Introducing challenge in year 7

[emmaavonlea]

My DD has settled really well into her outstanding girls school -- lovely friends, a few teachers she's clicked with, nice walk. She's happy to go every day.

School gets great results with a not-easy intake (over 50% free school meals.) It doesn't set, which I know works well in the research, but in practice my DD, who is really ahead and LOVES to learn, is bored and unchallenged in class. The emphasis is really getting those behind to the right level rather than challenging those who are already there.

I totally get this and I'm not inclined to move her given that she's happy enough -- who knows if another school would be better (and have openings?) anyway? I know this is a great problem to have. If she liked coasting, that would be fine as this is all good for her confidence. But she craves challenge!

Should I talk to the school -- and what could they possibly do? Ask if they could assign her optional projects to do on the side, which she would love? We do all the usual stuff at home (extension books, a neighbour helps challenge her in math, all the museums) but I'd welcome any more creative ideas.

Thanks!

To be brutally honest, what did you expect? They are getting a lot of pp money and it’s not for your DD. Their focus is on the fsm dc. No, you cannot move her, but did you check exam results and in what subjects? Did you check the curriculum and how brighter dc are taught? Not setting indicates they are not bothered.

I would suggest they don’t see many dc like yours and probably take the view (maybe subliminally) that these dc will do well enough whatever they do. I don’t agree with any school doing that but it appears to be what you are seeing.

You can contact the head of year. Whether teachers will be bothered to go the extra few yards for her is debatable. It truly depends how professional they are. They could set extra for homework of course. Optional, but make it available.

In a truly outstanding school, the curriculum would cater for all dc, and so would teaching, but I’m sensing this school is actually coasting with the brighter dc. Some dc and parents won’t care but not setting will continue to give her problems. That means she will be taught with dc who can barely read. Is that truly what you expected or want? I cannot really understand why you chose this school other than being able to
walk there. It seems very limiting.

To be fair the school gets excellent results - my neighbour just got straight 9s and the GCSEs are highest in the borough. It’s a great choice in that respect. And I’m ok that they are deeply concerned about the others catching up - that’s only right. They do set at GCSE but I think KS3 looks more like catch up which is the problem.

And finally we have no other better choices where we live!

So yes I know it’s not ideal but just wondering if there’s a way I can improve on the situation where we are.

I would talk to the school. I know kids in a few schools like this and often things change in Year Eight. If nothing else, they'll likely set for Maths then. You could maybe ask if she could go into Year Eight classes for Maths, might be a way of shaking them up a bit. Or give her a bit of extra responsibility somewhere else.
Does she play an instrument? That can be a way to give her something she has to work at.
Failing that, you could always give her research projects of her own. We used to do little project books in Year Six where we'd take a curriculum topic and write and illustrate a 'book' on it. I loved it. You could ask her to do similar for something she's studying in history or geography say.
If she has a school where she's happy, settled, can walk to and has friends, I think you made a good choice. Those are all important things they've got right.

@emmaavonlea Ok. So they can and do get dc with excellent results. In that case, I think your only avenue is to speak to the head of year. It is certainly possible for some schools to kill the joy of learning. I would also want to know what your DDs assessments are telling them. I’m surprised they don’t organise classes along sats results or their own testing though. If your dd is noticing catch up in class, that’s tending to mean she might not get the teaching she needs. I would ask the head of year about extension and more in depth work. Eg researching a topic or extended writing.

I live in a grammar county and no dc at a grammar would need to have a neighbour teaching extended maths. You are lucky this is possible - hopefully they won’t move. Did they coach dc to all the 9 grades by the way? Is it their dc? What did the neighbour feel about the school? Did they ask for anything?

How well do you know your neighbour whose DC got straight 9s? Can you ask them how they felt the school did with their DC and what they might have done out of school themselves to support their DC?

Yes I was just thinking this as I wrote it out! I know them well enough - both parents are teachers so I imagine they did a lot of extra work on top? I talked to them about the school and they were encouraging about it, though she chose a different sixth form. But again we don’t have a ton of choices where we live.

I have a year 7 in a competitive grammar school and he would not be happy in a school you describe. However, you say your DD is happy? And she is reading and doing stuff outside school anyway.

