Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Advice on WISC IV results

Mmmmmmm?!
When speaking to the LEA last year about options for my daughter, the supposed G&T lead said that maybe they would want IQ testing as 'proof'. We decided that if she were to be tested it should be by someone knowledgeable about gifted children. We didn't do anything for a while, but recently decided to do it privately. the LEA doesn't know yet. We don't quite know what to do with it now?

I don't know that it will make a lot of difference. The school have already said that maybe she could be put up a year. I don't see the point as she would still not be challenged academically and she would move out of a group in which she does have friends. She is probably mildy dyspraxic too(?) and her organisational skills are not that great. Difficult. I would like her to be subject accelerated in at least some subjects. Total acceleration is very rare in the UK. Maybe if it was more normal we would consider it.

My daughter does have an IEP, on paper(!), but usually not followed as it is too difficult for the teacher and (apart from the kind and interested high school head) there seems to be no money to support anything else.

It sounds like your daughter's achievements are much more extreme than my daughter's too - where would you be moving to?

Are you both aware of IGGY? My DS has not yet done any of their courses - dates have yet to work out - and there seem to be only a couple scheduled (I hope this doesn't mean they're winding down) but we've looked with interest, as it might be a way to get a bit of extra challenge and a chance to meet others a bit like them. (I understand they can be flexible with ages, btw.)

Yes I am aware of IGGY, but haven't had much luck so far. Apparently the courses are good, but expensive for us. I tried to get on to the IGGY list, and sent off all the forms with a supporting statement from the school (twice) and have followed up with an e mail (twice!) and have had no response?!

I would like DD to be signed up for the Da Vinci program for use in school, but school won't pay. Maybe with these test results we'll try again.

I can't say that grade acceleration is common where I live either but I think that some of that is b/c parents aren't aware that it is an option. I did kind of get the impression that some of our local schools could be pushed into agreeing to a skip that they didn't support based on some of what the GT coordinator at dd12's school last year said.

I did want to address your comment about it not being a way to fix the educational misfit, though. I don't think that grade skips are ever a total panacea. For my dd12 she was still many, many grades ahead of her placement in a number of subjects but it was still better than nothing. In one subject, it was the right placement and met her needs well. My dd was also dx with SPD and dyspraxia at age 7, although I'm not really sure that she has either. I think that she is just a slower more meticulous person who is very cautious. We've done better trying to accommodate and encourage the speed and give somewhat more appropriate academics.

The set group of friends in her grade is the only thing that you mention that makes me think moving her up a grade might be harder for her than my dd. My dd was already on her 3rd elementary school by the time she skipped the last year of elementary so she wasn't married to staying with friends she had known forever.

Yes, I am aware of IGGY. (Like you I am an academic.) I did hear that their courses are indeed winding down, though... DD is already doing many online courses with CTY etc and is in a reasonable school situation where we are currently located.

To answer the question of where we would move to: DH and I are academics and we have been approached by a UK university with a view to leading a new research center. There are a number of good private and state schools within the vicinity of the university involved, but none of them has experience with a six year old as advanced as our daughter. I do think we could work with at least one of the private schools in developing a reasonable program for her, but we are definitely going to have to guide them (as indeed we have been doing with her current school).

Pity, but I'm not very surprised. Ah well.
Somehow I didn't think you were going to be willing to answer the where question very precisely at this point! Well, in the unlikely event that it looks as though it might be my university [I'm far enough away subjectwise that I wouldn't have heard] feel free to PM me if you'd like to discuss schools nearby. Yes, it's probably too much to hope to find a school that has experience with children as far ahead as your daughter. DS's school (a small independent school with small classes) is working out basically because they seem to be good at treating each child as an individual and being flexible in what they expect. He's currently with age peers, though with his maths run entirely by us. I don't know whether this will continue to work, but so far it seems fine. It's really down to excellent teachers who don't have fixed ideas about what Nyos can do.

I don't think that acceleration by one year is very rare in the UK, particularly in private schools. Quite a number of my year at Cambridge had been grade skipped and entered Cambridge at 17 instead of 18, and when doing admissions (in Maths) for Cambridge it also wasn't unusual to see kids who'd been grade skipped once, even coming from state schools. Being grade skipped more than once in a UK school, and entering University more than one year younger than usual, does seem to be much more unusual. (I was in this position and there was quite some discussion about deferring my entry, gap years etc with my Cambridge college.)

We would be in a maths department, actually, so you might hear about it; the center would join a maths department with physics and astronomy. But not in Scotland: none of the Scottish universities (Edinburgh, Heriot Watt, St Andrews etc) currently has a strong enough theoretical physics profile to be attractive for us.

Yes, I had an OK school experience in a UK private school with this kind of attitude. We looked at some British schools where we currently live and were shocked at their obsession with testing and SAT levels. They wanted to use SATs as the only measure of DD. Once DD had demonstrated she could do KS2 papers, the next thing they did was give her KS3 papers, GCSE papers and so on... we just ran a mile. Her current school isn't perfect but is at least not obsessed with testing, is willing to work with us, and lets us take charge of her maths, propose enrichment activities etc.

My daughter is currently in a mixed age class, there are only 3 classes. She has always worked older children, but now she is in year 5 a lot of the children are younger than her. I remember thinking when she was 4/5 that I would like her to be accelerated, but now it doesn't seem to be the right fit. We may suggest flexi schooling as an option, the school seem to be open to this, if DD wants it.

So ...
Sorry to be boring, but -
if you were me would you go back to the tester and ask for raw scores / extended scoring / possible reissue of report or would you just leave it? (The fact that she reached the ceiling on the two 19's is already mentioned in the report).

I think I will not ask for the GAI as it is only 4 points higher.
???

Thank you!