Hi,
I agree it all depends on an administrators.
We started dd at a small school thinking it would mean that dd wouldn't just be a number. She was grade skipped, but the school really had no idea about gifted kids having never dealt with one before (or at least not knowingly!) and once they'd done the skip felt they had done enough - it was a complete disaster. Had the principal and teachers had a clue about what to do, I think this would have worked really well - dd did well socially and because the grounds and buildings were small she didn't feel physically overwhelmed.
We moved her to a big school with a cohort of gifted kids. There are 3x the students and perhaps 10x the space. Huge. Dd kept worrying about getting lost, but had it figured out eventually. The facilities are great and it is nice not to have to talk in circles about giftedness as they're open to it as an idea. However, because they are 'experienced' they have very particular views on what gifted kids look like and how they should be taught. Dd is HG++ and I suspect most of their experience is based on high achieving and MG kids and I can see how they would be well accommodated by the school. The 'we know best' attitude can be somewhat galling, but so far I haven't found anything better. Despite there being a cohort of gifted kids, dd hasn't found any strong social connections among them.
In my view, in a perfect world you would find a school that had an administrative team that trusted and listed to parents (this I think is what is missing from every school I visited) and were open to learning about giftedness if they were not already experienced (and interested in learning about your child as an individual if they are). If either school comes close to that, I'd go with that one
Best of luck!
