Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Team Meeting next week

I have a team meeting scheduled at our school for next week. DS6 is PG, currently in a half-day K program in a top rated public school. His achievement results indicate that his reading is almost 6th grade level, math is mid-third grade, and writing is mid-second.

I am 99% sure we are going to homeschool next year, but I want to hear what the school has to say.

Any recommended questions for folks who have been there done that? Thanks in advance!

KTPie - we went to our final meeting also 99% sure we would pull him to homeschool. At that meeting they offered a grade skip with immediate effect and from there any subject acceleration as required. (based on performance and emotional stability mostly they admitted).

The questions we asked included the ones MON posted above and a few others. The ones I remember included:

- If this acceleration is taken now, how would you feel if further acceleration was required later?
- will he be penalised for skipping into the grade with the current set of emotional issues (he had just started in therapy as we exited the school)?
- what are your step by step plans for educating a child like this? (this goes hand in hand with how many other kids like this have you had through here and when)
- are you open to frequent team meetings on this? Can we work together?(we tried to instill the concept that the school and we could team up to find working solutions together)
- will his teachers year on year be made aware of his abilities and where he ends each year on ability so that we can start from where we are and not go through a period with each new teacher of "getting to know you for 4 months"
- are there age restrictions on any school activities (like chess clubs, orchestras etc) and how will sports age grouping work? This can become a big deal for some schools with younger kids

Those are the main ones I can think of for staying full time at school

You can ask how open they would be to your child coming in for some activities, sports, cultural activities etc when you homeschool.

best of luck - I am so curious to hear what they offer/have to suggest/say

Thank you MoN and Madoosa.

There is no GT and the building only houses k-3 so I'm not optimistic but I'm curious.

And, YES... I am so thankful for plan B.

Just an update... I know I'm preaching to the choir here but the meeting was a total disaster. The assistant principal, who was supposed to be there, was not. In her place was someone from central office who claimed she'd been "briefed" and then proceeded to ask me for DS's first and last name. It only went downhill from there. No one came to the table prepared. No one had any data on his progress/performance. No one had specific plans for him for next year. They assured me that they will "differentiate" but then could not explain how. They actually said, "We'll have to wait and see" and "usually we wait 6 weeks for kids to adjust to the full day before we change anything". When asked what the school has done in the past for students like our son, no one could answer. No one there had been working in the district for more than three years. They have never accelerated and would never accelerate. He's a boy, he's small, etc., etc. In one breath, they would say how they've never seen scores so high and then, in the next breath, they assured me that he's in a "smart cohort" of kids "just like him." That this town is full of professionals and highly educated individuals and there are "lots of kids" like our son (town population- 7,000).

We are homeschooling.

Oh! I forgot one of the best parts. When asked what he'd be given for reading materials next year (this has been an issue all year), the reading specialist said she would start him at late second grade level because he does not discuss these books well with her (he hates them). At home, he goes on and on about his reading with us, when he's reading something at his actual level. Also, because his WRITING is on a second grade level. And she claimed she's read all the gifted literature.

I think you made a good decision given that meeting. :-)

ditto

Yikes! I'm sorry about the meeting - but sadly can't say I'm entirely surprised either.

Good luck with homeschooling!

polarbear

At least you know you tried everything.