Gifted & Talented

As identified in the National Curriculum 2014, teachers must ‘set high expectations for every pupil’ and plan stretching work for pupils whose attainment is significantly above the expected standards. We recognise that at any time Athelstan Primary School may have pupils whose performance or potential is significantly greater than that of their peers. These children may be identified as Gifted pupils or Talented pupils and we have the responsibility to meet the needs of these children. Our policy for these pupils endeavours to ensure they can be appropriately and effectively provided for through the teaching and learning programmes in school.

Identification and assessment

The term ‘gifted learners’ are those who have a particular academic ability and ‘talented learners’  are those who have particular abilities in the creative arts (such as music, art, design, drama, dance) or PE.

A wide range of identification strategies can be used in the identification of gifted and/or talented children. The identification process is continuous and is evaluated as appropriate to the needs of the children. All staff have a crucial role in identifying pupils as information is gathered from a variety of sources.  

Strategies used to identify pupils include:

• Teacher nomination following Teacher Assessment
• Teaching Assistant recognition
• Test results
• Information provided by parents
• Information provided by external agencies – Music teachers, sports coaches etc.
• Assessment used to identify pupils include: Teacher observation Teacher Assistant observations Benchmark tests – end of KS tests
• Pupils’ response to increased challenge – open ended tasks for ongoing assessment Provision of extended opportunities

Once a pupil is identified the Coordinator will work alongside the Class Teacher to validate the nomination and assessment data. The child is then placed on the school’s register for Gifted and Talented. At parent consultation meetings, the parents are informed about their child’s learning progression and how their needs are being met in school. Parents are also informed about additional opportunities for their child when these occasions arise.

Curriculum Organisation and Planning for Learning

At Athelstan Primary School we believe that the organisation of the school’s curriculum is crucial in ensuring all children are interested and engaged learners and are given the life skills they need for the future. Our school curriculum is therefore organised into termly topics, with stimulating titles relevant to the children’s interests. Teachers are expected to plan for the wide range of abilities in their classes and plan from top – down to offer enrichment and both broaden and deepen opportunities for those children identified on the Gifted and Talented register.

At Athelstan we believe that there are three basic ways of meeting the needs of gifted and talented children; mastery, enrichment and extension.

• Mastery is how a child can apply the curriculum in more complex and in‐depth, cross‐objective, multi‐modal methods. It demonstrates how skilfully a child can apply their learning. Mastery is not just knowing a fact, but it is using that fact in increasingly more complex situations.
• Reflection & Mastery is not just being able to say what they have learnt, but being able to teach it to someone else.
• Enrichment consists of broadening a child's education. This can consist of enabling a child to study aspects of topic that there would not normally be time to study.
• Extension occurs when children are encouraged to develop more sophisticated thinking and reasoning skills.

Most learners remain in the classroom working alongside their peers whilst when appropriate and when the opportunity presents more specific work and additional opportunities can be planned by the Coordinator to be undertaken in smaller groups outside the classroom where necessary. Extended activities, such as work with other children across other schools, group projects or challenge competitions, take place off the school site where appropriate.