Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school Micro Gifted catering school

Thank you. I definitely respect your opinion. I am not too worried. I tend to not worry much when I plan.

I am currently looking into 2 specific schools at the time being. One is a language immersion school, and the other is a very small school that caters to gifted. I do conduct my own research, but I also value case examples. I have gone to a couple of the open houses for the small school. I have talked to some of the parents. I do get a general good feeling about it. It is, however, scary small. It really was my hope to find others who have gone to such schools to get real insight from a larger set of real people.

We don't have either micro or gifted schools here to the best of my knowledge. A lot of peopleon these forums have long since given up advance planning as things change so fast with these kids. Also staff changes can make something good into something bad very easily (and vice versa) and a micro school sounds like it could disappear in a puff of smoke. I wouldn't listen to the not school enough comments though as 3 year olds don't need school.

I do hope that someone does have at least some data or research based information on how a small environment is beneficial or necessary for the highly gifted student. I am working to advocate for smaller class sizes for this student population within a large school district.

But Puffin, OP's DD isn't going to stay 3 forever.

The "not schooling" enough comments came from a couple of my close friends who do have DD4's best interest at heart. Their children (2 of 4 are confirmed gifted) had much more traditional schooling and they think I'm being too hippie with DD's educational choices.

BTW, I forgot to mention that we are going to do bilingual homeschooling. I do feel going our own hybrid model is the least worst option for us at the moment. I wanted DD to not have to spend 7 hours a day, 5 days a week away from me. I guess you could say that our choice is really an extension of attachment parenting.

It is worth noting that I am not talking about now, but when she legally must start school.

I've not seen research resulting in empirical evidence for small class sizes for gifted pupils, however research does suggest that cluster grouping by ability is beneficial.

There was one reference to this in a recent post on another thread.

With gifted kids being a small percentage of the population, cluster grouping by ability and readiness to learn at the appropriate high level of academic placement and pacing translates to small class sizes. Unless the classes are "filled in" with other students, as they often may be, to the detriment of student learning.

I'm sorry I had to come back. Every time I see your thread I think is she talking about a school for kids who want to enter Junior Master Chef. Must be a language difference thing.

LOL!

Yes, catering can mean food service.

Catering can also mean serving or accommodating a specific population. For example, a rehabilitation expert that caters to athletes.

I've not seen the word catering used frequently in reference to gifted, and when I have it has been in a negative sense of pandering. For example, a shaming or guilt-inducing statement such as "We're not here to cater to every whim of a gifted child" in response to a child needing advanced academics because they've mastered the currently prescribed curriculum years earlier.

The thread subject having the words "catering school" does invoke thoughts of Master Chef Junior.

I agree it must be a language difference thing, possibly specific to the OP's locale?

me too...

In starting to think there is little point looking for specific GT schools for kids with a high LOG as they seem to just cater to mod gifted and dd is unlikely to find a peer anyway. Very hard to know what to do.

Make your plans but he prepared to change if a better option comes up. I changed school plans 5 times in the last 2 years. Dd starts in May and I'm still second guessing.

Some may say that the smaller the school, the more likely it is to be geared toward serving HG+ pupils, without "filling in" with other students.