Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Private gifted school experiences, opinions please

We are considering options for MrWiggly for next school year and thinking about Dr. Ruf's recommendation that he might be best served in a private gifted school. I'm wondering what others here who have their child enrolled in such a school think about the choice.

How has it worked out for you and your child? What do you like best about it? What is not so great about it? Do you regret the decision or have you had your child in a private gifted school and then gone back to public or switched to homeschooling? What does your child think about the school? Friends? Sports and extracurricular stuff?

I'd appreciate reading BTDT experiences. Thanks so much!

no experience/advice, but very interested in the conversation.

me too! There are no gifted schools where we live, but there is one prep type school that has gifted kids at it......... we are going to look at it.

my big fear, we'll end up at square one-

Thank you for asking this question!

When DD was 10 months old we were "advised" to put her in a local private school that takes 18 month olds through grade 8. He didn't mention it was a gifted school. Our DD was only 10 months old at the time, so I could not for the life of me understand why someone would suggest this. DD is now 22 months old and I'm finally getting it. (The "advisor" was a college professor who is a parent of a gifted child.)

I'm only interested in her developing peer rapport at this point, but if someone has experience with gifted preschools I'm all ears.

I'm shocked this school exists in our small community!

Ds6 started at private gifted this fall after K in public school last year.

I have to preface this by saying that of course, all private gifted schools are different, as they are run by different administrators and different ideas and different ways of running things! But I can tell you about my ds's school.

The children are grouped in 2-grade mixed classrooms: first-second, third-fourth, etc; there are about 14 kids in each class. The school is pre-K through 8th. Each child is assessed and placed in the appropriate learning level group; math and Language Arts meet during the same time blocks for all grades, and current grade isn't a consideration for placement. Ds6 is in the mid-third-grade groups for both language arts and for math, where they work standard curriculum at a quicker and more in-depth pace than you'd see in the typical public school. He's learning about mean, median and mode right now. In LA they're reading "Because of Winn Dixie." His indepedent reading level is higher than 3.5 grade, but he's learning more about following directions and thinking about what he's read -- more about plot lines and character development, that sort of thing.

I love that ds is really being challenged for the first time, it's fun to watch! I'm also really happy with it because he seems to be finding a few real peers -- children who are near him both in age and intellectual prowess, and who share some of his interests. He's found several friends that are far more "friends" than his K class last year offered -- not kids he'll play with just because they're there, but kids that he actively seeks out.

He has art, drama, gym, French (they offer a choice of French or Spanish starting in first grade), music, each at least 3 days a week.

They offer band and chorus starting in third grade. There are several after-school clubs/activities, including scouts and Destination Imagination. I believe sports start in fifth grade, though I'm not sure -- not at this age, anyway. There are plenty of contests that the kids do -- chess, language, math, science -- as the kids get older.

They also have a few other programs -- there is a program for children that have an intense interest in a subject that for some reason can't be followed in the classroom. They'll match the child up with a mentor from the community who will help guide the child's learning for a project or for longer term. Really neat program.

They do MAP testing starting at age 8, whatever grade the child happens to be in when they turn that age. They rather frown on grade skips, but there isn't much need unless you've got a true prodigy -- and even then they'd try to work with the child during the scheduled block of time.

So far, we're very, very happy with the place. Of course, it's only been 2 months. But we've seen a change in ds6 -- he's far more persistent while working on homework, is much happier overall, fewer surly moments and getting in much less "trouble" for being off-task at school. Of course he still has his moments, but he's just a happier kid. His favorite classes are French and math.

We'll be talking about placement and pace with the teacher at parent-teacher conferences, to make sure he's moving at the appropriate pace. But at least as a starting point, I think they were right on with his placement.

The only real negative I've seen so far is the number of days off! The Friday before Columbus Day was marked on the school calendar as a "non-attendance day" -- pretty much a free day. And they have have the *entire* week of Thanksgiving off, with parent-teacher conferences scheduled during the day. Not bad if you're a SAHM, but as a working parent, it's a little frustrating to be paying a small fortune, just to have to find childcare for all these off days!

Good luck! For ds, this has definitely been a great option. It's been worth all the penny-pinching to get him there.

Once great thing about sending your kid to private school, is that when they return to the public school, they have an 'excuse' for being 'smart.' We sent DS12 to a local prep school for 5/6th and 7th grade. Great to finally have an alibi!

We loved the streamlined beurocracy as well.

Grins

Thanks for the feedback! What great information. It's interesting that you both (Mia and CFK) have commented on peers and interests as well as academics. Those are two big reasons that a private gifted school was suggested for MrWiggly.

He is copping quite an attitude at school right now. He has informed me that he believes a lot more of the kids should be taken out of the class for "special help" (ie: special education/resource, which a few kids leave for) because "none of them know the answers like I do." We had a meeting last week and the 3rd grade teacher acknowledged that he really doesn't fit in with his classmates because "he talks above them" and "the other kids really don't listen to him" and "no one else brings anywhere near the background knowledge to a conversation that he has." MrWiggly also told me that he doesn't do his best or work his hardest at school "because I'm smart." Yikes!

On the other hand, the math teacher says he "fits right in with the eighth graders" and "he laughs when they do and makes cracks that they laugh at." She told us how they invite him to play their games with them at the end of the class period, how he listens in on the instruction for the 8th grade class (he's supposed to be working independently in his 5th grade book at the time) and he teaches some of them how to play specific games on the computer. In that class he is independent to manage his time, complete his work and follow directions. In the 3rd grade classroom he is distracted, doesn't complete two step directions (gets sidetracked between the two tasks), disrupts others, blurts out answers, gets upset at the teacher and other kids...blah, blah, blah....YKWIM.

We don't really want to move him to 4th grade but that seems like the only option. They offered pull out to attend the gifted program once a week at another school in our district (he already attends the pull out gifted at our school, too). That one is taught by a retired teacher with gifted experience and she is anxious to meet MrWiggly. She does a problem solving based program versus the gifted teacher at our school -who has NO experience teaching gifted and is, in fact, the art teacher! While that's a nice offer and we are going to try it, it means my DH has to drive MrWiggly there and then back to his own school once a week AND he will miss one day of the math class that he loves. We were hoping it would pull him out of the 3rd grade time!!

MrWiggly doesn't want to leave his friends and go to 4th grade. (Cute side story: a girl recently asked him to marry her and he said he would, but needed to grow up first. He keeps telling me he doesn't want to leave his girlfriend!) I asked at the meeting if he could maybe join the 4th grade science class. That's the first year that science is actually a graded part of the curriculum. They don't do much science at all in 3rd. Principal is considering that option. But we know he really just needs another full grade acceleration in this school. I just keep thinking that being with age mates who are true peers, like Dr. Ruf recommended, *would* be the best option.

<HUGE sigh> It was nice to have some breathing room at the beginning of the year. Things are, as MrWiggly says himself, "better but not all better" at school. He has not once refused to go to school. He has only had one bad morning and then actually pulled himself together and got to school because he didn't want to miss his math class! This is a huge improvement over the last two years of crying and refusing school!!!!

But clearly our journey continues. I so wish I could just mapquest the route!

I have to agree that having intellectual peers is probably the biggest benefit of being in a school for gifted children.

It's so hard for anyone to feel comfortable in 8th grade... I'm really impressed. Maybe being at an intellectual 8th grade level without all the emotional, hormonal and cognitive (others perceive me) 8th grade malarky is the ticket. What a wonderful story about your DS.

Very funny, Dottie. At least you didn't say "I told you so!" :p