Need for positive stories reported: we hear and obey :-)
Met today, at their request, with people at DS5's school, mostly concerning planning his maths differentiation. Present were his class teacher, the head, and the special needs teacher. It seems we have a plan, which is convincing both in its guiding principles (to engage and challenge him while remembering he's 5) and in details. After the meeting we spent a little time with his teacher - who seems fantastic, especially if she's reading this ;-) - going through specific topics and worksheets, identifying things he has and hasn't done yet; we're both going to look at the school syllabus all the way up and compare with what he's done already to help her get a running start on where he is; we're going to make sure he always has a recently-generated ALEKS worksheet in his bag so that there's always something at the right level that he can do without needing assistance. The head is also going to try to get a little cross-year group of mathy kids going to meet and do mental maths work, to give him access to peers at the same or higher level; if that goes well, they'll also consider dropping him into a higher year maths class from time to time for social/groupwork reasons, but we all think differentiating within his own class, given that it sounds as though it can really be done effectively, is better than accelerating him now. And there is another child starting in his class tomorrow who is reportedly very mathy. Lots of little things that really make us feel he's in good hands - e.g., his teacher had a Scientific American issue on their current topic subject which she said she'd give him to have a look at, and see whether he gets grabbed by anything in it!
Long may it continue thus. And if anyone in Scotland wants a school recommendation, PM me :-)
