Child genius -which bright spark decided to put it on on a Tuesday???

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Anyone watching?

Oh yes, you say 'what did you get' and you're pleased if you did well: I remember that, obviously!

But I'd hope that if the child who always comes top, came top, and then walked to every other child's desk saying 'what did you get? I got 100%' when many of those children had done less than half as well, and carried on even when they clearly felt a bit defeated.... well I'd assume you'd tell him to stop, and probably be a bit put off by his behaviour.

Noble you might be right - I still think it probably felt a bit more charged for Sasha as this was the final, though, and Thomas's 'you are not going to win: I beat you by nine points in your best round' was really not nice.

I think AF must be due in a few days as I may have welled up a little at Thomas thanking his family in his speech

I'd say with the atmosphere being how it is (big audience, spotlights on the child) it wouldn't be surprising if children sometimes act out of character, and get caught up in the competitiveness of it. Of course they are going to ask what everyone got in the specialist round - whether they stayed in or not depended on it.
Thomas got a bit over excited, but redeemed himself with his nice speech at the end, I thought Sasha handled his boisterousness quite maturely. I found his enthusiasm for codes rather endearing - it is so nice when children get truly enthusiastic about a topic - and many of the children involved int his competition had that delight in learning.

I got slightly fed up with the 'these are degree level questions'- they aren't, not by a long stretch, and the books the children were using to revise from quite rightly age appropriate. There's no need to overstate the case with what they are doing.

No doubt these are bright children and why shouldn't they have an outlet for their talents just as sporty children do, and I'm sure kids playing football/gymnastics/swimming get over excited and very competitive too.

Jack seemed like a lovely child, as did a little girl who got knocked out earlier - can't remember her name - she got very nervous though and it was all a bit much for her.

"get her but she was superior. And Thomas was just Thomas"
Ah. So a confident girl is superior, but a boy going on about his scores, distracting all the others when they were trying to memorise things because that's how he does it and rubbing his rivals face in his successes is "just Thomas". I would expect any 12 year old of mine to have more grace and good manners.

"thought Sasha handled his boisterousness quite maturely"

Because that's what girls have to do, isn't it? Deal with "the way boys are"

Thomas always made sure he shook hands with people after winning, I think he has been taught about being a good winner and had generally been pretty gracious up till then.

I think his mum would be a bit mortified at the 'beat you in your best round' line, but I think him getting carried away is understandable in the final, especially when the rivalry was being ramped up, the others were egging him on with the boys v girls stuff and the final round was a head to head.

I think he needed an older sibling to squash him a bit. Or slightly less worshipping parents. He was a brat throughout.

Well not quite - I don't think it was necessarily a question of the way boys are - I thought the other little boys behaved fine and they also had to deal with Thomas's behaviour.

I thought Sasha showed maturity in largely ignoring him. I don't condone his boasting in any way - but in his defence, he was the first child to complete the round, so he was the one sitting in the room the longest getting most excited and having to wait longest for the other results, so maybe some leeway for him getting himself worked up.

Also he had no one there to say 'pipe down and calm down' his Mum wasn't at hand. Now that makes him a bit immature - boys often are a little more immature than girls at the same age (actually I believe Sasha was older and a year at secondary school can make a big difference once children go from being the top dog at primary to small fry at secondary -often year sixes are very full of themselves in general)

I think Thomas has a bit of a problem with social interacting, but there are definite signs of him being basically a decent child who when he grows up a little will handle himself better.

I am in no way saying boys are like this girls have to accommodate them. I am talking about one little boy and one little girl in a particular and rather unusual situation.

I know many boys who are not like that at all, who are very considerate and wouldn't dream of boasting in that way. I know girls who behave like Thomas did. I have seen perfectly pleasant children become carried away and behave badly under the excitement and anxiety of a competition. I don't know any who have done a competition that gets shown on national TV - I would guess those conditions heightened the stress and possibly bring out uncharacteristic behaviours.

He's a child - children get it wrong sometimes, that's why adults have to watch and guide them. I simply don't like the idea of bad mouthing a little boy who seems to have plenty of good points, from one snapshot of his behaviour in exceptional circumstances where he behaved not quite as he should.

Sasha was also saying some fairly competitive things - I would guess a lot of what they said was encouraged by the TV crew and taken out of context.

Anyway well done to all the children who took part and tried their best, I hope they gained from the experience and continue to enjoy their interest in learning.

I imagine it's a difficult balance when you have a child who is very precocious and has an unusually strong desire for knowledge. On the one hand you want to encourage them. On the other it's important not to neglect a kind of all round development - including social skills.

