Hi All
I have been lurking on this board for some time now and have learnt so much about living with gifted children from you wonderful ladies! (and the occasional man)
I am after some advice regarding acceleration. I have a DD10 in grade 4 who has recently been assessed (at the request of our G/T coordinator) Her FSIQ is 147 (WISC IV). All subtests scored very evenly. She is a high achiever, always been the very top of her class etc. No behavioural problems (not at school anyways...
The school has offered her a full year grade skip but she doesnt want to go! (doesnt want to leave her friends, her teacher who is brilliant, fear of the unknown.. It is stressing her to the point where it is making her physically ill
)
Most (but not everything) I've read (and believe me I have read a lot over the last few weeks LOL ) indicates that grade skipping is a good thing. Her school indicated that she would probably also need another in a few years.
(I'm in a different country that runs the school year from Feb-Dec so the idea is she would do half a year in grade 4 and half in grade 5 and next year move to grade 6)
Sadly, they will not offer her a trial in the new class (policy of no more than 30 kids in any one class and wont break the rule for just one week which is really silly and very annoying (the child she would be replacing doesnt leave for a few more weeks and she wouldnt join until they left)- Plus, its a private school with a waiting list so if she gives up her year 4 spot thats it. One way door. No going back!
Not surprisingly the finality of all this is adding to her reluctance to go. DH and I have decided we will not force her to go if she really doesnt want to but would like her to make her decision knowing all her options and if she cant sample her new class (teacher, kids, type of work they are doing etc) how can she make an informed decision?
We actually did a similar thing with my DS (7) last year and he telescoped kindergarten and year 1 into one year and that was so much easier as he hadnt really had time to make friends (and I guess the friends you make at 6 are a little more transitory than the ones you have at 10) I really wish we had done this with DD much earlier in her school career but we really had no idea about gifted children back then - just thought she was bright.
Does anyone have any ideas what we could do next? I hate to see her so upset and do not want to sacrifice her happiness and emotional wellbeing for the 'opportunity to realise her potential'.
kind regards
Lisa
edited to add- she currently attends 3 pullout extension classes a week and her teacher extends her a great deal in the class itself. They have given us an IEP which Im pretty happy with if we decide against the grade skip.
