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?

If the child was 4 before today they would be starting school next week. As OP is wondering where to apply for a Reception place this cannot be the case.

Mrz Clary

Well, that's embarrassing. I checked again and you're right, it was other posters saying her DS was 4! That'll teach me to go reading stuff when feeling woozy!

Oh wow, you guys should start a conspiracy theory club. Its cute how you think there is no possible way he gos off and learn things of his own volition. No, I must be one of those child genius mums who make their children do 4 hours of homework a day. I must be such an awful mother letting him do what he likes 😂 ah well this was fun

athena it's the complete opposite in my case. I have a gifted child myself, hence why I am sceptical of why you think his won't be met by a competent reception teacher when imo he's in the normal bright range.

Plus for gifted/outlier dc there can be lots of problems in having their needs met. And issues even just raising the problems, either with schools or other adults. And it really doesn't help when someone like you comes along and gives the false impression we are all deluded about our averagely bright dc who have just been hot housed to be slightly ahead of their peers.

^ perfect example 😂

Yes, you got me op. I don't believe gifted dc exist and can't comprehend one learning by choice

Op schools are infants , juniors or primary . No such thing as primary junior.
How old did you say your ds was?

As a teacher, this thread is hilarious and the OP is delusional.

OP, please explain how your DC has been assessed as three years educationally advanced. Is that in everything? Numeracy? Literacy? Music? PE?

The first step is admitting you have a problem 🙏

Athena can I ask has ds had a paediatric assessment because there are concerns about his development or suspicions of ASD. I only ask as my own ds and dd had paediatric assessments (and subsequent autism diagnoses) and their academic ability did seem pretty advanced in so far as they could read fluently at three and ds could spell long words at 2.5 and could count forwards and backwards into thousands in twos, fives and tens.It didn't make them geniuses they just have incredible memories and school was a huge challenge for them. If your ds could be experiencing the same challenges then my advice would be to forget the academics and pushing him forward and instead concentrate on getting support for the stuff he will find difficult such as social communication,dealing with change and building friendships as that will stand him in far better stead than being able to read Harry Potter as five.

You sound like your defence mechanism in overdrive tbh, thus resulting in rude, sarcastic attitude imo. But why?
PPs has asked a lot of questions. How did paed assesed him as 2/3 years ahead? What sort of things can he do? How old is he? etc, etc.
You haven't answered any of them.
There are many posters who actually have gifted DCs. So I don't think you would get doubts if you explain more.
Do you really want to help your ds, or just want to make genuine posters upset? Why do you post if you are not really looking for help/advice? It's really beyond me.

Yes, I second what Irvin said and I also apologise for stating that you said in another thread that your DC was 4 when you did not.

So we can get on with this, please can you just tell us:

How old is your DC?

What type of professional assessed him?

What exactly did they say regarding him being ahead or advanced?

Thank you.

The OP appears very reluctant to provide any information that would help people actually answer her questions.

I think it's possible to discuss school choice for a possibly advanced child without getting into a dogfight about whether he is or isn't. There's never a sensible answer to that on MN anyway as everyone has a different idea what it means. I'd rather discuss that aspect with people who actually know the child in real life.

None of us can possibly know at 3 how advanced a child is going to be at 7 anyway. We're always dealing in possibilities and probabilities when choosing a school.

Cat, I agree with you about without getting into fight.
But how advanced the child actually is is relevant imo. If the child is normal range advanced, then a lot teacher on MN says most school are capable to differentiate. If true outlier, then it's pure luck. I would say better to aim for selective private if possible.

When we were looking round schools it was very much a case of - we think DD may be advanced. If she turns out to be, how would this school handle it? I don't think anyone can say at 3 whether a child is going to be normal range advanced or super-genius, let alone MN. I think the best thing we can do is give OP some opinions on whether for some children it might make a difference, or not, and what other factors to consider when looking at the schools.

Cat, I'm sure you knew your dd was not just normal range advanced.
Did you ever need to sit her down and make her learn something?

Actually at this age I assumed my son was "just normal" (whatever that is). He was my first child and it wasn't until other people commented that their child couldn't do the things he could I actually thought about it. I was much more concerned with other things.

