From my perspective, the best aspect of this situation is the potential intellectual benefit (i.e., your DS's perception of challenge and the opportunities to work his brain to keep up with older kids). I'm not really seeing it as a great social opportunity -- not one worth an hour commute. However, if my DS6 had an opportunity like this I would take it despite the negative teacher attitude. But that's because DS6's school situation is very much lacking in challenging learning opportunities like this. He also has a competitive nature so the presence of the other kids would be motivating for him. If your son isn't benefitting intellectually from the older kids (forget socially - sounds like there's not much unstructured interaction with the other students), why not just provide living math at home...