which wasn't great, since his literacy was not as advanced as maths. Also there were times when yr2/yr4 was doing something special, so couldn't go, etc. Separate building didn't help either.Teacher sometimes simply didn't have anybody to take him/pick him up to/from other part of school, he was just left waiting very often. So eventually, it stopped.
I think it was badly planned, so it could be totally different in other school.
But Ideally, I think it's better to be differentiated within your actual year group. And I think some school/teacher seems to do quite a good job, according to some posters on MN.

There's G&T board on MN, posting/reading past thread could be helpful.