Flagging up your child as G&T

[critterjitter]

My DD's school sent out a letter to all parents last year informing them that they could flag up their children as G&T to the school if they so wished. They would then consider the request. The letter asked parents to indicate which area they believed their child excelled in etc.

At the time I ignored the letter, as I found it difficult to judge how well she was doing, due to her being in Reception. However, since then her reading has developed at quite an astonishing rate (she's a free reader in Y1). Her written work is excellent too, and she is particularly well motivated.

While I've been quite happy to let the situation just continue, a few alarm bells are starting to go off now. I've started to notice that she isn't really getting any individual reading time now at school, and her books aren't really being changed unless I force the issue. When I raised this, I was smilingly told not to worry as it didn't really matter too much with DD anymore as she could read anything.

She is not really feeling challenged by the written work given to her, and laughs about it when she gets home. She immediately starts setting up her own work for herself as soon as she walks through the door after school! She will quite happily sit and work for a couple of hours every night after school constructing question and answer type work for herself. I actually have to pull work off her to get her to eat and go to bed. She spent the Easter holidays just burrowing through work books and wanted me to reconstruct a school day for her everyday at home.

She repeatedly gets 100% in the weekly spelling tests, for both the core and extension spellings, but this still doesn't seem to have flagged up to the school that she needs a bit more challenge.

She's been put on the 'top table' as such, but says she feels really bored by the work, particularly the group guided reading, where the table is reading at about level 7, whereas she is a free reader.

From others experience, would flagging her up to the school as being potentially G&T help get her some differentiated work/ more focus on her needs etc? Or is it just a label? Essentially, what would the practical benefits of having her labelled as G&T be?

[MuffinBaker]

It sounds like those that are listed as G&T are left to their own devises. Not good. I would go in and see the teacher.

[Kammy]

Why are they asking parents to flag up G&T children? Sounds a bit lazy IMHO. Definately go and see the teacher.

[Uriel]

What about getting her interested in a few hobbies to change her focus? Music maybe, chess, trampolining - whatever she likes.

Do you take her to the library and let her choose books for herself?

[critterjitter]

Uriel
She has a number of interests and goes to all of the school clubs etc. She's a member of libraries in 3 boroughs - always reading.

The problem is keeping her occupied at school. I'm getting the very strong impression that she is being left to her own devices. My question really is whether flagging her up as G&T would mean the school would have to focus some time on her - or would it simply exacerbate the situation?

[snorkle]

Speak to the school. Tell them your concerns and ask if it would make a difference if she was on the G&T register. My bet is that she's already on the register & that it doesn't make much or any difference (though they may be unwilling to admit that).

In any case, you will only resolve the problem by talking to them - if G&T is a way forward then they should tell you what the benefits of it might be.

[ingles2]

How bizarre that the school is asking you to tell them if your child is G&T! I've never heard anything like it. Surely they know if she is and is already on the register
That aside I would make an appointment with the teacher to ask how she is stretching your child academically, what extension work she is doing,if she is able to move into a different yr group for work. If you are not satisfied then, see the head.

[missmem]

I've not yet met one parent whose gifted child has been stretched or given appropriate work in the first 4 years at state school. She sounds like she would flourish in home ed if she is that motivated or an independent school.

[critterjitter]

Financial situation rules out Home Ed and independent schools unfortunately.

Has anyone felt encouraged as to the way forward after having their child included on the G&T register? My main concern is that it will just be a label that they'll use to justify their current 'leave her to her own devices' approach.

[Kammy]

There is no register at my ds school, but he is flagged up as 'exceptionally able' in maths. The first 2 years were quite disheartening - I decided to take a slow and gentle approach with the school, not making too much fuss but letting them know at each parents evening exactly what he was doing. By the end of Year 1 they did indeed agree he was very able and now in Year 2 he is being given differentiated work and the teachers are talking of a longer term plan when he goes to juniors.

It's hard to know the best approach without knowing the school. There appears to be a reluctance to label children too early - you may find that by next year when they are doing more testing that the school are able to tackle this more productively with your dd. Or you may find the school are not that good at stretching her.

In any case, it is worth speaking to the teacher. For us, the 'softly softly' approach worked well and I now do feel confident that being on the radar will mean that ds is more likely to be stretched.

Hope that helps.

[madwomanintheattic]

absolutely - agree with cat64.

next time you have a parent's evening, ask how they are differentiating her work.

round here once they are free readers they just go and change their books themselves when they want to. they still get 1 session of reading time a week, usually with a parent helper, as they don't need the 1-1 with the teacher so much. the guided reading can be a bit of a bore for more able readers, but a clever supervisor will be stretching them in other ways and checking comprehension etc as well.

my 3 were all on the g&t list. tbh it means nothing until the school adopt g&t as one of their priorities, which sadly only usually happens once they have sorted out the other end of the mainstream conundrum which affects sats results. (oddly, this has just happened in our school, and suddenly we have lots of stuff going on). i have one statemented child too btw, and can honestly say i think this is the right approach - whilst they may 'coast', able children are at least able to access the curriculum and do an amount of self-learning, merely by picking up a book lol.

the label as such means nothing. just ask how work is differentiated for her ability.

tbh at this point in the year they probably aren't going to change much lol. once yr 2 hits they'll be pushing her to make sure she hits top 3's across the board, so things will change next year lol.

[critterjitter]

Thanks for your replies. I did talk to the school a while back about differentiating her work, and they said they'd provide her with more advanced work, but wouldn't have the time to assist her with it during class.

Strong impression I'm getting all the time is that she's being left to her own devices. When I've spoken to them about the lack of reading opportunities for her (as compared to the remainder of the class) they waived their hands and said something to the effect that "you've got nothing to worry about with that one." Comforting words in some respects, but in terms of her development at school, she obviously needs some input.

I suppose my rationale with the G&T 'label' is that it may force them to review her needs periodically.

[ingles2]

I don't think the label will make any difference at all critter.
I'm sure she's already on the register, the school after all needs to identify it's top 10%. The fact they can't differentiate work for her is poor and I would be going to see the head,
I used to know my son was on the G&T register for maths and sport at our last school.
They did nothing other than that though. He was bored stupid.
I moved him to another state school, where they haven't discussed G&T with me, but as he is in yr 4, in a yr 5 class working at yr6+ level with work to stretch him, it doesn't bother me in the slightest.

[figroll]

My eldest dd1 was a good reader, etc at primary school and soon came off the reading scheme. At that point she was just left to browse for books in the library and found it really hard to choose books for herself. She used to come home with books that didn't really interest her but had a nice picture on the front cover and so she didn't want to read them.

I complained about this and asked for her to go back onto the reading scheme so that she had structured reading. The school didn't have the books, but they bought another reading scheme especially for her (the more advanced books). It was much better and she felt more included with the class. I can recommend that they stay on the reading scheme when they are little, even if they are able readers, as it means that they still have the structure that little ones need.

[critterjitter]

Well DD came home tonight and asked if I'd mind talking to her teacher, as her school work is "boring and easy." She asked me if it would always be like this. Said she was too scared to tell her teacher herself that the work was too easy for her.

Have tried to make contact with the G&T person at the school, but no response. Teacher had previously agreed to give her extension work, but don't seem to have followed up on this. Not looking good.