Exceptionally bright 12 year old. Advice needed.

[vdbfamily]

Our youngest who is an end of August baby so always youngest in year, is very bright. Her primary head said she had never met a child so bright in her years of teaching. She is now year 8 and almost without fail gets 100% in any test across all subjects bar IT/Music?PE etc
She came home yesterday saying her German teaching had told her she was level 9 already and had got full marks in a mock GCSE. All her teachers are hassling her to chose them as an option for GCSE(even the DT teacher)
My question is what we do. I know we need to speak to school about how they make the next 3 years meaningful for her but I am not sure, with a class of 30 to manage, why she would ever be a priority when there are kids needing lots of support. Would we be letting her down to leave her cruising along.
We both work fulltime, only have one car and are not earning private school wages. School is a short walk from our house and all 3 kids are currently there. 2 older kids have not been privately educated and oldest would definitely have benefitted from that. She is currently stuggling to get through GCSEs and we are praying for passes, definitely not looking at 9's, except in languages.
I am very confused and conflicted as to right way to go.
Any suggestions please
Out of interest she is quite a complex child and would describe herself as having social anxiety. She is awaiting paediatric ENT appmt as has misophonia and cannot bear the sound of others eating breathing sniffing etc. So her school results are despite having to work with both hands over her ears(does not want to draw attention with headphones)

I have just seen there is a G&T topic so if MN wish to move this please do although I cannot see much on there re secondary school.

Oh my - I can see that this is both a blessing and a curse to deal with as a parent.
Has she self-taught the material for the GCSEs already, e.g. German grammar, maths etc.?
Does your DD have some outside interests that could be developed to stimulate her, e.g. computer programming, languages, music etc.?
She probably would have been a great candidate for a scholarship to a private school but I guess that ship has passed now.

I would be asking the school how they are going to help her achieve and not loose interest. I would also check the content of the German mock and how it would match up to a full gcse paper. I’m a secondary maths teacher and we will often give students a test just containing topics we have covered and whatever grade they get we stress it is only on these topics. I’m not doubting her intelligence but I would be careful with what the school is saying. If she would be able to get a 9 now they should enter her for the gcse.

Sorry that isn't much use. I just haven't had this experience or come across it before.

She came home yesterday saying her German teaching had told her she was level 9 already and had got full marks in a mock GCSE

I find that surprising given she has likely only had 2 years of German teaching, and the content they cover in year 7 and 8 isn't anywhere near as in depth as GCSE level.

As for what to do, the school should already have provisions in place for her. She's been there 2 years, and if she has displayed consistent 100% tests and is at level 9 GCSE level already they can't fail to have noticed this.

If she is so high achieving now surely she will continue to be so doesn’t need extra support? Seems like she will get top marks no matter what school. Though you could possibly try for a full scholarship place at an independent school? As for teachers ‘hassling’ her - she should choose on her own interests and not worry about letting teachers down.
We have a girl in school who decided to self teach herself RE and took the GCSE in Y10 just to challenge herself. She’s well rounded student (active in CCF and musicals etc) so maybe your child can do that to keep her stimulated.

Forgot to add she got a 9.

Watching. No advice I'm afraid but I also have a v bright daughter with misophonia - which I am worried about but unsure how to approach it/whether to seek help. Yr 7 currently and results not quite as off the charts as your dd but pretty much all her teachers (except IT/music/PE) have told me she has a gift for "their" subject. I'm happy with her school so far. V interested in what you might be advised re misophonia and how you approached the referral.

Hmm. Tricky. Is she quite an anxious person OP? Does she benefit from exceeding without ever having to really push herself? It could be just what she needs if she has some other difficulties. I sailed through school and I didn’t lose interest because I felt comfortable and able.

My daughter is similar but luckily we could afford a Private school and she got a part scholarship as well
However, our State option was dire and even some teachers there told me it wouldn’t suit dd so if she is being supported properly, is happy at school and is achieving at a high level then I wouldn’t worry about it.

If she would be able to get a 9 now they should enter her for the gcse.

Would they be able to do that though? Do schools have that kind of flexibility? And, even if they did do that, what would she do for the next few years? Would it be considered that she had ticked some box and move on to another subject or would they allow her to continue to study and extend her knowledge of German in the remaining years?

My son was the same OP. His school gave him advanced work from year 8 so although he is sitting his GCSE's at the moment he has alongside that done a lot of A level work already. He also took two extra GCSE's to give him more stimulation. See what the school can offer.

Oh and he has high functioning autism so has been in the special unit all that time. He is anxious and finds others annoying but the academy have managed this all really well.

OP - my daughters best friend at High School is like your daughter - really academically advanced. I don't know if you know the Scottish system, but she completed 2 Highers alongside her nationals in 4th year and in 5th year, when the clever children take 5 highers, she is sitting 6 highers and at least one advanced higher (maybe 2, can't remember) and will no doubt get As for all of them. This is so she can do all 3 sciences as well as 2 languages.

She is also a perfectly normal teenage girl who hangs out with my lovely, sparkly academically average daughter, attended the village primary and is at the local comprehensive. Obviously the High School must have worked out a way for her to take the extra subjects, but i know at least one of them she is teaching herself as there isn't a teacher in that subject at the school.