Some of the stuff my DS does in school is societies like Physics society, Greek and Latin club, astronomy society, maths challenge clubs (for the annual maths challenge), language spelling bees, lots of sports, ensembles and concerts and in his classes although not set the kids are largely bright. He is very happy and challenged. In primary, he was not too happy as always sat next to the kids who were behind to help them, especially in Year 6 for SATS he was basically teaching others and held up as an example to follow, which can be hard on them socially. So is your DD at least sat in class with the kids who are at a greater depth in the Year 7/8 curriculum and are they given extension work in class?
When you say “projects” what are her favourite subjects and how can you extend her in those specifically? That is how I would be thinking. DS school also does loads of extra competitions they can constantly enter from poetry writing, to photography, to history essays etc. Could she possibly enter some of those because I would suspect that if they do well academically they must have some. Also, DS enjoys the challenges provided by the Sixth Formers in his school, they run a lot of academic clubs too. Is there stuff like that at her school?
Years 7&8 are the best years for going as broad as you possibly can before the curriculum starts narrowing in preparation for GCSE.

@Araminta1003 There is a lot of evidence that dc who explain concepts to others, work to greater depth themselves. It aids their learning and often confidence. It’s no bad thing. I agree they don’t want to be the teacher approved “prof” but that style of learning doesn’t hold them back as your DS is demonstrating.

I do find teachers who can coach are often less bothered about schools. They know their dc will get on just fine. I’d talk to the school and see what they can offer. Would your neighbour admit to the extent of their home tuition? Probably not. What do 8/9 grades look like for other dc? In what subjects?

@Araminta1003 your son's school sounds great! But that wasn't on the cards for us in our area. She IS happy but she has always been a happy person, and she is very social, so her large group of really lovely friends goes a long way.

And she does have a lot of confidence at being really good at school. She self-describes as a "nerd" and has joined the nerdy clubs at school, though admittedly not many others have!

I'm OK with home tuition and we can do a lot too -- just would love for her to not be bored IN school. She could definitely do year 8 maths with no difficulty. Maybe we can start prepping her for an extra GCSE she can do on her own too. And love the project books idea @CheerfulMuddler!

@OhDear111 - it did actually bother him, but we extended outside school (he is a passionate musician). Other parents who have kids like my DS have started taking them out of school like 1 day a week or 1 day every couple of weeks to make a point. Especially if they are working from home and their DC are bored out of their minds and used as TAs they are taking things into their own hands.

@Araminta1003 That’s awful though, surely not at your school? Comps should cater for everyone but some don’t see clever dc that often. With 13 grammars here, they cater well for very bright dc. They would not necessarily excelerate dc for most subjects, but do in maths. The Cambridge maths dc stay in school though. No suggestion teaching isn’t good enough! Most dc like their friends too. Who wants to be hauled out by parents because they are so special and too good for school? Awful.

@OhDear111 - some are hauled out by teachers who work part time to catch them up at home 1:1. I promise you I am not making this up!
The fashion for out of school tutoring to make up for in school deficiencies is not just after school tuition anymore. Some parents do it on week days now. What can a school exactly do? The parents say their child is too tired/burnt out/not feeling well and we know it happens typically on a Thursday or Friday every couple of weeks.

Anyway, to get back to the OP - google KS3 academic competitions and you will see there are loads she can enter that are free. You don’t need the school’s buy in. And if she does well, I am sure they will be happy to boast with her achievements in a newsletter.

Depending on what subjects she's interested in, you can explore enrichment activities to broaden her knowledge and learning.

What you should try to avoid is inadvertently accelerating her to get too far ahead of her peers. We ended up with this situation with my DS who was very bored at primary school and so he started doing extra maths outside school for an hour a week.

He accelerated so rapidly that he ended up being 3-4 years ahead of his classmates and passed GCSE maths at 11. When we went to secondary open days and spoke to the heads of maths about how they could accommodate him, they said we had done the wrong thing and that widening learning, not accelerating was a better option.

Your school might be very limited in what they can facilitate in class and you might just have to suck it up and concentrate more on outside enrichment. Luckily there are plenty of resources, often free, for that.