11 Plus Exams Forum

So what do people think about the 4 and 7yr olds who took GCSE maths? The 7 year old boy spent four hours every Saturday at the Ryde Teaching Services private tution centrae that runs at Bushey Meads school evenings and saturdays at Bushey in Herts even though he lives in Epsom in Surrey.

I had never heard of Dr Ryde and his services. Anyone know any background on him?

He was in the news a lot a couple of years ago for getting very young children good A level grades & one boy went to uni at a very young age (something like 12 0r 13!!). ISTR that he didnt enjoy uni at all as most of the benefit is from the social side of things which he obviously couldnt join in with.

DS asked the other day if you could sit GCSEs early as he saw part of the science paper & thought he could do it now - then he said 'what's the point of sitting early' which is true. Kudos for the parents but damaging for the child. If you want to stay with your age group you would just be sitting in class very bored & we've had that with him in maths for years now - to the point of tears in fits of frustration. Hoping things will improve at 2ndry. (And we dont do any 'extra' work with him at home)

Anyway, back to Ryde College. They get children to pass A levels etc but every so often, when their fame starts to wane, a very young child goes through & makes it into the news, thus advertising to a new batch of parents.

There are plenty of bright children who can and should be pushed, but in most cases, I can't see the point in a very young child getting a GCSE or A level - especially if they don't get a top grade. What do they do after that? Wouldn't their lives be more enriched by doing some extra maths or IT, so they do it a year or two early, but other things as well?

I really dont see the point. I think its quite evil to let a 7year old sit a GCSE paper. Fine if he didnt have to spend hours at the saturday school. Surely there are better way of stimulating a 7 year able mathematician without having to do a GCSE paper which is restrictive enought as it is. What is he going to go to school to do now then? I remember seeing a programme that very able kids die early.

I remember seeing a programme that very able kids die early.

Do you mean those who are pushed to achieve or those who are incredibly gifted but aren't pushed as well?

DS went to Ryde College for 6 months when he was little because we didn't know what else to do - he had thick parents! Anyway, they said he was the brightest boy they had ever seen and he would be able to sit his GCSE in a year! They were right, but he didn't because we couldn't be bothered. He wasn't pushed, by the way.

Currently he is fighting with his brother over an overly sweet lolly thing in the pool in Orlando. No damage there then although mother has never recovered!

P.S. Will repsond to PM's when I'm back. Mwah to CM X

sherry_d wrote: I remember seeing a programme that very able kids die early.

DIE? That's a very alarmist statement. Can you back it up?

Surely a better approach is to expand their understanding of a subject and work on different problems but take the exams at much the same time, taking maths for example there are alot of children with amazing maths abilities. If you assume the pursose of their education is to prapre them for a career or life in general then getting gcse early is pretty meaningless but giving them an understanding of a subject much wider than the exam would be really valuable there's an awful lot of maths that is at a similar level to gcse that's not in the syllbus but would be really useful for maths based careers in the future

Daogroupie wrote:So what do people think about the 4 and 7yr olds who took GCSE maths?

I think one should re-phrase here: What do people think of GCSE maths that can be taken by 4 and 7 year olds?

LOL