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

[Emochild]

Anyone watching?

"I disagree bert and am amazed that you think it is acceptable that a child sits and waits for his/her classmates for years shock. Outrageous!"

I don't. But until there is unlimited public money available for education, then I would rather SEN money went to children who struggle with the basics,rather than children who are more likely to be able to be self starters. Sad, but pragmatic.

Look, let's be honest. All of the children have been coached by their parents for hours at a time. That's their prerogative, but let's stop pretending that most of those children are 'geniuses ' They are bright children with parents that invest their time and energy into their education.

You need both though and those that won seemed bright as a button rather than pale and wan from hours of forced coaching by an implacable parent.

"'i'm baffled by your attitude"

So how would you organise it? The whole year 5 SEN budget for an A level maths teacher for one child?

If they're that bright, it's not like they'll need hours of lessons a week, especially as it's 1-1.

It can be hard to believe how little some kids need to work at maths to be good at it.

I think that it 'easier' to excel in maths than English.

Not sure. A good lot of us in this family are good at English and I suppose that's about reading books. If you read and read and read all day long you tend to get good at English and that does not require a huge amount of teacher input.

There are two issues here - some of these children on the programme are very clever and separately they prepared and swotted for the competition. Normally they would just be reading or studying for their own fun into subjects in which they were interested or for an additional early GCSE or A level. I don't think the fact the parent sat them down and spent some time for the competition coaching them in their special subject necessarily reflects the parent/child teaching going on outside of the programme although that will vary from family to family.

I have always thought this kind of thing is about 50% nature and nurture - indeed for all of us.

It's certainly much more common to pass maths exams early than other subjects. Understanding of maths doesn't need maturity in a way that English does. There are texts that wouldn't be appropriate for a primary school child to read or discuss.

"Budgeting for Sen doesn't work like that bert and 5 hours 1:1 wouldn't cost that much even if that was how you managed it"

Really? So you could pay for 5 hours 1:1 from an A level maths specialist out of your SEN budget without anyone else losing out? How would you manage that, then?

"Do you imagine the other children "miss out" when they have a child who requires more support for other reasons"

There is a finite amount of resources.

In an ideal world, there would be enough money for the perfect education for everyone. But there isn't. So it should go to those whose need is greatest. That does not include children who, if push came to shove could access what they need online.

Wow, let's not nurture genius, eh? Mediocrity for all!

"I can't imagine how you can happily sit their and say you are fine with only educating the average and the below average shock Shame on you."

Yeah well, if you think that's what I said, carry on. There's a very interesting discussion to be had but fine if you don't want to have it.

Ditto the "mediocrity for all" comment. Very illuminating.

Well, you did appear to be suggesting that bright children should simply be pointed in the direction of some online resources and left to it

"We have more than enough money to educate ALL our children. angry"

Have we? Tell that to the head teachers having to make heartbreaking cuts- not replacing staff, not being able to run the courses they think best for their cohort.......

Bert, I was relating how differentiation works in schools. If you think it was teacher bashing, you can only think it because it is wrong that differentiation should work like this. BUT I was relating what happened from direct experience. I had years of it and the primary education system failed my child and continues to fail others.

I agree that SEN funding should go to those who need it because they are struggling, but the way to deal with those who are ahead is not by saying they are not. A solution to a problem should not be denying the problem is there.

" Most educators are well aware of the life damaging effects of unmet Sen. Most spend far more time straining to provide a good education for all and far less justifying their failure to do so."

I agree. But you seem to be saying that there are no financial constraints and no hard choices to be made in schools. If there aren't why are there any unmet SEN?

Noble, I would have loved it if dd had been allowed to do an online course in class. Flip learning does seem like a real solution to the problem. It would have been preferable to years of going over what dd had already learnt 2 years previously. I would have liked it if teachers had at least talked to me so we could work out a solution together. In the age of computers and limited rescores in school, it seems daft not to look for up to date ideas of how to differentiate better.