Not sure where to put this - risky subject!

[seeker]

I am always a bit puzzled when I hea the parents of Gand T children, either on here or in real life saying "The teacher says she hasn't got any more to teach him" or words to that effect. I find myself thinking "well, that's either an infant Einstein, a misunderstanding or a crap teacher - he's 6, how can she not have anything to teach him?"

Then at Parent's evening last night, ds (who is 6 and very bright but not on the g and t register)'s teacher said "I havne't found anything he can't do" Then she gave an evil little grin and added "YET!"

Do you think it is this sort of remark that some parents take as meaning their child's teacher can't deal with them? If I hadn't heard the "YET!" I might have thought that.

Any thoughts, anyone?

Would it be likely that the teacher means that the child has completed all the work covered by the national curriculum for that year group. So, nothing left to do for that year that isn't going over the same old stuff.

I agree with juuule

And haven't we been over been this like a million times....

She knows he is easily capable of doing all the work currently given to him.

Her awareness and admittance to this is a good thing - it means that she knows she will have to find him more challenging work to do.

I'd have thought she was going to put her mind to finding more challenging work. And I probably wouldn't have interpreted the grin as "evil."

Sorry - I didn't make myself clear. And I should have put 'evil" in inverted commas - she did rub her hands together in a "let me at it"sort of way as she said it! Yes, I did interpret it as meaning she was putting her mind to challenging and exciting him - which she does, regularly.

What I meant was the other ways her remark could have been interpreted and whether this was an explanation of the "the teacher says she hasn't got anything else to teach him" remarks you hear,which I have never really understood.

A primary school teacher should always be able to find challenging work for a pupil. It may mean looking further afield and a bit more work on the teacher's part, but to stretch even the brightest 6 year old should be not too hard a task. To stretch a very bright 16 or 8 year old would be harder, bt not primary age IMO!

I don't think teachers know how to differentiate well now. They are so bound by the NC that they can't think outside the box. It's very easy to stretch primary age children imo.

I'm not so sure it's that they can't think outside the box, more that they don't have the time with the demands of the NC/large classes/disruptive children.

I think that all teachers know how to do this, but often have their hands tied by schemes of work, NC etc.

Parents may misread the statement as saying ' I, as an adult can no longer teach your child anything, because they already know as much as I do, and are quite exceptional' wheras what they mean is 'they have finised the KS2 work'

Two different things.

My dd's class in school (year 6) is already doing things that are not covered until the sciences KS3 curriculum. They are not all infant Einsteins.

that said, sometimes pushing the children on too fast can result in poorer examination results. Not an issue at ks2 so much, but can be a bad thing at GCSE.

I teach a student who was accelerated into AS work at the end of the GCSE science course and then got 2 B grades instead of the A*s predicted (wasn;t me that did the acceleration btw!)

I always used to have an extention folder for bright children who had finished their work.
It wasn't particularly related to the topic but it contained puzzles and problems that would get them thinking.

It seems to me that there is a huge difference between "I haven't got any more to teach him" and "I haven't found anything he can't do yet"

The first means "he is going to have to coast until the class catches up" - the second means "I am enjoying challenging him and trying to find things that will stretch him."

I hope so, anyway!

I think you've got a great teacher there!!

Smithagain - I agree, there is a huge difference. I think though, that sometimes parents hear the first when something like the second is actually said. I agree, we do have a brilliant teacher.

As others have said, it really can't be that hard to "stetch" a 6 year old, however clever. A 16 year old is a different matter.

I really don't see what you are worrying about, sorry!

I"M NOT WORRIED!!!!!!!

Just discussing something that's always puzzled me and which I thought I might have found one explanation for.