Perhaps because you didn't see many scenes of ordinary family life, the children at school etc, many of the children didn't come over as especially well-rounded individuals.

While Thomas's mother came over as as affectionate and gentle, she also seemed to worship her rather 'hyper' son as a kind of reincarnation of the husband she had lost, and to be exclusively focused on him - perhaps to the expense of the children she had acquired via her new partner.

It was a sad backstory. I also wasn't sure whether despite Thomas's unusual brightness - whether there was solid foundation for a happy future.

I thought the stepdad seemed rather excuded in a way I can't put my finger on. He seemed very supportive but just playing a bit part in the whole thing. I agree that he has a burden to carry in being the reincarnation of his deceased father.

Can't help it, I found Thomas far too full of himself and having super intelligence is really not everything. Being able to get on with your peers is pretty important too!

Meaning Thomas has a burden to carry (not the stepdad!)

When you compare Thomas to Hugo last year, Thomas was the epitome of restraint!

If he's spending a lot of time at school with sixth formers then I think the social skills in dealing with his peers will be more difficult to pick up.

Also, going onto a competition to find Britain's child genius and discovering that you are head and shoulders above the competition has got to be quite a challenge to keep your cool about.

I had quite liked Thomas up till the final. Boasting about your score when others quite obviously haven't done as well isn't nice and I thought he was actually quite nasty to Sasha.

I always think it's interesting to see how these children's lives pan out as they get older. Some of them struggle with their vast intellect, others rebel against pushy parents and I guess some turn out pretty well.

But it was about mum and Thomas. Not one other child had any focus on the siblings either so why would Thomas be any different? I'm sure mum loves his siblings too. Also, there was only one parent that was the main focus for nearly every child. The Italian dad (mum barely said a word, in fact probably less than Thomas stepdad.) as an example.

"he's spending a lot of time at school with sixth formers then I think the social skills in dealing with his peers will be more difficult to pick up."

Which is one of the reasons skipping years is such a bad idea.

Well now we have it being the fault of his hanging around with sixth formers and the fault of his young age vs Sasha, who has had a year at secondary... except, wait, so has Thomas.

I did have to keep reminding myself that it was the same for all the contestants, in that we only saw their parents' relationship with them (logically, as they were the ones in the show) and their siblings appeared very briefly, usually looking bored. So it wasn't fair to think that Thomas's family was really quite heavily centred around Thomas... but it did look that way, sometimes.

But yes, I definitely agree that Hugo was even worse!

It would have been so easy for them to have the same questions in the final, maybe in soundproof booths. Sasha was put off when she got questions wrong by Thomas's movements and grins! Also her first spelling question wasn't at all phonetic whereas Thomas's was and when you are wrong footed early on it's hard to get back on track. It would appear more equal if they had the same questions. Having said all that, Thomas was the deserved winner because he was strong all the way through. Unfortunately we didn't see Sasha in the early rounds and build up a relationship with her like we did with Thomas.

Doc - yes. But I guess they don't do that because it's not as dramatic and the children are less likely to cry . The false jeopardy was ridiculous: 'Sasha is closing in' and so on. She just wasn't!

It's just a horrible, horrible programme. I am drawn to it like rubbernecking at a car crash, but I think all the parents are without exception ghastly. Simply for putting their child in for it.

Agree with the first part Bertrand, though I didn't think Thomas's mother was ghastly. But I did think she was potentially worryingly over-invested in his genius, and I felt sorry for his step-sister Kate when they showed them walking home from school - Thomas was just bounding ahead and informing her about everything and anything, and she looked sweetly tolerant but rather fed-up. As did his step-brother when their table tennis game was really just the mother helping Thomas revise. And his step-brother when they were in the same maths class.

Actually, I'm talking myself out of sympathy with Thomas's mother a bit....

Oh,I thought she was ghastly too. No exceptions!

Thing is, Bertrand when you have a kid so astonishingly advanced as Thomas, not skipping years isn't great either. Having them sitting in a class of their peers who are so far beneath them that differentiation of the same lesson is impossible isn't going to help them mix with their peers either.

I really don't know what's best for kids like Thomas. I wonder if he will continue in his state comprehensive after the show or whether private schools will try to bag him.

Totally disagree Thomas was a brat, I thought he he was lovely and very well balanced as it was a competition of COURSE they were all being competitive about scoring! I thought he was lovely checking Sasha was ok when he won and she did well to say he was deserved to win.

Bloody hell, I hear more bragging in the back of my car from the teens I give lifts to school than I did from Thomas

In honesty, I though Thomas must of have a form of autism. But then I realised that many highly intelligent children do act socially awkward.

The mum did keep going on about the late father, the step-dad must of felt uncomfortable.