prep in qld
Hi, I'm just new so apologies for any duplicate questions.. my daughter will be starting prep next year and I've been told by a couple of (qualified) people to 'dumb her down'. When she went for the interview at school earlier this year, all she needed to do was count ten plastic teddy bears and sort out their colours. She is 5 in next May, so will be a younger student, however she can read, count to 100, spell her name and write it etc and starting talking in sentences at 18mths and incredible memory. She is emotionaly gifted too and prefers company of adults etc. Has anyone got any suggestions of how to settle in a child who will feel very out of place socially, academically etc without 'dumbing her down'.. as I have the impression prep is play based only. She is constantly asking me if she can do 'lesson' books in maths, english etc (5-6 year olds levels) and finds them easy and I get her to do one 'reading book' a night if she's in the right frame of mind, so I'm not pushing her at all, hard to find the balance!
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Re: prep in qld
I am shocked that a 'qualified" person would advise you to dumb her down! How awful.
Some schools are better than others at catering for gifted students. At my school some preppies are reading at grade three level and go to grade 2 for maths. I would speak to the school about this before she starts. Been there done that advice - don't use the G word, just say what she is doing and ask if there are any other kids at the same level, if she can be in a grade with them, etc . Now if it goes horribly wrong... you have time to investigate other options LOL
What sort of level is she reading at?
Have you read about levels of giftedness? The higher the level, the more likely there are to be issues.
You are not pushing her :-) don't worry!
My other BTDT advice.... I had my preschooler all revved up for school, "AT school you will be allowed to do reading and writing" (long story but kinder not supportive) and when she got there even though our school is GREAT she was disappointed with the reality of sitting on the mat, other kids learning the alphabet, etc. So if I had my time again I would not raise her expectations so much about school. ESp in QLd which is play based!
Other thought.... you may want to ask about direct entry to year one... would probably need an ed psych assessment for that though. You could say innocently, "I heard that some schools put kids who are already reading etc into year one instead of prep, do you ever do that here?" or similar.
Good luck,
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Re: prep in qld
Thank you so much for the information and support! I notice that sometimes I have to 'justify' my daughter's behaviour and if I mention the 'gifted' word, people just look at me like I'm showing off (many situations it's lucky she's tall for her age), so I'm just now saying she's 'bright' for her age! I went to my school's orientation day on Monday and noticed that it is a pre-reading and pre-counting program... don't know how that will work-I don't want to mention that she can already read to her teacher, it may set her apart too much and have too high of expectations of her-Charlotte's not overly confident in that sense. I'm sorry you didn't have a great introduction to school. Hope it's working out a lot better now though. I'm not teaching her particular 'levels' of reading-I've started her on the Ladybird reading system (a program started over 40 years ago-based on repetition of standard words, rather than phonics) and she can read 'where is the green sheep' by Mem Fox and a few other little books. Happy to keep her in prep at this stage because she won't be 5 until May. Thanks so much again for the advice! Fingers crossed lol..
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Re: prep in qld
I do not think it is in any way unreasonable to mention to the teacher that she can read! In Victoria they have a starting school assessment when all this would be discovered anyway. When we had ours they school already knew she could read fluently so they had some out of level testing resources available for her to be tested with. Hopefully the teacher would work out pretty quickly that she can read anyway :-) Good luck!
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Re: prep in qld
I mentioned that my daughter could read in the 2nd week of prep this year and the teacher was very helpful and thanked me for telling her. I found the school most helpful.
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Re: prep in qld
My daughter is in the same situation but in prep this year, A good private school might provide more extention but it would probably not be good for your daughter to move a year ahead socially. She needs to learn to make friends with her peers. Your best case would be that the school will extend her in certain subjects.
I have obtained music lessons and Drama lessons outside school hours.
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Re: prep in qld
"She needs to learn to make friends with her peers"... yes but who are her peers? The people whose birthdates are close to hers? Or the people who share similar interests? This was the reason given for not letting my son be put up a year at his old school, with those exact words. Because he was interested in Harry Potter and the other 6 year olds had not heard of it (this was in the days before the movies came out!) he was said to be 'socially not very good" however this was fixed with a grade skip!
As an adult peers are not the people born the exact same year as you.
My other child is being extended in class and not grade skipped, and i am really pleased with this, I just worry when blanket statements are made about it not being good to move ahead socially. Sometimes the least worst option IS to skip ahead. Depends on the child and the level of giftedness.
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