Norwood for student working several grade-leves ahead?

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

This is a very valid issue for discussion with your school. If your child is not receiving a challenge, you need to find out what the school is able to do. That will tell you the next step.

In our case, adjustments were made for our son. The school was accomodating. We had another friend who was deemed to be able to work at a much higher level. The school was not able to help them. They moved to Nysmith and are incredibly happy. Each child is tested and put into a corresponding class that matches the right level.

[Anonymous]

OP here--thanks to PP. Sorry if I wasn't clear--our child isn't at Norwood now but we like the school and are considering applying there.

[Anonymous]

Norwood groups children for math and reading so I have always felt that my children were getting challenged appropriately in those areas. They don't group for the other subjects so it doesn't feel like pigeon-holing. I can't say whether they can meet your specific needs but the grouping system really seems to work for everyone. Your question is a valid one so I wouldn't be concerned about asking.

[Anonymous]

Norwood groups for reading from kindergarten, but grouping for math only starts in 2nd grade. In reading, is your child's ability consistent across skills? My child reads several years ahead (although probably not as many as yours), but her writing is not so strong, and she is still learning to speculate about outcomes, interpret characters, etc., so I'd say she is adequately challenged. If she were performing at the same high level in all areas, I'm not sure what the school would do, but it's certainly worth asking the AD. (I don't think it would be held against you, and if it were, would you want to send your child there?)

[Anonymous]

Maybe if you sepcify the types of accommodations that you have in mind, it would be possible to answer them better, but I can make a few comments. In reading, I have never seen the school advance children ahead to be with older children. In math, they regularly move some fifth graders to be with six, sixth to be w/ 7th, and offer Geometry at the top. In foreign language, if someone is a native speaker (of, say, French), that student may attend French a couple of grade levels ahead. (School is phasing out French, though, so this example is not so relevant.) So within their own curricular context, this is the extent of what they do. There has been one exception to all this in math, when the child was exempted from math starting in sixth, but this is the only example I know, and is unlikely to happen again.

The real question for people w/ kids who are working quite far ahead of grade level is: what does their cohort look like? If they are in a strong cohort, then the courses normaly move faster -- this is especially true in Englis. And their honors level English teachers in MS are extraordinarily capable of challenging extraordinary kids. But if you end up in a weaker class, w/o a good cohort, then your outcome will be less good. The quality of th4e cohorts is difficult to assess from the outside.

[Anonymous]

My child reads several years ahead (although probably not as many as yours), but her writing is not so strong, and she is still learning to speculate about outcomes, interpret characters, etc

I agree w/this. Too many parents fail to understand what 'reading' is. It's not just reading fluency and basic story comprehension. A sixth grader is expected to write essays/research papers with detailed attention to grammar; follow, analyze complex story elements, etc. If your child is doing those things, then perhaps you need a Nysmith.

I have a very advanced first grader, and while he is light years ahead of his classmates in reading and math, I feel that if the school is widening his interests and encouraging him in other areas (for him, sports, music, arts...) then they are doing their job. Oh, and if he/she is happy, that's all that matters.

[Anonymous]

Re mentioning it. I agree that it's a legit question and needs to be asked, but the issue is how to ask it. On some level, it's clear what *not* to say -- tops of the list are asking whether the curriculum will be "challenging" enough to keep an advanced/gifted kid from being 'bored" and saying my kid is X many grades ahead of her grade in math/reading/whatever, can you accommodate that?

So how do you ask? My first reaction is to say that you recognize that, you recognize that, unlike public schools which serve larger populations, a private school won't have special ed or gifted programs, so how do they handle the situation when kids are working significantly above or below grade level in particular subjects? Is the answer different depending on whether the subject is math vs. reading? What kind of evaluations, if any, get done (and when) to determine what level kids are working at or is that obvious to a classroom teacher in class sizes this small?

Or is there a better way?

[Anonymous]

I assume your child is insufficiently challenged where s/he is currently? I would stick to facts rather than hypotheticals. Explain what your child is doing now, how the school handles it, how you know that she is not being adequately challenged (does she complain? is she unhappy? is she turning against school?), and ask if the AD thinks his/her school would be a better fit. Be as concrete as possible.

[Anonymous]

"Facts" tend to be perceptions in cases like these and if the AD or teacher who does the playdate or psych who does the testing doesn't share the parents' perceptions of the kid's situation, then you've shot yourself in the foot.

I guess you could say that it's important to know ASAP that the school won't agree with you, but, given that they will be working with limited info, I'd be more inclined to want to know what happens in the classroom in cases where they DO agree that a kid is working several grades ahead of the cohort rather than whether (based on first impressions) they agree with me that my kid is currently several grades ahead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Facts" tend to be perceptions in cases like these and if the AD or teacher who does the playdate or psych who does the testing doesn't share the parents' perceptions of the kid's situation, then you've shot yourself in the foot.

Obviously I disagree. Either your child is reading Proust or he is not. That's a fact. "Little Johnny picks everything up so much faster than everyone else and asks so much more thoughtful questions," is not a fact, and as you point out, may be directly contradicted by the AD's experience with your child. I'd stick to facts. It will help the AD, and it will help you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Either your child is reading Proust or he is not. That's a fact.

No, it isn't. Parents' (and kids') definitions of what it means to be able to read something can vary dramatically and diverge significantly from educators' definitions.

[Anonymous]

That's why you should be as concrete as possible.

[Anonymous]

ADs don't want to hear a long recitation of a parent's assessment of reading speed, comprehension, oral fluency, and decoding skills. They wouldn't trust it anyway. If it's meaningless without credible detail, then the best approach is a more open-ended (non-child-specific) one because the answer to that will give you a better indication as to whether and how and how much the school will differentiate instruction.

[Anonymous]

A friend told me (so take this with a grain of salt) that Norwood could not accomodate her child's advanced math skills at the K level, and suggested that she add Kumon instead. Now if I were paying through the nose for a MoCo private, I would be pretty annoyed by this suggestion!