Should British schools be more flexible with skipping years?

Hi, in a previous thread focusing on school sets I stumbled onto another debating topic. In American schools if you are capable you can skip grades and go to College (their Uni) early. While in Britain in almost all cases you are forced to do every year without skipping any. Age seems to be a huge factor in this, Britain tries to group years together because of social aspects. What are your opinions on this? Should we allow students in Britain to skip years?

I think we should allow students in Britain to skip years.

The research in acceleration has been very positive for America and Australia.
Links (America): https://www.accelerationinstitute.org/Nation_Empowered/ and http://www.accelerationinstitute.org/nation_deceived/
Australia: http://www.tasgifted.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Acceleration-dispelling-the-myths-with-research-and-reality.pdf and https://www.davidsongifted.org/gifted-blog/exceptionally-gifted-children-long-term-outcomes-of-academic-acceleration-and-nonacceleration/

In fact, skipping years can help with the social aspects, and allows kids to grow faster (a good thing, considering kids grow up too slowly these days).

@Moonlight [s]smile[/s]

Thats a really good argument, and the information definitely shows a really positive impact, it is really awesome that people in Australia have the opportunity to get a PHD at 21!

If we allow people to skip years then some students should be held back a year when necessary (so like the French system where you can skip a year or be held back (be made to repeat the year)).

In general i'd say nah.

If we allow people to skip years then some students should be held back a year when necessary (so like the French system where you can skip a year or be held back (be made to repeat the year)).

In general i'd say nah.

First part: I agree, some kids really deserve being held back.

Skipping/repeating years is not an educational adjustment for the considerable majority of people. The vast majority (within 2SD) can be catered for by differentiation.

When you're 2SD+ from the mean, that's when we start considering significant educational adjustments.

What does 2SD mean?

2 standard deviations.

If we allow people to skip years then some students should be held back a year when necessary (so like the French system where you can skip a year or be held back (be made to repeat the year)).

In general i'd say nah.

I don't do Maths or Biology so i'm confused.

I think skipping forward or being held back is not a bad idea at all, personally. I feel much more strongly that students should be studying with others of their own ability, rather than by age.
I think mixed ages but similar abilities makes far more sense.

Yeah i'd only support people being able to skip years if that makes that they have the ability to be held back too (like is the case in France). Need to have it both ways and not only 1 way imo.

Only issue is that some pupils might be really good on 1 subject and not another (I was crap at essay based subjects bar MFL but good at Maths) and there needs to be a limit on how many years you can be held back or moved forward in my view (twice/two years seems good). I definitely think that I would have been held back if I went to school in France.

This just smacks of "I'm too smart for everyone else" and ignores probably the most important aspect of education - learning to live and work and get along with other people - or at the very least relate to them.

Take this to its obvious conclusion - exactly what benefit is there to having 16 or 17 year olds on a university campus?

The only thing that skipping years would do is place some people who are emotionally deficient into a maelstrom. It would be a recipe for disaster.

I agree, for first part.

For second part, look to America, they have dual enrolment and early college that allows you to skip the entirety of high school. There is no evidence for "limits", the links I've used in my post here, show radical acceleration (3+ years) can be effective for some students.

Read my second post. Especially Davidson Gifted link.

You obviously haven't read the links supporting acceleration in the second post, at least in America and Australia.

If there's an intellectually gifted, socially/emotionally mature person, for whom the current year is way too easy, even with enrichment, I'd approve their acceleration. That year saved would be much better in their future career than treading water in their schooling.

Yeah i'd only support people being able to skip years if that means people also have the ability to be held back too (like is the case in France). Need to have it both ways and not only 1 way imo.

Only issue is that some pupils might be really good on 1 subject and not another (I was crap at essay based subjects bar MFL but good at Maths) and there needs to be a limit on how many years you can be held back or moved forward in my view (twice/two years seems good). I definitely think that I would have been held back if I went to school in France.

The American education system is below standard I think compared to the UK one until university (I could be wrong here so someone correct me if i'm wrong here). Maybe could explain why they have something similar in France (the ability to skip a year or be held back). Heard the stuff that my relatives had to do for the baccalaureate at 18 years old and I said honey I had to do that stuff at 15-16 years old (analyse literary texts the same way they had to) for my GCSEs (English Literature).

