Grinity, love the pic! The public school is not ability grouped at all. It's just a bog standard local school, most of public schools in my city run predominantly mixed age classes, it's just what they do.
When I spoke the principle she said "No, we've never had anyone like her here, we have no gifted program... We do get gifted kids occasionally. If she came here we would put her into yr 1 of a 1/2 class with an individual learning plan." When she realised the gender problem in that class (as I had asked about gender balance due to it being an issue at DDs current private school), she then came back and said "We used to believe that gifted children should be kept with their age group, but now the evidence shows us they are better off being accelerated. The gender balance is worse than I thought in that class and she should not go k/1. We could put her in yr2? Is she ready for yr2?" So either she already knew about current research on gifted kids and acceleration before talking to me, or she went and read between phone calls. I don't really care which it was - either way she is open to both reading AND following research! And she's flexible.
She's clear what she CAN'T promise, ie she can pick this year's classroom and teacher and thinks it will work (if the all-the-girls-are-2yrs-older thing turns out ok), but she can't promise what next year will look like. She's quite open in admitting that this setup will either be brilliant or a disaster. She's also open to turning this into a double acceleration to keep DD with those older girls if DD does hit it off with them and does bootstrap herself up to their level as a result.
She was able to give direct examples of how the school had differentiated for children in other situations that needed it, this teacher in particular.
Basically we are choosing them not for their programs or gifted cohort but for their honesty, straightforwardness and willingness to play it by ear and try to come up with something that works.
The montessori has a little more of the "We know what we are doing and it works for all kids" thing going on - but they actually did seem to accurately assess her and thus "know what they were doing" more than her current school :-). And they have the wider age cohort, both because it's a three year span and because there would be kids closer to her age in the class...
I think we are leaning towards the public school but it's a very hard choice. I am feeling pretty crippled by indecision.