My point is, if she is that clever, she is that clever and will excel academically at her current school, as she would at any school. And that it does not necessarily mean she won't fit in socially, so I would relax a bit and let her develop academically and socially with your unstinting love and support in the background, as you would for any child.

My nephew who is 11yo is very bright. He has got an 9 in a full maths gcse paper which he sat at school. Obviously he hasn't covered all the maths syllabus in 8 months of secondary school but he spends ages at home doing maths on the internet and reading books, etc.

He now doesn't have maths lessons with his year but I believe sits in year 11 classes. I have no idea what they will do with him next year. He can beat his maths teacher in mental arithmetic tests.

But could you ask about her sitting in with older years for some lessons? Or at least having work set at a higher level ?

Theres a huge amount of content to cover in the next 2 years though - my 12 year old gets 100% in science and IT exams now, and is happily working on A level content in the areas they are covering. But it doesn't mean he could pass a GCSE as they haven't covered the syllabus. His teachers give him extension, and further extension work as appropriate.

Keep an eye on the social anxiety. My Ds is 14 and very bright although more down the maths and science route. He is at a state grammar school but is currently being assessed for autism. Things really have fallen apart. He seemed to cope at primary but the secondary school years and puberty have been awful. What once were autistic traits are now huge problems in his life. Academically he's still doing pretty well although definitely not reaching his potential but everything else is not good. I really never thought we would be where we are now.

Hopefully things won't be like that for your daughter but it's worth keeping an eye on that part of her life. Obviously academics are very important but it has certainly given me a reality check watching my bright child fall apart.

We both work fulltime, only have one car and are not earning private school wages. School is a short walk from our house and all 3 kids are currently there.

It is realistically too late to investigate bursaries for yr 9 independent school entry (and girls schools tend to switch at 11+ I think) but you could certainly think about the possibility of a scholarship (merit) plus bursary (means tested) for sixth form, if you think another school could offer more than the current one.

(Although this sometimes seems paradoxical - if a child has done extremely well in GCSEs at one school why move for A’ levels? Unless there’s no sixth form at the first school.)

Unless the current school is really bad and she is unhappy, I don't think you should considering moving school, even with a full scholarship. Obviously , moving school will add more anxiety to her. It's better let her stay at this school, and push school to give her more challenge work. I believe most subjects haven't started their GCSE content from year 8, she will feel more interested once all the GCSE courses have started. Meanwhile, maybe you can encourage her to do more sports? I always believe sports help with anxiety.

My dh was like that. He is very bright.

But when I saw his school books, yes, he got 100% in tests but he wouldn't have at my school. They gave tests which were well within their capability. At my school they gave tests to stretch ability. So they'd take subjects they'd learnt and have some questions that made you think rather than regurgitate knowledge.
He might have still scored 100%, but I suspect he wouldn't. (I wouldn't have even at the regurgitating knowledge )

The German thing is odd. Unless you're German speaking at home perhaps. (and I've known a number who are German speakers at home who were not GCSE ready in year 8 either)
Firstly, why would the school give a GCSE mock to year 8s, and secondly German isn't a subject that you can do intuitively like maths, you have to learn vocabulary etc so unless she has input outside school it really isn't likely she's already at that standard. More likely they said she would be looking at a 9 at GCSE.

Sorry, that sounded very negative.
What I was trying to say is that you may find another school stretches her better. Getting 100% in exams was something dh thought was great. I see it as a negative-they weren't stretching him. He wasn't stretched until degree level.

I'd have a look at other schools. Don't set your heart on them, but look at how they stretch and give additional stuff to people that need it.

Saying things like "you're already at level 9", puts her potentially in the situation where she thinks she won't have to work. I've worked with someone who thought that. At year 7 got a big scholarship, thought they were brilliant. Had a shock at GCSE when they didn't work and never really recovered from it.

I'd have a look at other schools.

But what d’you mean exactly? Assuming you’re suggesting the OP looks at independent schools. Her daughter’s in year 8 - no halfway decent independent school in England is going to have scholarship or bursary money available for 2019 year 9 at this stage.

And after that the independent route is obviously closed to them until sixth form.

But perhaps you meant other state schools?

Yes, other state schools. Provision is different in different schools. You can have three good schools who will suit different people. In our area there are 3 schools that are reasonable distance. One of which is brilliant with people who need a little more support (emotionally or academically), another one has a unusually large range of subjects in a particular specialism, the other stretches top better.
If someone asks me about the local schools I would recommend different ones for different children. They're all on paper bog standard comps, just when you look closer there are differences.

I've got bright DC (eight of them, youngest now in Y12 having got straight 9s at GCSE last year with most of the others getting straight A*).

My very strong advice would be not to hassle for extra work, not to take GCSEs early - what for? - and just to let your DD enjoy her schooling and to work instead on overcoming her social anxiety. She can always read beyond the curriculum. Just let her cruise through peacefully. I've always taken the line with mine that there's no hurry in life and if you can be top at 18, what's the big deal about being top at 17? Let her enjoy life at a calm pace because her biggest single challenge appears to be anxiety - that's the key thing to address if you're pursuing her overall happiness which I'm sure you are. It sounds as though the academic side will take care of itself.

Witchend there's a good chance that shifting schools abruptly in Y9 will cause an increase in anxiety unless the DD is desperately unhappy among her current peer group.