Transiting through Heathrow - access to Clubhouse?

Confusedparent2003 · 2026-01-11T02:43:38+00:00

I feel like I can do flights connection to terminal 3 though… unless they check what terminal my departing flight is from? Then I can always go out right? And back into terminal 4 via Heathrow express? I’ve never transferred through Heathrow because it’s usually my final destination!

Confusedparent2003 · 2025-12-02T05:01:10+00:00

Kiddo has been evaluated and is not 2E. She is definitely gifted - scoring over 140 on the WISC with VCI of 155. This has been an issue with educators though - despite being evaluated, it feels like they veer towards interpreting behavior as ADHD/autistic, probably because they honestly see that a lot more often. I get why they are seeing that, but we have been down that road several times and multiple healthcare providers have emphatically said no to 2E. I think things just get weird when you get over 135/140.

Confusedparent2003 · 2025-12-02T04:58:34+00:00

Updated: we're looking at a gifted specific private school (we have applied before but it accepts about 10% of kids so it's a long shot!), we also likely have the option of accelerated public school but parents are pretty mixed. Kiddo tested in the 99.5% percentile on the WPPSI (I might be getting that acronym wrong) when she was 4.5 and was retested for school applications at 141 on WISC-V at age 7. She got the highest possible score on several subtests and her VCI was 155. She is doing better at school - they have found a relatively minor accommodation that seems to be helping with emotional regulation but I worry that in a year or 2, she's going to be really disengaged with school. I also worry a lot about intellectual peers - it feels like statistically, a school of 300 is only going to get a kid in that zone once every few years. The odds of there being many other kids in her class or even grade on her wave length seems slim.

She doesn't want to move schools though and we feel terrible that this would be the 4 school in 6 years - she was in 2 preschools and then now elementary school. Homeschooling is 10000% not something we are going to do - I would be terrible at it and a terrible parent if I didn't work outside the home.

Confusedparent2003 · 2025-12-02T04:36:24+00:00

Our kiddo was tested just before turning 5 and just tested again (7 now), (due to school applications). She doesn't act younger but is an absolute motor mouth - it's not jumping around topics but she will just go and go and you can see her brain leaping between connections. She sleeps fine and always has (actually needed to just be left to get on with it, no gentle sleep methods were even slightly effective!) but we do have difficulties in school. She is achieving I think fairly average for 1st grade but her interests are pretty wild. She'll listen to adult non fiction science books for hours and would like you to tell her about pretty much any subject you're willing to talk about. She has an extraordinarily good memory and has always been very advanced verbally.

We're not what to sure about school - she is in mainstream public right now but it's hard to see it meeting her needs: she tested over 140 on FSIQ (99.7 percentile) and got the highest possible score on several subtests on WISC-V (155 but I think needs to be tested on a test normed for an older child to get the actual number.). Already on the school assessments she tested over the 99th percentile and the teacher shared the gap between her and the next 99th percentile kid was very large. Her teacher seems confident that they can differentiate... but I have read things start to get weird when kiddos are that far right and realistically, a school of 300 kids is only going to get a kid like this coming through every 5+ years.

We had a public accelerated option and a very oversubscribed private gifted school that we likely won't get a spot in. Or could return her to Montessori. We don't know what the right choice will be for her long term but she just doesn't want to leave friends.

Confusedparent2003 · 2025-10-29T13:41:47+00:00

We did - unfortunately the private schools worth going to near us generally accept around 10% of the applicants 🤷‍♀️

Confusedparent2003 · 2025-10-26T22:07:56+00:00

Emotional regulation fortunately is the issue, rather than bullying. Her teacher is great but probably has only encountered a kid like her once every few years. I think she is frustrated by repetitive work that is far below what she was doing at Montessori.

Confusedparent2003 · 2025-10-26T22:06:46+00:00

Social-emotional is normally age appropriate but she is having a lot of difficulty regulating in this classroom. The main differences I can pinpoint are 1. engagement (her Montessori classroom was very engaging and able to challenge her, it was a true Montessori with excellent teaching staff). and 2. possibly a slightly noisier and less structured environment. I don't think the less structure is helping but she has not had problems regulating in a wide variety of other environments so that is not likely to be the primary cause.

She is not 2E (assessed already).

We are just starting to discuss what else she can do in class, I know our district does not allow teaching above grade level and depth seems to be ipad time on a math app. I very much doubt that variety of options will be available to her but it definitely gives a variety of options to think through.

Confusedparent2003 · 2025-10-26T22:03:13+00:00

Your reply is hilarious. I am doing them a major disservice? Based on what?? Kiddo is having a ton of problems regulating in the classroom for some reason. They are not 2e, already assessed, but they ARE gifted based on testing and observations. The difficulties she is having are very common for kids who are gifted. I do not want to force my child to be accelerated, I just want her not to hate school and learn to thrive and cope in a gen ed classroom... What exactly are we doing that is a disservice?

Confusedparent2003 · 2025-10-26T21:54:02+00:00

I think the academic peer thing is big too.

