Today's gifted students are tomorrow's social, intellectual, economic and cultural leaders; as a society we cannot afford to leave their development to chance.
For many years we were an 'Ambassador School' for the National Academy of Gifted & Talented Youth, and have encouraged our students to apply for membership of the academy which offered an exciting range of opportunities beyond the school.
This academy has now closed, and we are awaiting the full launch of its replacement, the YGT website, this year. The aim of the new website is to be an exciting ‘one stop portal’ for everyone interested in G&T provision: teachers, parents and students themselves. We will be issuing information about the new website, including information on how our G and T students can register with YGT, through the school newsletter and at Parents' Evenings during 2008 and we will provide a link to the website for you. In school we will encourage students to join the Academy and to take advantage of the opportunities it offers.
At Haybridge our aim is to provide the appropriate curriculum and opportunities for all our students, and this includes our Gifted and Talented students. For many years we have been an Ambassador School for the National Academy of Gifted & Talented Youth, and have encouraged our students to apply for membership of the academy which offered an exciting range of opportunities beyond the school. In October 2006 we were presented with the NACE (National Association for Able Children in Education) Challenge Award for excellence in provision for able, gifted and talented students.
What do we mean by Gifted and Talented?
The word ‘gifted’ tends to be applied to academic ability, whereas ‘talented ‘ refers to a specific aptitude for a sport, for music, or art. Students who are gifted and talented will demonstrate achievement or potential to achieve at the highest levels in comparison with children of a similar age or stage in their education in the following areas:
- General intellectual aptitude
- Specific academic aptitude
- Leadership ability
- Creative or productive thinking
How do we identify the G&T student?
We aim to identify students in a variety of different ways as exemplified below.
- Use of data
- Liaison with Year 6 feeder school teachers to ensure relevant transferral of G&T information.
- Regular identification by subject departments of G&T students in their subject.
- Regular identification by teachers offering enrichment activities where there may be G&T students.
- Annual questionnaire to go out to tutor groups to establish any gifts/talents beyond school environment.
- We ask parents to let us know of their child’s gifts or talents on transfer to High School and when we send reports home.
What we do
A database of G&T students is networked for all staff access, and we aim to support the G&T students in a variety of ways: through enrichment and enhancement inside and outside the classroom, through staff and peer mentoring and by offering enrichment opportunities beyond the school. Our aim is to add breadth, accelerate the pace of learning, give depth, promote independence, encourage reflection/self-evaluation, develop high levels of aptitude and offer scope for intellectual initiative. In the classroom we aim to provide creative, flexible learning opportunities. We encourage the use of higher order thinking skills and risk taking in order to encourage independent learning in the more able students.
Gifted and Talented provision is one of our whole school targets for the coming year, and staff will be working together to develop innovative ways in which we can support our substantial cohort of Gifted and Talented students.
Won't gifted students do well anyway?
Not necessarily. Currently in England high educational achievement is more closely aligned to social class than to ability and even in more affluent families some gifted students do not fulfil their potential. Gifted children are at risk of underachievement for three main reasons:
- Many people believe that 'giftedness will out', but research shows this is not true and that giftedness needs to be 'coaxed out' through access to challenging opportunities, appropriate help and guidance
- Teachers need help in recognising and developing gifted students
- Culturally it is not 'cool to be bright' and many young people, unable to be themselves in school, disguise their ability to gain acceptance
What can you do as parents?
- Let us know if you feel your child has a gift or a talent we may not know about
- Let us know if your child needs support, advocacy when homework clashes with training schedules etc
- Keep your eye on this website for updates and links – encourage your gifted child to seize all opportunities and go for it!
Contacts
- Our lead teacher for Gifted and Talented students is David Corden, one of our Advanced Skills Teachers.
- Our Senior Leadership Team member with responsibility for G&T is Lynne Byford, Assistant Headteacher.