Norwood for student working several grade-leves ahead?

[Anonymous]

Your premise about both your children's IQ was an error. The statistical chance that 2 kids performing 4 S.D. from the norm would be sufficiently challenged at Norwood is so low bringing the performance assessment in question.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am parent of two children >4 sds from norm who are very happy at Norwood. I looked at a lot of schools and decided that N offered more differentiation than the other privates as well as great non-academic activities. I hope I will not be attacked for expressing this. I made in-depth inquiries with administration, faculty, and parents with advanced kids at every well-known private in the area, but I don't claim that somebody else couldn't come to a different and equally legitimate conclusion.

I do not believe the LS would work for a child who was not only bright but also very advanced academically. It would not have worked for my more advanced child any more than any other local private.

Too many double negatives, please clarify.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the English lesson and the rigorous statistical analysis, but I think people will understand what I'm trying to say even thoe I is sew stewpud that me no kan rite wel, noe kan reed IKEW reeprt, an no WEIGH kan bee pearent of smarrt keed, mauch lez too thas chalenj at Nurwid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your premise about both your children's IQ was an error. The statistical chance that 2 kids performing 4 S.D. from the norm would be sufficiently challenged at Norwood is so low bringing the performance assessment in question.

Yur gramur ain't sew grate eethr an yu donut noe whut is a premise.

[Anonymous]

Can you define what you mean by 4 standard deviations above the norm? What percentile is this?

[Anonymous]

Feegyur eet out fur yurselph suhspeeshis pursun. Tri weeeeeeeeeeekuhhpeedeeya, oar gugle deviation iq rariteeeee. U woodnt truhst meee enneehow.

[SAM2]

Anonymous wrote:Can you define what you mean by 4 standard deviations above the norm? What percentile is this?

Each standard deviation is 15 points. She's claiming both her children at Norwood have IQs above 160. That's something like 99.9968 percentile. If she wants to prove it, she should post links to recent IQ test results.

[Anonymous]

SAM2, I think you mean well, so I won't take offense.

[SAM2]

Anonymous wrote:SAM2, I think you mean well, so I won't take offense.

I'm not sure whether you're the Norwood parent or the other person. No offense intended at all in either case. I was just explaining the SDs and saying that it would not be too hard to scan and post the IQ score reports (blacking out identifying info, of course) to end any needless fighting over facts.

No one in my house is anywhere near that level of smarts, or able to consider Norwood, so I (unfortunately!) don't have much substantive input on either issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have any experience with how Norwood handles academics for students who are working several grades levels ahead? DD is right now in K and doing 3rd grade math and reading 6th-grade-level books--would Norwood be able and willing to accomodate this? If so, how exactly? Thanks in advance. I'm hesitant to ask this of the AD because I don't want to come across as pushy, which in fact we are not.

OP, ask the school
No, nobody here has any experience. This is a public forum and not exclusively for Norwood parents.
If you want your K-aged kid to be inclass with 3rd graders who are 4 years older, and some might have been redshirted. Your kid will definitely feel out.

[Anonymous]

Actually, some of us do have experience. There are personal experiences in the above, so look at them. Asking the school, well, may not yield what will really happen. As I've said before, moreover, how they handle a child can depend a lot on who else is in the class - "strong" class or "weak" class. And on how the child is perceived by teachers and administrators - by which I mean that perception may not match reality.

[Anonymous]

The latest Norwood magazine profiled a highly gifted math student who won a gold medal at the 2010 International Math Olympiad. He had been involved in national math competitions since seventh grade at Norwood, with the encouragement of his math teacher. He is now a junior at GDS.

[Anonymous]

Reviver of the post here again - thanks to 17:41 and 9:41 for wieghing in. I think that having some peers is pretty important (even if those peers could also "handle more" than most schools can/will provide) so seeing there are other kids/families at Norwood with similar situations is helpful. I am sure that will vary by cohort.

Would you both say that the other parts of Norwood provide a good balance for your child in keeping them engaged in learning, excited to go to school and feeling part of a community (rather than an outcast)?

[Anonymous]

I'm guessing that by "other parts" you mean the non-academic bits?

Typically, K-3 are the most difficult years for advanced kids, because they already know the material. Around 5th, the focus switches from input to output, and school gets better for them. This seems as true at Norwood as any other school that doesn't significantly accelerate kids.

So yes, I think the great art and music programs, the fun Spanish and PE, etc. play an important role in keeping the brightest kids in the LS (K-4) happy. That said, my most academically advanced child was in a different school with similarly great non-academics, and they weren't enough to compensate for dc's frustration with the academics. So it depends on the kid.

The MS teachers are almost all bright, stimulating and fun. I think most advanced kids would thrive in the MS, unless they've been homeschooled or radically accelerated elsewhere and were ready for high school or college.

A child that has been doing math outside of school and is ready for high school level or above math is unlikely to get it at Norwood. Yes, the IMO gold medal winner, who is one of the top math students in the world, got accommodations. But my impression (not certain) is that folks at Norwood think he's the only Norwood kid that ever needed more than a year of acceleration in math. If your child is mathematical, but not accelerated, the honors pre-Alg, Alg, and Geom are all strong, taught by a guy with a deep understanding of mathematics.

I don't think you're child would be an outcast at Norwood. There would be some other hg kids in his grade. Also, it's a very happy, accepting place where the kids seem to have a high tolerance for nonconformity, despite a demographic that might suggest otherwise.

I could explain what I mean by the demographic, but I'll let somebody else jump in and do that.

[Anonymous]

Thanks 12:32.

It is exactly the K-3 years that seem especially problemmatic for kids who are so far off the spectrum at such an early age - and this would apply to practically every school option in the area.

I did mean the strength of non-English/non-math parts of the curriculum (art, music, language, science, PE) that can be found at most strong private schools in the area. But I also meant the community and social aspects of the school environment - which I think can vary more widely across local private schools.

It IS interesting that you note that they found this "one child" in need of accommodations beyond what they would otherwise provide. I wonder how they feel about that in hindsight...if they look back and think they would do it differently...or if they still believe that he was the only one so far that really needed it and they would do it again if they were to start over again (and, of course, if that was actually how that situation came about...) I guess we'll never know.

Do you think your other child was not satisfied at the other school because that child was simply "different" in terms of whether other topics could be stimulating enough to make up for the lack of challenge in the English/Math arenas? Or do you think there was something different about the other school in terms of atmosphere or environment that had an impact?