Do teachers cater for Children who are advanced learners?ced

[Timetoeat]

Hi,
MY Child is starting School in September and is advanced in some learning areas, including being able to read Chapter books (not taught,just can).
We have been told that the School will try to provide some work that will challenge but I'm looking to hear of first hand experience from parents or teachers of Children who are advanced.
Was your Child's learning needs met or were they bored silly?
Do they realise that they are ahead and pretend that they actually don't know how to read etc to fit in with the class?
Any Advice welcome . Thank you.

🙄

Yes they do. It was fine.

Thanks for your reply MyrrAgain, extremely helpful.

Yes they did, dd was reading chapter books (autistic, nobody taught her she just magically learned) also very advanced in maths. Unfortunately they weren't so good at dealing with her other issues

Does she read and actually understand them? Check after eachboage by questioning her.

Yes they should provide extension work but there is the likelihood she will plateau too.

Schools are well versed in catering to a huge range of abilities especially in reception.

I wouldn't worry about being stretched I would however urge you to look into hyperlexia.

Thanks YourNameGoesHere,
We have a Diagnosis,but not Hyperlexia though,as that is when a child can read but doesn't necesaarily understand what they are reading,but that's not the case with x,Comprehension is very high.

Thanks Spirallingdownwards,
Yes ,understands what is read, can answer questions on the story. That's good to know. They might plateau but I want to make sure they aren't too bored where it will become an issue in behaviour

Honestly no they have enough to do my dd was advanced at several points in primary (she made random leaps as opposed to smooth progression) I had to teach her other things at home to satisfy her need for knowledge during school time they used her as an unofficial TA we moved schools to a place where they did English and maths at the same time for the ENTIRE school this meant you could go up into the next year classroom or down a classroom as needed it was a good system but it only really worked because it was a village school with naturally smaller class sizes

Sorry a diagnosis of what or did I miss it?

I think the most important coping skill in school is fitting in.

I would make sure your dc has some coping strategies for being advanced.

My eldest son actively tries not to listen to the teacher in Maths so it is more difficult.

We have always encouraged him to take responsibility for his own learning, rather than pushing over-stretched teachers to provide a differentiated curriculum.

Sorry Stomacharmeleon,
Diagnosis of Asd. Aspergers but its not commonly called that anymore.

Some teachers have time & some haven't. My ds was fine until year 4 when he was well ahead in maths and the school was concentrating on getting the slower ones through their SATs. Then he got very bored and fed up.

Every circumstance will be different.

No, I haven't found my DC has been stretched particularly. He's carried on with his reading, working approx 1 year ahead but he was 1 year ahead when he started and I definitely think he could be pushed on more and he's coasting with reading. In maths they have pushed him a little more but a lot of what he does is the same as the rest of the class. He gets reasoning and extension work "sometimes", I'd guess at once every couple of weeks.
He is pretty bored but he isn't very good at challenging himself and taking advantage of all the continuous provision. He prefers to stick to a couple of different activities, similar to at home. So he's kind of bored with those activities now and wants to do more learning. Hopefully year 1 will be good with more focused learning which he loves.
Something I have found quite sad is that each sound they learn in phonics has an action and a song. When I ask him what he's done he says "I learnt the action for the /oa/ sound" for example, rather than "I learnt the /oa/ sound." So he knows that he already knows the sound and all he gets out of sitting in the phonics lesson is learning a new action for a sound he already knows.
On the other hand, the school are very nurturing and brilliant with his social issues and his anxiety and he loves it there so for now, I'm not too worried. He's just finishing reception btw.

My DD has an IQ of 166, also autistic, had a reading age of 12 in reception class, plus could write stories, and perform basic arithmetical functions, such as multiply, divide, subtract, at age 3.
Obvious an outlier from the norm, so the headmistress of our wee village school took her for half an hour a day, one to one, to read Dickens and RL Stevenson as a 5 year old.
The secondary school in the city sent their maths textbooks along to the village, so DD could teach herself high school maths in her final two years of primary. The class teacher’s husband marked her work as he was a physics graduate, and the teacher didn’t feel qualified!
She sat her Highers and Advanced Highers early, and went to Durham uni to do a maths degree.
I think it was probably easier in such a small school - there were only 100 kids in the whole building, and DD was in a class of just 12.

No, I don't think they do.

The things my DDs struggle with are the slow pace of the teacher input sections of lessons. That bit is really hard to differentiate beyond asking some more challenging questions in it, you just can't go at a faster pace for some children if there's just one teacher. My DD1 had a teacher who would let her start her work during those bits rather than listen, except when something was genuinely new. That was as good as it got.

There's also the concept of deepening understanding rather than moving on to the next year's syllabus. I don't think that really works for the most able in maths - it seems to involve answering contextual questions and explaining answers, but if that's easy within this year's syllabus then you reach a dead end too. Again, one teacher provided something beyond the standard for DD1 - mostly things like NRich. But that was the exception, not the norm.

