Hi all,

Trying to avoid re-inventing the wheel here. I am in Southern NH and I'm at the beginning of this journey with DS6. I realize that gifted ed is pretty atrocious here. For those who have gone down this road, I'm looking for help with:
* Any area schools (there's a charter in Manchester and one in Nashua- feedback?)
* Acceleration- have you made it happen?
* GIEP-- I'm assuming not possible but thought I'd ask
* unique public school experiences that have worked
* homeschooling resources locally

Feel free to message me if you are more comfortable!
Thanks so much!!

We were underwhelmed with the charter in Manchester. It's run by people who ran a tiny, failed local gifted school (Scholar's Academy). I attended formation meetings and there didn't seem to be much direction at that point, plus there seemed to be adherence to some questionable educational ideas on the part of some attendees of the meetings, at least.

The formers of the new charter seem to have done it to secure guaranteed slots for their own kids, but don't seem to have the best handle on gifted education in my view. NH law apparently provides that a school can't be restricted just to gifted children, or so they claimed. Children are segregated loosely by age, or were; when we visited, we saw some children seated in a semicircle being read to by the teacher, in a big, mostly empty room.

GIEPs don't exist in NH.

We got some acceleration from the local school, a grade skip and additional subject acceleration in math. Our son was given to a series of teachers who didn't have a strong math background and graded some work incorrectly. We repeatedly heard that children need to go "broader rather than deeper"; at a couple of points it was suggested that our son read about famous mathematicians instead of learning new math; and in general, despite efforts to be flexible, it became apparent that the local district just wasn't set up to cater to highly gifted kids, due to a focus on the slowest common denominator. District-wide, for example, there has been a focus on excessive math-facts drill for the first month or two every year lately.

Thank you SO much, lucounu. I had actually heard a similar review of the new charter so I can cross that one off of my list to save time

Glad to have read this because we were looking at the charter also. Are there any schools in Southern NH that are more open to providing services for gifted than not? Any that have teachers certified in gifted? We are considering Exeter and Bedford area schools and insight into those is much appreciated.

I know that there is an educational consultant in Bedford named Maureen Egan. I haven't contacted her yet but I have her info if you'd like it. Her email is MaureenEgan@NorthStarEd.org

Exeter is beautiful!

I live very close to Bedford and have heard good things from friends, however, I don't know anyone (yet) locally who has gifted kids so I can't speak to that.

Thank you. I have the testing data from our current state. I wonder if Bedford would accept that. Love Exeter! Just concerned that there is no formal gifted program and wonder what opportunities they have or teachers with knowledge/experience with gifted kiddos.

I would think they would honor testing as long as it is recent. Is there a formal gifted program in Bedford?

From my research, Bedford has formal program S.E.E.D and accelerated math. But, I can't find out any details on them from the website.

We are going through the same thing now. I am a teacher, but currently home. Our district is atrocious so we are considering a move to southern NH or to southern Maine. While Maine has a gifted ed mandate, you have to be careful how it is rolled out. They also are allowed to simply look at test scores and grades and fill their gifted programs with those children (showing a lack of understanding of giftedness). Londonderry has a decent gifted program, as does Merrimack. but decent only in that something exists at the elementary level as well. And it is generally pull-outs. The problem with that is teachers feel less pressure to differentiate when the child already is in a program (even once or twice a week) and gifted children are not simply gifted one hour a week. So NH is such a disappointment in this area. People assume that because gifted kids have the potential to do well in certain areas, they can just take care of themselves. All kids need individualized instruction. I'm disappointed to hear about the charter schools being poor. Financially I need to get back to work and I was hoping to find a good match for my kids. My oldest started reading at 2.5 (etc) and doesn't make the age cut-off so won't be allowed in to Kinder until he is almost 6! Not okay. Looking more and more like I will have to homeschool. Not sure what that means for our retirement or financial lives. Very stressful :(