A-Z of G&T education (8): Gifted and talented

scameron — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 16:42:01 +0000

What exactly do we mean by ‘gifted and talented’? Dictionaries give us the following definitions:

gifted:

having natural talent or aptitude
highly intelligent (children)

talented:

Helping secondary G&T students aim high

scameron — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 14:57:55 +0000

Last month saw many young people starting university. In some cases, they will be the first person in the family to follow this route and to aim for degree-level qualifications.

G&T activity to stimulate creative thinking

scameron — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 14:03:49 +0000

Activity: Odd One Out
Subject: Any
Key Stage(s): 1, 2, 3 & 4.

Dragon's Den for G&T students

scameron — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 11:43:36 +0000

Anyone familiar with the television programme Dragons’ Den will be aware that marketing an idea is not for the faint-hearted, particularly when the judges have a financial interest in the outcome. However, maintaining a calm demeanour under intense scrutiny is one of the more challenging, but useful life skills: so any chance to practise it within a safe environment has to represent a good opportunity for young people.

Leaders of the future: G&T leadership skills

scameron — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 15:35:31 +0000

As a G & T coordinator or leading teacher, how would you describe your leadership style? If you have been part of a programme of continuous professional development such as the NCSL ‘Leading from the Middle’ programme, you will undoubtedly have been asked to consider your own leadership style and how it affects the contributions of others around you; but have you considered how this learning could benefit the experiences of those able, gifted and talented students you support?

Integrating enrichment activities

scameron — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 18:18:25 +0000

One of the well-documented limitations of many enrichment activities is the danger of presenting a ‘one-off’ experience divorced from the curriculum and/or delivered out of context. Freeman (1998) points out that enrichment is not a ‘supplementary diet’ but should always be integrated with whole-school provision for the very able, indeed for pupils of all abilities: she also believes that enrichment can lack clear goals if the activity is ‘decontextualised’.

Developing visual learning skills

scameron — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 17:26:12 +0000

Visual imagery can play a powerful role in accelerating human learning. Complex verbal explanations can often be simplified through visual support – now made more accessible through new technologies. And organised learners use a range of low-tech techniques to make sure that their notes are well-ordered and easy to navigate. These include colour coding, post-it notes, highlighters, etc, to help categorise, prioritise and make the work user-friendly.

A gifted and talented sports programme

scameron — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 14:05:48 +0000

A progressive and forward thinking establishment, Bucklers Mead School is situated on the outskirts of the town of Yeovil in Somerset. Head of PE at the school is Craig Fletcher, a dynamic and experienced teacher who over the past few years has been involved in the National Gifted and Talented Scheme.

In a department of over five teachers and a schools sports coordinator (SSCO) – assigned to develop partnership with a local sports colleges and primary feeder schools – Craig has worked hard to improve the quality and performance of both students and staff.

Enrichment activity (secondary): High and low - managing success and failure

sara — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 12:28:25 +0100

Written by John Senior

High and low - managing success and failure

Participating in sports involves competitive spirits as the main focus is coming first, second or third. For some people, it can be difficult to discriminate between realistic and idealised standards. This leads to external pressure for the sports player, but also self-imposed pressure. This level of perfectionism can cause both tension and performance-threatening stress issues.

Enrichment activity (secondary science): Forensics and crime

sara — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 12:28:25 +0100

The scene of the crime

Written by John Senior and Angela Tuff

This activity will help enrich your gifted and talented students in the following areas:

Enrichment activity (secondary maths): The lifetime travel of a penguin

sara — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 12:28:25 +0100

The life-time travel of a penguin

Written by John Senior and Elizabeth Hind

These are some of the questions you can ask, to encourage your gifted and talented students to gather research and explore the topic further.

Enrichment activity (secondary English): Hamlet in Morse code

sara — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 12:28:25 +0100

Translating into Morse code

Enrichment Activities: Entertainment in the summer holidays

scameron — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 12:21:44 +0100

This week’s primary enrichment activity explores activities that pupils could become involved with in their summer holidays.

This week's secondary enrichment activity looks at the safety of underage users playing violent video games.