The OP has asked for opinions but hasn't provided any useful information in order that posters can make informed judgements so I'm really not sure of her motivation

I honestly didn't think dd was anything different at that age, I just thought it was a combination of her interests, normal range brightness, and appearing unusual just because her peers were mainly lower achieving. Plus she was similar to friends ds, who I now realise was also an outlier, but at the time I just assumed was normal like dd.

My criteria was simply the usual pastoral and atmosphere stuff, along with evidence they differentiated across the ability range. The sats results for dd's before she joined were below average. But broken down were spread across the entire range, and with the above average sen and fsm indicated a willingness to differentiate for the individual, not just pitch to average and overlook either side. If I'd simply chosen the outstanding primary with high sats, with the hope she'd find equal peers and be able to access resources from higher years, she'd have been screwed because she'd have quickly exhausted those resources. And wouldn't have found peers on her level there either. Instead at a school most mumsnetters would run screaming from, she benefitted from the attitude that dc all have differing needs that should be met. And trying to accommodate her was done in the same way they were used to accommodating extreme outliers at the other end, because they were practiced at differentiation, even that which went beyond what could be done within a group lesson.

However, I still think if I'd gone in with the attitude that my dd was amazingly gifted and the class teacher would struggle to meet her needs, it would naturally have insulted the staff and ruined the relationship. So instead of casually telling me they were doing x now because they couldn't just differentiate in lessons, or in passing mentioning that they were doing y because in one subject she was beyond any of the primary staff available, I'd have had a load of staff working from the view I was a deluded nutter until proven otherwise instead of the open minded approach they had. I also don't think that when we had issues with a y1 teacher (crap across the board not just dd) or the v occasional supply that it would have been resolved as quickly if I had the rep of being that parent.

And at schools where they really can't be arsed with the most able, no amount of demanding or telling them your childs capabilities changes anything.

Yes, you are both right, mrz and Luked.
I knew he was bright, but that's about it.
"How advanced" or "can the school differentiate for him ?" didn't even cross my mind. Simply applied to the nearest school which looked good enough. Being a foreigner, didn't even know anything about Ofsted, sats results, etc., so didn't even look at them either.

I didn't even think he was bright. I assumed all children could do the things he could so it came as a shock when his sister couldn't.
Yes I applied for the village school so that he would be with children he would see outside of school and didn't even visit prior to applying.

I know he was bright because of all the assessment he had stated he was above average in performance skills, despite other areas are just about normal or behind.

I'm talking pre starting school/nursery like the OPs child

Yes, I am too, mrz. My ds had assessments when he was 2 / 3 year olds, where his social skills were concerned(selective mute/ not interacting with other children, etc.) and referred to community paed.

I had no idea my ds was anything other than pretty normal either. He had been given one of those vtech laptop and I knew he could do sums on there and suggested age range was 5 to 11 so thought he was doing ok seeing as he was 3. I knew that my friend's dc never bothered with the laptop for the sums but did the matching and target games but assumed it was a different interest rather than them not being able to.
I knew he could read but thought reading was something lots of dc could do before school as my sister and I had done. I didn't know that reading before school was more accurately reading early readers and not the sports pages of the newspaper.
I knew he could write but assumed that was because he could read and tbf he didn't really like writing even though he could but would type stories or diaries of what we had done.
We'd had early glimpses that he might be quick to pick stuff up,he started to talk at seven months and at eight months when in hospital a nurse thought I was nuts when she said that sounds like he's asking "where's Adam gone?" and I replied "well that's what he's saying, he's asking for his brother" Again I was clueless (before the internet and everyone's preoccupation with how children are doing) that it was early .
At fifteen months the GP told me he had never heard speech and comprehension like it before and fetched another GP in to have a conversation with him but again I never twigged that he was extraordinary.
I'm really glad if I'm honest as well,he went to our local school and I let them get on with it. Ds had a ball,the teachers loved him he had no end of friends, played chess for County and was on all the sports teams. He has a degree and a Masters and is currently working his way through the AAT syllabus (for fun) He will sit the exams and he will find something else I imagine as that has always been his thing, he likes to acquire knowledge.
For the two with autism though I was more worried by what they couldn't do than impressed that they could read, spell and manipulate numbers more than you might expect.