Chris Woodhead: Answer the question

My son, who is in reception class, is four and a half years old and has been classified as an exceptional reader. What does “exceptional” mean for a child this age? How should his education be managed and is it reasonable to expect schools to add value in a way that allows a child to maintain a lead over others of the same age?

Name withheld

There is no national definition of an exceptional reader. Your son will, no doubt, have scored highly in the profile of skills the government has introduced for five-year-olds but this bureaucratic nonsense tells you little. In the end it comes down to the judgment of his teacher and your common sense as a parent. The more you read to your son and encourage reading through visits to libraries the more likely he is to fulfil his potential.

The government is encouraging schools through its gifted and talented programme to improve provision for the most able children in England. Talk to your son’s head teacher to see what his school is doing to support gifted children and see if his teacher will provide more challenging work in class and extra activities to be done at home.

The National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth (www.nagty.ac.uk), which runs summer schools for older children, is also worth a call.

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We are the legal guardians of our grandson, 9, who has dyslexia and dyspraxia and is also epileptic. We are prepared to move anywhere for the best school for our grandson in two years time. How can we research this?

Name withheld

Kogan Page publishes a useful guide to special schools, state and private, called Schools for Special Needs: we have sent you a copy of the 2005/6 edition. The Council for the Registration of Schools Teaching Dyslexic Pupils lists schools that teach dyslexic children at www.crested.org.uk.

You could double check a school that interests you by looking at its report from the Office for Standards in Education. Then, of course, there is no substitute for a visit.

Our son is choosing subjects to study at AS-level: he is considering geography, physics, maths and music technology. He may wish to continue music technology at A2-level. How do universities look upon this A-level?

S Swords, Surrey

It depends what he wants to do. If he decides to apply for a joint honours degree in, say, maths and music or for a related degree such as electroacoustic music then there should not be a problem. You can check entrance requirements for different subjects at different universities at www.ucas.com.

I am writing with regard to the question from Mrs D Walls last week. While grade 8 in music cannot be “counted as a GCSE” there is a relationship between graded music exams and A-levels. Associated Board passes are recognised within the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service tariff system for university entrance: while an A at A-level is worth 120 points, a grade 8 distinction in music is worth 75. For more information see www.abrsm.org/?page=exams/ucas.html.

Nigel Scaife,
Associated Board of the Royal School of Music

Thank you.

If you have a question for Chris Woodhead, write to him c/o The Sunday Times, 1 Pennington Street, London E98 1ST or e-mail him, with your name and address, at education-questions@sunday-times.co.uk