My hopes for my DDs' primary school experience is that they wouldn't find it as dull/slow as I had. Unfortunately they did, possibly moreso.

A few teachers were excellent.

Many didn't understand why ds wanted so badly to be stretched . (Both DH and I were the same as him, so we could remember that burning wish to be properly stretched at school). In the end we got him a tutor (plus did lots of stuff with him at home) and school was more for social time. The tutor was an ex teacher what was also very bright and totally understood that longing to be properly stretched.

I remember only finally feeling like my brain really properly got stretched once I got to university, up until then I coasted my way through top grades.

Primary school not particularly good at this, but our secondary is excellent. I think it depends in the school.

Some teachers better than others. On the whole, they didn't do too badly with mine - it was made a bit easier in the early days as there were three of them reading chapter books in her reception class. I wasn't too bothered about her being pushed hard, just that she shouldn't be bored. For example, for reading, I wasn't bothered about them supplying lots of reading books (we lived near the library); I was just happy that she wasn't expected to do the reading scheme or log everything she read.

"Hopefully year 1 will be good with more focused learning which he loves."
The problem can be that because more of the day is whole-class activity, there can be more sitting through input and activities which are too pedestrian. Year 1 was our worst teacher, though, so hopefully yours will be better.

I gather that Primary schools are now not supposed to support kids to learn beyond the curriculum for the year they are in. However, they can stretch the brighter kids with 'greater depth' tasks, applying whatever the thing the whole class is learning to a greater range of scenarios and answering open ended questions on the topic etc.

It varies greatly between schools though. At one school DD was just given the work of the year above and at her current school this doesn't happen but because they learn a wider range of stuff than the basic curriculum at this school anyway her brain is being kept occupied enough to keep out of mischief (learning French for example where she's on a level playing field with the other kids).

A European language is compulsory from Year 3 on. No we are not supposed to move children beyond their Year group and actually that is pretty regulated and you would get in trouble. Same goes in lots of schools for reading books where you can’t moved them beyond a certain level. But you know everyday my top table, and anyone who wants to, gets greater depth challenges in maths and a couple of other subjects, and while they moan ‘maths is easy,’ they are really unable to master what is being asked of them without support.

So yes they are, or should be, depth was but no the fashion for working above your year group is now a bad word.

and even if they are really strong appt one thing other areas need work. Listening skills, handwriting, social skills. No one has everything.

"No we are not supposed to move children beyond their Year group and actually that is pretty regulated and you would get in trouble. Same goes in lots of schools for reading books where you can’t moved them beyond a certain level."
This is completely false. Full-year acceleration (grade skipping) is allowed UK education and I know of several children where is has been used - in my own child's case by one year, but in others by 2-4 years. Subject acceleration (part-time attendance in an older class for specific subjects) is also allowed and again I'm aware of several children where this has been used (in my own child's case by 1-2 years; in others by up to 4-5 years). There is no "regulation" against these procedures and they are best practice in certain circumstances. "you can’t moved them beyond a certain level." is also false, in any subject. Acceleration to the level of the child's ability, either by attendance in an older class or by differentiated provision while remaining with age peers, is permitted under both educational law and statutory guidance. Year group placement is at the headteacher's discretion.
There are certain organizations (notably NCETM and EEF and other advocates of "maths mastery") who advocate one-size-fits-all undifferentiated instruction and have systematically misinformed teachers about what is or isn't "allowed". This certainly accounts for some of teacher's erroneous beliefs regarding what is permitted and what is best practice. The rest is mostly laziness.

I would say that my experience is no they don’t really stretch the most able. Mine gets ‘challenge sheets’ in maths but they’re very manageable for him. He still gets made to do the simple stuff first. He also hasn’t really progressed much with reading. I’m not too worried as I know he can read and I think breadth of reading is also important. We have had some wildly unsuitable books come home too- where the content is aimed at older children.

Topic subjects and English seem
a bit easier to stretch them as there’s no limit to what you can write as your answer.

Overall it’s been a bit disappointing for us and as a pp said there isn’t a lot of scope with moving onto the next curriculum - it seems like you have to keep rehashing the same stuff! Private schools likely to be more flexible on this but we can’t afford it.

Yes at our local infant school but the junior school weren't interested.
We moved him at the end of year 3.

If school isn't stretching I would recommend trying things like finding a tutor who "gets it" and having plenty of books around /trips to the library ... Then they can focus more on the social side of school and get their "stretch" outside. Not ideal but it seems most schools just don't see the value in stretching the brightest children

It is ridiculous though that as a country we don't focus more on nurturing and stretching out brightest.

And it's ridiculous that hasn't changed much in decades. When I was at primary school their solution was to move me up a year, but I was a summer baby so I was so much younger than those children socially. And I remember being excited about moving up and then fed up when the work was still far too easy!