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.

@Ladylulabelle non-fiction books can be a better way to get harder reading material. My son is a sensitive soul so scarier /more adult books definitely weren't the right option , but he loves books about space/science/history

My mum just chucked novels at me to keep me quiet, so I ended up reading things like Grapes of Wrath when I was still at primary .

I would say to move th focus off being "stretched". If they're reading chapter books that's great, you just need to have easy access to books. (Libraries are great for this) and read before bed etc. Dial down the pressure to "improve" as they're doing great and allow them to read for fun. They'll likely read a whole selection from the rainbow fairies x 1000 to books you'd consider more worthy. The key is to just let them enjoy reading as that's what enables a lifelong habit rather than a shortsighted sprint now.

Secondly whereas for some the focus will be academics - your child is already good in that area so the focus is likely to be social skills, settling into school.

Take the pedal off trying to push skills that are already developed and encourage them in the areas that are tricky. Speaking in turn, lining up, all the social side of reception.

Aside from that longer term (I pretty much was that child) I'd go sideways. Encourage an instrument or a sport or clubs as they get a bit older and have other areas they are working on.

@ContractQuestion we went for an instrument too in y1. Seems to be challenging him. I also haven’t fussed too much about pushing ahead as there’s loads of time for that.

@ContractQuestion I don't disagree with you about developing other skills. But in my experience the very brightest children have a desire/need to be stretched that is innate. It's not about ambitious parents it's just about a brain with a thirst for harder work.

I definitely do agree that developing sports/social skills /music is also great. In fact I credit my high level dinghy racing for developing a lot of the skills I used to be successful in my very academic career (and it was very fun and sociable). But I just know that my son and I both needed and wanted harder academic work, and were much happier when we had it.

No, DD started able to read CVC words. But had to redo the whole phonic alphabet for the first 6w and then went through all the book bands even though she didnt need to.

She is also likely ASD (awaiting assessment)
maths she was probably only a bit ahead in reception, but not stretched at all so actually seemed behind in yr1, being one of younger in year.

Nothing done with her reading by school once she became a free reader.

Unfortunately she is very picky over books so isnt extending herself.

My DD wasn’t allowed to skip a year, so has been bored. She is year 5 but in tutoring is doing year 8 (some year 9) maths and English.

however, the delay has let her have time to focus on social skills.

I’ve been a little disappointed as I was assured by the school that they did differentiate/stretch kids but I haven’t really seen it in practice.

My (summer born) DC is advanced but not to the level of your child (and no SEN) - she started reception in September reading at about a year ahead, because I had taught her/she had asked to - not because she magically learned herself! She still had to go through all the reading books from the beginning, but we just carried on with our own reading at home.

She’s now at around year 2/3 level but her school reading books are band 4 which is apparently the highest the school
will “allow” in reception.

However, she hasn’t been bored at all and has really enjoyed school. So much of it is play based that I think there can actually be greater opportunity for stretching them/letting them follow their own interests. I’m worried that next year when learning is more formal it might actually become more boring for her, but will see.

I can understand your concern honestly and I'm not gonna roll my eyes at you for voicing your concerns because it isn't helpful. However I do think you need to think of the bigger picture. In YR it's all quite rightly about the bigger picture. In order to be lifelong healthy learners and well adjusted human beings they have to be competent in all areas including emotional and social skills. I don't mean this to be derogatory but I could almost guarantee that where your DS is excelling massively in one area there's at least one other area that he could stand to work on. Pay close attention to what his preschool and reception say about him and focus on developing the areas that they observe to need focus and relax about the reading. Reading is fantastic and shouldn't be discouraged but he's already at the level of most junior school kids by the sounds of it so it's really not going to be of any long term benefit to push him to be any further ahead. Support him to love books and just enjoy the fact that you don't have to agonise over a phonics folder for the next 2 years. Arrange playdates. Play games together. Bake together. Read chapter books together to deepen his understanding of language.

My dd is just finishing YR. She's not hyperlexic I wouldn't say but is probably in the top 10% (ish) of kids for who reading comes very naturally. I'll admit it was a tad frustrating initially when teachers were giving her boring books that were a piece of cake to read and had no real story. However, we stayed patient, did the obligatory reading with her and focussed on the other elements of reading such as understanding and inflection. She's gradually been moved up a few bookbands once the teachers could see how well she was doing and is fairly (but not crazily) ahead of most of her peers. What I will say is that I think the school have now found the perfect reading level for her. She reads fluently, understand the subtleties of what she's reading and reads with beautiful inflection. You'd think she's doing a dramatic re-enactment a lot of the time. All this is just as important as decoding which I suspect is mostly what your DS is doing at this age to be able to read a chapter book.

