‘In school people are scared to be a bit strange’: Gifted students on life in mainstream schools

Most teenagers like to spend the summer enjoying lie-ins, mooching with friends or maybe working a part-time job. Seventeen-year-old Dylan O’Riordan spent it differently: he studied novel writing, theatre and stage production as part of a summer programme offered by the Centre for Talented Youth Ireland (CTYI), at DCU.
“I never feel like I’m losing anything, because I’m gaining so much being here,” says O’Riordan. “I think my fear of missing out would be so much stronger if I wasn’t here.”
These sentiments are echoed by Malachy Maag (14), who studied inguistics during the summer at the CTYI camp. “I wouldn’t mind doing this for the whole summer,” says Maag. “Honestly, it doesn’t feel like it’s taking my time up at all.”
O’Riordan and Maag attended one of the three-week residential summer camps run by the centre.
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CTYI is home to more than 2,900 gifted students aged six to 17 attending various summer courses. The courses offered are not available on the mainstream curriculum and are designed to enrich the learning of exceptionally able students.
They can choose from subjects such as experimental physics, criminology, chemistry, novel writing, linguistics, medicine, law and social psychology.
Students hoping to attend must complete an assessment or be referred by an educational psychologist.
While the centre has been growing since its inception in 1992, Colm O’Reilly, director of CTYI, says there has been another notable change in recent years. “When I started 30 years ago, we hardly had any twice-exceptional students,” says O’Reilly, “they existed, they just weren’t being identified.”
“Twice-exceptional” is a term used to describe a high-ability student who also has a learning difficulty or an additional diagnosis such as autism or ADHD. O’Reilly says that most twice-exceptional students are referred to CTYI by educational psychologists following assessments.
“Ten years ago, I would have got 15 reports a year,” says O’Reilly. “This year, I got 15 reports a week.”
The increase in twice-exceptional students attending CTYI courses has prompted changes to how the programmes are run.
“Working with 15 is very different to working with 650,” says O’Reilly. “We used research to guide best practices and that helped us redefine how we work with those students.” Their focus now, he says, is on offering strengths-based interventions.
Students are supported by residential assistants who help manage the practical and wellbeing needs of the students.
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“Ultimately, we are here to make sure everything runs smoothly, make sure everyone’s safe and that all the activities go as planned,” says Eva Tuohy, residential assistant and former CTYI student. “But our other unspoken job is to be these guys’ biggest advocate. We always assume the best.”
It is this approach that has enabled twice-exceptional students, such as O’Riordan and Maag, to thrive, not just academically but emotionally, in a way that they haven’t been in mainstream school.
“You feel like in everyday life you’re missing a script, you’re missing something that everyone else isn’t missing,” says O’Riordan. “And here, it doesn’t feel like I have it, it just feels like I don’t need it.”
O’Riordan says that he feels like he is in a safe space while at the CTYI. This is in stark contrast to his experience of mainstream school.
“In school people are scared to be a bit strange. It’s very sad,” says O’Riordan. “I have to do this transition when I get back from here and behave like a normal person.”
Úna O’Riordan, Dylan’s mother, says schools need to be more accommodating for autistic students.
“It’s not their fault in particular,” she says. “They just don’t have the staff or the set-up in place.”
She has a plan in place for her son as he enters sixth year to help him during times of increased stress. She has agreed with the school that Dylan can contact her when he is feeling stressed.
“I made sure I’m not working this year. I’ll take Dylan out for coffee, then an hour later he will go back. I will do it to because, otherwise, Dylan will be coming home.”
Una says the positive impact CTYI has on Dylan’s wellbeing is the main reason she enrols him in the programme.
“I’m not sending him up there for the education. I’m sending Dylan up so that he can meet people like himself, and he comes back refreshed and knowing that he’s been himself.”
Tuohy says that when accommodations aren’t in place for autistic students it is difficult for them to reach their potential, and this is the same for twice-exceptional students.
“There is a lot of CTYI students who really struggle in their schools because they’re not being supported emotionally or socially,” says Tuohy.
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“If you’re trying to work on your social skills, to look after yourself, while you’re in school then the academic stuff is going to fall by the wayside. If you don’t feel supported in that environment, then you’re not going to feel motivated,” she says.
“I think [the Department of Education] has a lot to answer for in terms of that, because there’s really no reason why exceptionally able children should be struggling academically.”
Maag says his school is good at creating an inclusive environment.
“I think it is quite good at accommodating neurodivergent students. I am allowed to leave class whenever I want and go to the library, read or help out the librarians,” says Maag. “I really liked that.”
However, Maag says he finds the daily schedule at school tiring and, despite having good teachers, he believes he isn’t being challenged.
“Academically, CTYI is far better for me,” says Maag. “In school, the material itself isn’t really hard enough but there’s just so much of it. You’re basically studying for hours about so many things that just aren’t interesting. In CTYI you can focus on one thing that’s challenging, but in a good way.”
Niamh Kerslake, teacher at CTYI and former student, has noticed the impact attending the centre has on the wellbeing of twice-exceptional students.
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“Sometimes in school they can feel like a bit of an outsider and no one else is interested in the things they are interested in,” says Kerslake. “Then they come here and see others have chosen similar subjects. That peer support is really important.”
Kerslake says attending CTYI also presents the students with opportunities to navigate social interactions.
O’Riordan agrees that the academic challenges at school differ from those presented at CTYI.
“It’s a different kind of difficult here. It’s a difficult that we don’t engage in at school,” says O’Riordan. “In school, it’s just memorising, and it really sucks all the fun out of learning. I have excellent teachers but I’m in school for six years for essentially a few exams. I’m in sixth year now, I might as well ride it out.”
Maag and O’Riordan’s experience of not being challenged at school is supported by research prepared for the CTYI.
It found that although 85 per cent of teachers reported that they were differentiating in their teaching for exceptionally able students, a large majority of students who attended CTYI did not agree.
The Department of Education identifies giftedness as being an additional educational need. However, the most recent inspectorate report found that “there is a need for all schools to use approaches that will help to increase the numbers of students achieving at the highest levels and address the needs of more able and exceptionally able students.”
Dylan O’ Riordan would like the changes to go further: “I would just completely reform the education system.”