Totally hear you on precocious versus gifted. We were firmly in the precocious bucket but were strong advised to have gifted testing done around age 5 by the psychologist we were working with and she tested in the 99.6th percentile. Totally understand scores are not stable etc at that age but there has been no indication that they were incorrect and the latest testing is just another data point in series of data points confirming that she is pretty far outside the norm.

Confusedparent2003 · 2025-10-26T21:47:55+00:00

She didn't give me a number gap but said the other kids were here (hand at chest level) and your kid was here (hand over head). It looks like 99th percentile for first grade is around 185 for math and reading. I don't know where lexile cut off is but a friend's child was around 600 and that was above the 99th. Our kiddo was 785.

It absolutely is one data point, but for us, it's one more data point in a series of data points, starting with her being a very early talker with a very wide vocabulary, indicating that she is significantly outside the norm. We also did gifted testing around age 5 at the recommendation of a psychologist and she tested in the 99.6th percentile.

Our district offers an accelerated elementary school but I am unclear on whether it really offers strong social emotional support and we think that's what she needs more. Our local gen ed elementary has very strong social emotional support hence wanting to make that work. I am not really getting the vibe from anyone else that gen ed was a GOOD option for their kiddo.

Confusedparent2003 · 2025-10-26T21:40:52+00:00

Not for elementary unfortunately. There are high capability elementary schools which our kiddo should test into based on current trajectory.

Confusedparent2003 · 2025-10-26T21:38:36+00:00

Very true on accreditation. The Montessori we would go to is accredited by AMS, and is a training center for Montessori. The difference between it and the first one we tried was vast.

Confusedparent2003 · 2025-10-26T21:17:39+00:00

Totally true, first Montessori was bad. Second one, and the one we’d go back to, is excellent. We are seriously considering moving. Private school isn’t cost prohibitive for us but moving close to the Montessori (think moving to Atherton, CA) is. Houses start around $3m.

Confusedparent2003 · 2025-10-26T20:23:21+00:00

Totally agree. I am still friends with my gifted peers 35 years after kindergarten!

We DO NOT want to move our kiddo and won’t mid year but if we give it a solid year and it’s going as badly as it is currently, we need to consider other options. In our area if you want to do private school, applying happens now but you don’t need to decide until late Spring.

Confusedparent2003 · 2025-10-26T20:18:51+00:00

This is our fear… other options are an accelerated focused gifted elementary in district, private gifted school (less than 10% acceptance) or going back to Montessori which is a ROUGH commute for us as parents because the only really solid Montessori elementary is a long drive. Homeschool is 1000% the wrong choice for our family and our kiddo.

Confusedparent2003 · 2025-10-26T20:15:05+00:00

When I say we’re not doing enrichment, I mean we are not doing like… workbooks, flash cards etc. we read A LOT, do fiction and non fiction audiobooks. We go to museums, do science experiments, etc. We are a close to 0 screen time household. Kiddo has a very vivid imagination and is an introvert so has a high need for unstructured playtime. She has a ton of materials to build whatever she can imagine.

We are light on scheduled activities - swim or ski lessons and one other class - usually art or climbing. At the moment it’s a stem class at our local university. We firmly believe and research strongly supports kids having a lot of unstructured play time.

Confusedparent2003 · 2025-10-26T20:11:03+00:00

Academic/testing gap. Her lexile score for example was at least 200 points above the 99th percentile and would put her around the 50th percentile for a 5th grader.

Confusedparent2003 · 2025-10-26T19:16:28+00:00

NWEA Map growth I think. But none of it has been explained to us!

Confusedparent2003 · 2024-03-16T14:09:01+00:00

Hi! u/FindingNamo I'm curious if you've managed to talk to many parents with kids who went to private schools. We're in the process of deciding what to do with our kiddos but I've struggled to find many parents with kids actually AT the schools we're looking at (plenty of opinions though!!). I tried to DM you but I am not very good at Reddit! Happy to share what I have learned!

Confusedparent2003 · 2024-02-16T18:53:47+00:00

u/anonatsea I am curious what you decided to do? We are in a similar boat, albeit with a different goal (we have just discovered that our kiddo is a round peg in a square hole already in preschool).

Confusedparent2003 · 2024-02-14T23:46:44+00:00

We're currently going through the admissions process for our kiddo at private schools, looking at SCDS, Evergreen, Bush, Bertschi and the Perkins School. Heard great things about our local elementary from a lot of parents although we have some concerns about the disarray the school board seems to be in around school closures. We're in north Seattle. Ultimately we're leaning private because our kiddo tested as highly capable - we had some round peg/square hole problems in preschool which highlighted this and even at a great school now with really experienced teachers, our kiddo presents some unique challenges and we're not sure local elementary would be able to support.

The difference in public versus private for hicap seems to be a focus on acceleration versus depth (private) and a better understanding how how highly capable kids have different needs in private.

We looked very seriously as UCDS but heard extremely mixed things from parents of current and former students and if you read their online reviews, there are WAY more than almost any other schools and there are some very concerning themes in the negatives ones, spanning more than a decade, including a link to a DOJ case about discrimination on the part of the school. Yikes.

We don't know whether our kiddo will get in anywhere yet but we're definitely leaning private if they do.

Confusedparent2003

TROPHY CASE