School objectives, which specifically relate to this policy, are:
- To develop self-confident, self-disciplined children who value and recognise their talents.
- To develop each child's creative abilities and skills, by providing challenges and materials appropriate to their age and ability and to teach them to appreciate the creative skills of others.
- To accept the right of every child to be developed to their full potential, with particular regard to equal opportunity issues and the statutory requirements of Special Needs.
- To set targets for learning in order to achieve this.
In order to achieve well, a pupil needs not only ability, but also appropriate opportunities, support and motivation. This policy defines how that support is made available.
DEFINITIONS
The DfES use “gifted” as a term denoting academic ability and “talented” to denote special ability in the arts or sport.
An able/gifted/talented pupil will show significant talent or ability in one or more of these areas:
- Physical talent
- Artistic or musical talent
- Mechanical ingenuity
- Leadership
- High intelligence
- Creativity
IDENTIFICATION
By identifying the “very able” child, staff at Brockhill can assess needs, which should inform the planning of work to ensure appropriate pace, rigour and challenge and thus ensuring effective and suitable provision.
As with other special needs, each member of staff is responsible for identifying individual strengths as well as weaknesses. Identification will be shared and supported by Subject Co-ordinators, teacher responsible for more able pupils and the SENCO. The main provider of opportunities for able pupils is the teacher.
Mr. Kane will act as the teacher responsible for more able pupils and keep a register of children who are considered to be very able or to have particular talents.
It is easy to spot when pupils are obviously “good” at everything but some pupils are harder to pinpoint. Our identification evidence will be based on:
- Background knowledge and information from primary and/or previous schools.
- Ongoing observation and assessment.
- Discussion with the child.
- Discussion with parents.
- Discussion between class teacher and other colleagues (e.g. Key Stage Co-ordinator).
- Record keeping, (use of school based checklist, teacher planning and comments).
- Testing, (e.g. Baseline testing, SATs, CATs, Yellis, Teacher assessment, Examination results).
- Collation of evidence.
- Teacher familiarity with characteristics of able children.
- Discussion with outside agencies, e.g. Advisory teacher for more able pupils.
PROVISION
Provision for gifted and talented pupils should not be made at the expense of other pupil groups but equally such pupils have a right to the best possible provision.
Our aim is to provide the good quality learning experiences for our able and gifted pupils by adopting the following:
- Use a whole school policy on identification and provision.
- Create a positive climate in which it is good to succeed.
- Identify the needs of able pupils in the planning process, including the provision of appropriate resources where funding allows.
- Encourage independent learning, provide opportunities for pupils to organise their own work, access resources, make choices, analyse and evaluate their achievements.
- Have input into the target setting process.
- Be aware of the effects of gender, ethnicity and social circumstances on learning and high achievement.
- Provide opportunities for problem solving, hypothesising and developing thinking skills.
- Flexible organisation, which might allow withdrawal, setting, subject enrichment or partial acceleration.
- Giving opportunities for responsibilities within the school ethos, e.g. working as part of a school council.
- Use a range of whole-school strategies including differentiated work, setting/grouping by ability for certain subjects.
- Recognition of achievements (e.g. teacher and headteacher praise, meritpoints).
- Giving children opportunities to take responsibilities and use initiative.
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