The American education system is below standard I think compared to the UK one until university (I could be wrong here so someone correct me if i'm wrong here). Maybe could explain why they have something similar in France (the ability to skip a year or be held back). Heard the stuff that my relatives had to do for the baccalaureate at 18 years old and I said honey I had to do that stuff at 15-16 years old (analyse literary texts the same way they had to) for my GCSEs (English Literature).

I feel as though if a student is strong at a particular subject but weak at another subject, they should be given the opportunity to sit the strong subject exams early, thus freeing up more time for the weaker subjects to be studied in greater depth for the remaining years they are in school. Once the stronger subjects are out of the way, that means more hours on the student's timetable can be put into the weaker subjects, giving them a better chance of getting a higher grade on them.

I know I'm always rambling on about my own kids and being home ed and all that, but...

My eldest son is really really bad at maths. I mean his memory is pretty poor anyway from his acquired brain injury, but he already had dyscalculia to begin with even before he got meningitis, so yeah, maths he sucks at.
He's currently Year 11 and he's supposed to have been taking English Language, Classical Civilisation, and Maths this year.
He's been getting Grade 5s in past papers in English, Grade 3s in Class Civ, and Grade 1s in Maths.

We recently made the decision that he's going to stay home ed for an extra year and go to college a year "late", and he's not going to take the Maths exam this year.

Instead, he's going to take the English and the Class Civ this year, and he'll take Maths next year, devoting the entirety of next year to purely studying Maths.
As a result, his Class Civ is now improving because he's not having to contend with the Maths as well for the moment, and I feel confident that if he's ONLY studying Maths next year, he'll be able to at least get to a Grade 4 because he can devote so much extra time to it.

So if schools implemented a similar system I feel more students would be able to pass not only the subjects they're strong in, but also the ones they might struggle with.

From someone that has been through the UK system and put their kids through the French bac with the International option I can honestly say that you do NOT do the same thing at GCSE, far from it!! But that is another issue. Yes kids are required to redo years in France if they don’t have sufficient foundations to move onto the next cycle( each cycle lasts 3 years) and traditionally at least 30% of students stay down at least once. However jumping a class is not standard and can be done without the approbation of a child psychologist only if the child is born one month after the normal age cut off date for that year group which in France is from January to December. So a child born before the 31st of January can jump a class if the family, head of year and head teacher agree to it. Outside of that age group a complex file has to completed. The IQ has to be tested either in a specialist hospital department or by a qualified child psychologist on an accredited list. They then have to provide another file on the emotional and physical maturity of the child because jumping the class can be catastrophic if the child then has no friends.
And just to add, because I’ve seen a lot of focus on IQ’s lately, they do not define how well someone does at school. School can cope with children that fit in the box, that work or try hard, that are bright, or in slight difficulty, but those that are extreme in one direction or the other fall through the cracks.
And one more thing, an IQ isn’t fixed. It evolves, up and down with time and age. The brain is like a muscle. If you don’t use it, it becomes less elastic and tonic, whereas the more it is solicited the better it performs.

From someone that has been through the UK system and put their kids through the French bac with the International option I can honestly say that you do NOT do the same thing at GCSE, far from it!! But that is another issue. Yes kids are required to redo years in France if they don’t have sufficient foundations to move onto the next cycle( each cycle lasts 3 years) and traditionally at least 30% of students stay down at least once. However jumping a class is not standard and can be done without the approbation of a child psychologist only if the child is born one month after the normal age cut off date for that year group which in France is from January to December. So a child born before the 31st of January can jump a class if the family, head of year and head teacher agree to it. Outside of that age group a complex file has to completed. The IQ has to be tested either in a specialist hospital department or by a qualified child psychologist on an accredited list. They then have to provide another file on the emotional and physical maturity of the child because jumping the class can be catastrophic if the child then has no friends.
And just to add, because I’ve seen a lot of focus on IQ’s lately, they do not define how well someone does at school. School can cope with children that fit in the box, that work or try hard, that are bright, or in slight difficulty, but those that are extreme in one direction or the other fall through the cracks.
And one more thing, an IQ isn’t fixed. It evolves, up and down with time and age. The brain is like a muscle. If you don’t use it, it becomes less elastic and tonic, whereas the more it is solicited the better it performs.