If your child is intelligent but not particularly academic?

[GreenVelvet]

• how did you make choices about their education?

So, speaking for my own son Y6 (aged 10). He's definitely bright, above average etc - but homework is an "ordeal". He is also fairly extrovert, sporty etc - he only wants to be an international footballer for example!

I didn't put my son up for a grammar school entrance exam for a couple of reasons - but the main one was that I didn't think a strongly-academic education would suit his personality and interests.

Any thoughts/experience on this?

Or can children change dramatically?!

So hard to know isn't it? I can only offer the example of my brother who was not academic and really only stayed on because jobs were hard to come by. He grew more interested in study and has ended up with two degrees.

Standards of behaviour/attitude were set high by my parents but they didn't place academic expectations on us, though my Mum has said she desperately wanted him to stay on but didn't dare say anything at the time!

I'm in the same boat with my youngest - sharp as a needle, always has the witty/clever retort but very little interest in academia. Homework is usually the bare minimum he can get away with. And tbh I spend huge amounts of time trying a) not to feel frustrated by it and b) not letting the frustration show. I do realise the most important thing is that he's happy, which he is.

But I do have the advantage of a much older DS who was very similar, and did change dramatically - scraped into Uni after assorted retakes and then did very well. So I think certainly at 10 it's too early to know how things will pan out - you're absolutely right to hold off any pressure.

My eldest dd is a bit like this. Art, IT, anything involving people skills, and she's interested. Academics, and she'll do the bare minimum - though school don't seem to see it that way

She's top sets in everything (Y5) but not out of enthusiasm! I find it frustrating, but I can also see she probably has a great future in media, or psychotherapy, or design, or something.

Grammar school (if we had any near us) would definitely not be right for her. Too narrow.

I'm not convinced primary homework being an ordeal means they're not academic! In this house it used to involve tears, shouting, god knows what for the most minimal of outcome. DD finished primary with comfortable level 5s in Eng/Maths/Science, and is in top sets for all the academic subjects in secondary.

Her homework now still tends to look like it was completed by a demented octopus (improved a bit by the fact that she can do quite a lot on the computer), but on the whole it is a less painful experience, and I think the content is generally ok.

Having said that we chose the less academically pushy secondary, no grammars here, but the other option is much more traditional / high achieving, and didn't seem like it would suit dd (her choice as much as ours )

Takver I love love love the 'demented octopus' analogy. And relate to it

So interesting.

Something to think about for the future - do you live near any of the new university technical colleges (UTCs)? www.utcolleges.org/
They're for children from age 14 onwards (y.10), are sponsored by universities and offer a practical approach to learning as well as all the essential GCSE subjects, 6th-form level and routes into apprenticeships and employment as well as university. They're not short of funding and are therefore superbly resourced - at least the one near us is, and it looks to be a godsend for budding engineers!

Thats fascinating, hottie - I'd never heard of them at all, but it sounds like an excellent idea. I've known quite a few dc who are very bright but just don't suit school. The FE college here does take 14 year olds (a lot of HE kids round here take that option), but it doesn't have a particularly wide range of choices. Shame there aren't any at all in Wales, much less near us!

There are only a few UTCs up and running at the moment - most are due to open over the next couple of years. Definitely worth keeping an eye on!

DD1 (17) is like this, very bright but not academic. She chose options in year 9 that suited her personality and interests, also based on what she wanted to do after education. So she took as many options based on non-academic subjects as possible, art, graphic products, extra IT. I decided that as long as she achieved GCSEs in maths and english at grades A, B or C, then I was happy for her to pursue whichever subjects she wanted. I wanted her to be happy at school.

It worked brilliantly and I think that supporting her to take subjects she was happy with actually helped her to cope with the more academic subjects. She is soooo happy at college

My ds is like this too - still in the 6th form