We experienced quite a bit of this, as DD was in kindergarten at the time and acceleration within the year rarely happens in our school district in kinder or even 1st grade. In fact, the principal and teacher in their combined 50 years of experience have never done it. Since she started attending 1st grade after the kinder class ended for the day and was standing in line to go to the 1st grade class along with the other 1st graders in the kinder/1st combo class next door, it was patently obvious to other parents. She also had a 2nd grade pullout too, so DD and I had to field a lot of questions from classmates and other parents.
In all honesty, it was hard to redirect or change the subject so I pretty much just said that the teachers and principal decided that she was better placed in those classes. That worked really well for me as many of the parents weren't too surprised anyway, as Kinder parents tend to volunteer and they had already noticed her and had made comments to that effect. I did have to mention that she was given end of year assessments because some of these parents wanted to approach the teacher after that. The difficulty was dealing with the parents from her 2nd grade class. It was really awkward, but the upside from the experience was that I made some great friendships with parents who were encouraging and supportive. I also realized who weren't likely to be people I wanted to hang around with as they avoided my company after quizzing me on "how I did it" or what special program I used to accelerate. One of them who happens to live down the street.