***Primary Enrichment***

Holiday bumper fun

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Enrichment Activities: Space travel and satellite communications

scameron — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 12:21:44 +0100
This week’s primary enrichment activity looks at the future of space travel and asks pupils to consider what the priorities should be for the European Space Agency.

This week’s secondary enrichment activity looks at satellite communications and asks pupils to consider what would happen if the world’s satellites stopped functioning.

***Primary Enrichment***

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Enrichment Activities: Sportswear design and the use of slang

scameron — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 12:21:43 +0100
This week's primary enrichment activity looks at slang and asks pupils to develop and use their own private language.

This week's secondary enrichment activity explores the potential psychological effects and competitive advantages of new developments in swimwear.

***Primary Enrichment***

KS 2: Modern Foreign Languages (MFL)

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Religious education: raising the bar for gifted and talented

jlee — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:45 +0100

Recently a fellow RE adviser told me that when marking a GCSE religious education exam paper she came across one attempt to answer a question which stuck in her memory. The exam question was, ‘Why do people argue about abortion?’ All sorts of things can happen given the stress and tension of exam conditions, but the answer given by one particular candidate was something like the following…
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Success in Staffordshire: achieving the NACE Challenge Award

jlee — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:45 +0100
Blake Valley Technology College in Staffordshire achieved the National Association for Able Children in Education (NACE) Challenge Award in September 2005. During the preceding two years much work had taken place at the school to improve learning and teaching.

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Science lesson plan for Key Stage 2 - reflecting light and sound

jlee — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:40 +0100
Light and sound comes into SC4, Physical Processes, and, in my experience, is studied as two separate units, with a number of lessons devoted to each. For most pupils, investigating light, how it travels, what stops it and which materials reflect it, is far more straightforward than learning about sound. To begin with, we can see light! We can see a torch beam as it travels across a darkened room and is bent when reflected from a mirror. We can’t see sound waves, even though, in many ways, they work in much the same manner as light waves.
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Hands-on science

jlee — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:35 +0100

It’s not often that I’m in the right place at the right time. However, when Andrew Thompsett, senior lecturer in biochemistry at the University of Bedfordshire, asked me to be a judge in a chemistry competition, I jumped at the chance. It would be an interesting way to develop my knowledge of how a vital area of the curriculum can meet the needs of able pupils.
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Extending G&T provision

jlee — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:27 +0100

In a newspaper column (Sunday Times 3 December 2006), Chris Woodhead said, ‘The courses run by the National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth are the only option available at present for students who find classroom teaching uninspiring.’ This doesn’t account for the extra lessons that so many teachers run at our school for those either interested in extending their abilities, or catching up.
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Meeting the needs of gifted and talented 14-19 students

jlee — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:25 +0100

For some time developing gifted and talented provision in post-16 education, particularly in FE colleges, has seemed, for many, an isolated and embattled experience. Will changes in the 14-19 landscape offer greater opportunities for G&T learners, both those following traditional routes and those such as the talented painter and decorator?
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Enrichment, extension and expertise for able post-16 students

jlee — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:25 +0100

Villiers Park Educational Trust has been working with able post-16 students for 40 years and over 10,000 have attended residential courses at our centres. The students come from all types of schools and colleges and from across the UK. In addition to in-house events we run a wide range of day long masterclasses at universities nationwide.
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Challenging pupils with a murder mystery

ewtemp — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:19 +0100

How did a simple murder mystery idea that started with a group of pupils in a single school end up getting an enthusiastic reception at one of the largest national conferences for G&T education ever held?
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The impact of extended schools on G&T students

admin — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:12 +0100

We have a long-standing tradition of wide-ranging extra-curricular activities that provide pupils with a wealth of new experiences, challenges and opportunities to develop and demonstrate new talents. This is especially true of G&T pupils who thrive on the additional opportunities and are frequently, as in most schools, the first to sign up for after school activities.
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Enrichment activity – art and design

admin — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:05 +0100

Suprematism is an art movement focused on fundamental geometric forms (squares and circles), which formed in Russia in 1913.
The work of the Suprematist artist Kasimir Malevich (1878-1935) was revolutionary. He emerged from a background of Futurism, Léger and Picasso. In the manifesto for ‘Rayonism’ (1913), he wrote: ‘We declare the genius of our days to be trousers, jackets, shoes… and to go hand in hand with house painters.’
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An enterprising approach to gifted and talented

admin — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:04 +0100

For some time I’d wanted to organise a series of activities over two days that would excite and engage students after their national and school exams; to offer something different that would stretch and challenge our most able pupils.