YR is a wonderful year and they will grow and develop in so many ways. If it's a decent school and you have a decent teacher they really will help your child thrive holistically so just have faith in them that they'll do this

@Theydontknowthatweknowthattheyknow

Excellent post

Thank you to everyone who replied.
Firstly I'm sorry to see that there are posts saying that you are disappointed with the lack of support for your children, all childrens needs should be met.
There were alao posts saying that you felt that your child is being stretched and are happy at school ,so this was good to see.
There were some very good points in regards to working on different areas such as Social and Emotional, which I would love the School to be able to do,it would support the work we are doing already with various services.
However, it's not just a matter of focusing on other areas, if the classes learning objectives for the year are phonic sounds and actions and learning to count to 20 , boredom will kick in during lessons and my concerns are that it will result in behaviours that will disrupt the rest of the class, and therefore no one is learning anything.
I think I will ask the teacher to have something that he can practice ,like handwriting etc when they are doing something he already knows.
I should clarify,it's nit just reading that is advanced.
What I don't want is for him to loose his interest in learning because his needs aren't being met. It's not about pushing ,it's about wanting to meet him where he is, and ensuring he is happy in school and doesn't start to refuse to go to school.
I understand there is more to Reception class then Education, but
If a child is struggling with the basics, they would hopefully be supported to gain those skills, why not support a child who is able to do the basics and more? If there are 25 children in a class, all 25 should be supported to meet all their needs , Emotional,social and intellectual needs,why not a child who is advanced?

@Timetoeat i think in my child’s school anyway, they seem to do about 30 mins of phonics each day in a bigger group. The rest of the time learning is in much smaller groups where it can be differentiated a lot more easily.

Eg counting some beads in a group of 5 with a teacher. She can ask one child what would happen if one more, one less, another child what if you divided by 2 or 5 etc.

My DC hasn’t reported being bored in the phonics lessons at all, despite knowing it all. Actually learning to sit still and listen for limited periods despite finding it boring is potentially a good life lesson in itself. It certainly hasn’t affected my DC’s attitude towards learning.

As I said in my previous post, I think they move to more bigger group teaching in year 1 so it may potentially be more of an issue there, but I’ll have to wait and see.

Embarra55ed thank you for your reply.
That's a great point about learning to sit and listen even if you already understand something. We are going to go into Reception year with an open mind ,but if issues arise , we hope the school will be able to support.

Teachers are very very used to differentiating learning. I’m not sure why you think you need to “push” for normal classroom practice. However advanced your child is it’s HIGHLY unlikely they are beyond the scope of any teacher in primary school.

ZairWazAnOldLady, I used the word push because it was used in a comment by another poster on this thread.
If you read the rest of the replies to my question, you will find that not all schools do provide "normal classroom practice" for advanced learners.
I'm sure my child isn't beyond the scope of a Primary School Teacher, that's not implied in any of my comments. My question was, what Is the experience of other parents with advanced learners in School. And the answer is, no,not all schools cater to the needs of advanced learners.

It’s entirely up to you how you handle things @Timetoeat but it is utterly unremarkable to have some outliers in both directions. I personally would assume the teacher knew her job. If she fails that’s a different situation.

ZairWazAnOldLady, I appreciate that yes,it's unremarkable that there may be people that have different experiences then what is expected from the School system. Thanks.

'The rest is mostly laziness'. I think you will find that in most reception classes the teacher does not have enough time to academically stretch a child whilst teaching 29 others, many of whom will have send needs. Some may be non verbal. Some may not be toilet trained etc etc. Children with high IQs may also need to focus on their social skills. Reception is not about teaching children with higher reading ages to access the KS2 curriculum.

I don't know where the assumption comes from that very bright children necessarily lack social skills. Some, agreed. But many children are very bright academically and have excellent social skills /emotional intelligence.

I am trying to suggest that children can be academically bright but may be typical in their social skills or below. This means that they can learn from the play based curriculum in reception.

In some cases yes but it's a bit of a lazy trope. In my experience it's just as likely that they are highly emotionally intelligent and socially skilled.

No, not IME. My dd is bright but not gifted, and she was bored witless as school. She was literally counting down the days in Year 6 - being put through SATS revision almost broke her - a term of revising material they’d done to death in the year before.

on the plus side she got through a lot of books and got good at art, as she read and drew while everyone else was trying to learn the stuff they should have already learned.

Luckily secondary school is better and she has realised education can be stimulating.

That's the thing, my Child is 2 E , or twice exceptional ,his needs of being stretched are as important as his social needs. Each child out of the 30 you mentioned are as important as each other,as well as social skills ,children go to school to learn,that means every one.

I think it depends on the school. But in my experience, no they do not seem to cater at my dc school. They give more challenging work, which is still easy, pair them up with others who are struggling so they can help them. The focus seems to help those who are struggling catch up. This is state school though. I am sure different in private.

No, not in my experience- and I work in Reception. There are too many other needs in my settling, which I suspect is the case everywhere. The TA's who traditionally would be taking intervention groups, are helping EFL new starters, cleaning up toileting accidents, or doing 121 support with a violent or non-verbal (etc) child. Safety comes first, funding comes last, children's education suffers. Same in Key Stage 1. It's miserable. I'm sorry. This is why many teachers are striking. We need more staff. That means more funding, as well as incentives of pay, so that your child can have the extension activities they should be getting.

Have you had a settling in session or meeting with the teacher? I think it’s perfectly reasonable to ask how they might be able to meet your child’s needs.

But, there is so much more to reception than literacy and maths. I would try not to worry too much.