Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments is it worth contacting school prior to start

I have been posting a bit about DD4 wanting to push ahead in math etc and I'm wondering if anyone has experience with...

Thinking about contacting school now (she starts in 6 months) speaking to GATE coordinator to see if they can recommend a course of study prior to starting that will enable them to accelerate/enrich easily. Our school charter says they will enrich/accelerate within the classroom and I'm worried that if I start teaching her now I could be doing so at cross purposes to the school.

My thoughts are the GC can advise which reading/math programs etc they use so DD can slot in without being too concerned with GAPs or technique. She's getting ratty about not learning so I can't hold her back. I figure too that their openness ought give me a good insight as to whether the school will be a good fit. We have a few options.

We had originally thought DD might cope fine and perhaps skip a grade, however we are now starting to feel that her FSIQ was a very low estimate (she was stressed, overcoming illness and a few other little things) and a multi grade skip will be in order if at all do able/

As home schooling is not an option (boo) I want to have a good relationship with the school (if possible!)

I think I might first hunt around the school district website and see if anywhere they talk about procedures or policies for gifted education or early entrance. It may give you an idea of what your possibilities are. If you don't find anything, maybe call the school and ask them what the policy is and see where that takes you.

Just my two cents, it is hard to say whether the school would be receptive or not.

Just to clarify, I have done as much research as possible without contacting the school. They do mention they try to cater to gifted kids within the class environment through differentiation using teacher aides, they prefer not to use pull out programs, however they will assess each child on their own needs. They generally assess each child after 6 weeks and go from there.

My main concern is that if I start her off on Singapore math and we get so far with that, then school says, well now she needs to do it OUR way if we are going to advance her. Just from reading other peoples stories on here, it seems that if we can avoid any obstacles like that it would be helpful.

In NZ it's a legal requirement for gifted students to be given an appropriate education (although obviously that doesn't mean much really)

Good advice, but a word of caution: sometimes written policies and procedures are very different than practice.

We've heard this before, and it turned out to be BS. In-class differentiation is typically not a workable solution for a child who is one or more years ahead of their age peers. You can't realistically expect a teacher's aide to be designing individually appropriate curriculum for 20 different children.


Same for us in my US state. We tried many approaches with the school in advocating for our DD. The inappropriate educational environment was causing DD a lot of emotional problems, so we talked about that. It was causing her a lot of social problems, and we talked about that. None of that gained any traction with the school.

When we locked into a theme of what an appropriate education for DD looked like, we finally started getting some results. For instance, "It is not appropriate for a first grader reading at a 5th-grade level to be limited to first-grade books" gained her access to higher level library books. Because those words were loaded with legal implications, doors started opening. That's something you might want to keep in your back pocket in case their approach to differentiation does turn out to be BS.

My general impression is that no school is going to accelerate a child based on the parent's telling them that they covered any curriculum even if it matched what's being taught. They always require some kind of validation be it a standardized test or an end-of-year material specific assessment. So you're almost certainly OK using whatever material that you want. When you reach that point I wouldn't even mention what curriculum was used just that your daughter has mastered the material and needs additional challenges.

That said, it seems like the number of posters whom have trouble making the adjustment to kindergarten is pretty high. Hopefully you'll be lucky but I'd enjoy pre-K while you're still there.

Thanks yes - we do have a the wppsi3 results with a recommendation from the EP for high intervention.

ah well - took the plunge and called both schools and left messages.

2nd choice school rang straight back, yes ma'am we have several gifted kids, all on different programs depending on their ability and social skills. Some are grade skipped too. We have several agencies we work with when we need to and won't you please bring your daughter in asap to meet us. We would like to know who we are getting the following year so we can plan accordingly. Oh and yes you are doing the right thing.

Woohoo

quick update for anyone contemplating this approach. After speaking to the school I sent an email to confirm the meeting time. In the email I outlined our goals for DD (happy and good self esteem + continued love of learning) I also specifically requested information on how to accelerate her in math without undermining her future teaches.

I feel this worked extremely well, as although the email I got back was very short - it did contain links to the entire primary math curriculum and tips for teaching it at home (usually handed out at the beginning of each year) So it would seem that provided I teach within the curriculum school can accommodate.