The plan was to run a series of two-day enrichment, work-related activities for Years 7, 8, 9 and 10 at the same time. We even managed to engage some of our Year 11s who had just left the school.
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Thinking History: Questions, questions and more questions about questions!

admin — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:04 +0100

What are NAGTY think tanks?

The National Academy of Gifted and Talented Youth think tanks are two-day events focusing on a particular subject area or element of education, where colleagues with significant expertise in a field are invited to work with NAGTY to look at areas in which schools could develop their work.
Each think tank session is chaired by a convenor with recognised expertise in the subject area.
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Able, gifted and talented days for linguists

admin — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:19:54 +0100

A year ago we asked ourselves some key questions in the Buckinghamshire modern languages team:
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Global Citizenship across the curriculum at Chantry High School

jlee — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:19:48 +0100

At Chantry High School we were excited to be involved in the Developing Citizenship project. Our intention was to develop a curriculum that provides students with the opportunity to explore their role as social beings and increase their awareness of the ethics and values which underpin a well-run global community.
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Long-term learning development

admin — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:19:28 +0100
Our G&T programmes have now evolved into an approach termed long-term learning development (LTLD) which aims to reflect effective models of personalised learning and complement the National Curriculum. We used the long-term athlete development (LTAD) models at the core of the 2004 National Framework for Sport alongside (and enhancing) the National Curriculum for physical education, programmes of work and processes of effective learning.
Personalised learning

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A starry approach to enrichment

admin — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:19:28 +0100

Rosalind Scott of Tilbury and Chadwell Excellence Cluster and Ann Nelson of Havering Excellence Cluster describe the experience.

The Tilbury and Chadwell experience

Rosalind Scott
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Reach for the stars

admin — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:19:16 +0100

About St Clere’s
St Clere’s is an 11 to 16 mixed comprehensive school in Stanford-le-Hope, Essex. Every year pupils from the school’s G&T programme go for an Advanced Space Academy course at the Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. G&T coordinator Ken Lewis has been arranging this exciting annual visit since 2001. Just 14 pupils went on the first trip, but 40 pupils and four members of staff have recently returned from this year’s trip.

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Gifted and talented - secondary enrichment

A-Z of G&T education (8): Gifted and talented

Helping secondary G&T students aim high

G&T activity to stimulate creative thinking

Dragon's Den for G&T students

Leaders of the future: G&T leadership skills

Integrating enrichment activities

Developing visual learning skills

A gifted and talented sports programme

Enrichment activity (secondary): High and low - managing success and failure

Enrichment activity (secondary science): Forensics and crime

Enrichment activity (secondary maths): The lifetime travel of a penguin

Enrichment activity (secondary English): Hamlet in Morse code

Enrichment Activities: Entertainment in the summer holidays

Enrichment Activities: Space travel and satellite communications

Enrichment Activities: Sportswear design and the use of slang

Religious education: raising the bar for gifted and talented

Success in Staffordshire: achieving the NACE Challenge Award

Science lesson plan for Key Stage 2 - reflecting light and sound

Hands-on science

Extending G&T provision

Meeting the needs of gifted and talented 14-19 students

Enrichment, extension and expertise for able post-16 students

Challenging pupils with a murder mystery

The impact of extended schools on G&T students

Enrichment activity – art and design

An enterprising approach to gifted and talented

Thinking History: Questions, questions and more questions about questions!

Able, gifted and talented days for linguists

Global Citizenship across the curriculum at Chantry High School

Long-term learning development

A starry approach to enrichment

Reach for the stars