Gifted and Talented

It is important for gifted and talented (G&T) coordinators and leading teachers to garner the support of governors. G&T Update offers suggestions as to how and why governors can be an ally to those working with G&T

School governors come in all shapes and sizes, with a wide range of knowledge and expertise. Their backing for G&T provision can be a great asset, helping you to move G&T up the agenda, secure resources and improve the opportunities on offer for your most able pupils. Keeping governors informed about your work as G&T coordinator/ leading teacher can be influential in getting and keeping them ‘onside’, and the pointers below may help you in addressing this part of your role.

Information
How do governors receive information about G&T provision? They should certainly be aware of the school policy in this respect, reviewing it regularly and considering how resources are deployed to support G&T pupils. They also share the responsibility of ensuring that all groups are represented within the school’s gifted and talented population. You might consider:

• contributing to the headteacher’s annual report, describing developments in school during the previous year and interpreting relevant data
• providing separate, concise written information (eg, about the national YG&T programme and its implications for your school, plus a description of your provision)
• delivering a short presentation/training session for governors.

Understanding
Providing information is important, but ensuring that governors understand the basic principles of G&T education may need something more. Consider delivering a brief training session, setting out the rationale for the school’s approach to identifying and meeting the learning and social needs of its most able pupils. This could be backed up with a handout giving concise information about:

• the national YG&T programme (register, learner academy, leading teachers)
• IQS and CQS
• how your school identifies G&T pupils
• how teachers cater for them in lessons (personalisation)
• what enrichment opportunities are provided outside the classroom
• information links (eg www.nagcbritain.org.uk; www.ygt.dcsf.gov.uk/LibraryResources.aspx?libraryId=9) and optional handouts for further reading (such as copies of articles in G&T Update!).

Governors have to take in a lot of information about a wide range of matters, so keep your presentation brief, straightforward and lighthearted, and allow time for questions.

Involvement
The level of involvement you can expect from governors will obviously vary according to their other commitments. (Under Section 50 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, employers must give employees who are school governors reasonable time off to carry out their duties.)

If there is one particular person designated ‘G&T governor’, invite them into school to chat about your work and perhaps see a group of G&T pupils in action – but do remember to check out Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) status before involving governors with student groups. You could suggest that pupils invite this governor to lunch and talk to him or her about their experiences in the classroom and outside school; if any are involved in a special enrichment day, for example, this can be a good focus for discussion, perhaps with the governor taking part. Evening events are often easier for governors to attend – and do send personal invitations to any celebration events.

Support
Governors can make excellent mentors for G&T students, so be proactive in approaching them about this possibility. You might also consider involving your school governors in:

• enrichment days
• masterclasses
• off-site visits (to universities, theatres, galleries)
• residential courses
• after-school interest groups
• classroom support for G&T pupils
• coaching in sport, drama, singing
• speaking in assemblies (thus providing positive role models)
• meetings/presentations for parents of gifted and talented pupils.

Teachers TV has a useful 15-minute video aimed at governors, but also suitable for parents, covering identification of and provision for G&T children, with primary and secondary school examples.

This is a CPD training session I hope you do not have to use soon. When Ofsted calls, however, you won’t have time to plan a training session, so this plan can be picked off the shelf ready to use. It may seem that nearby schools are being regularly picked off by Ofsted, and every Friday morning you are awaiting the phone call. Maybe you have no idea when you will be inspected. Whatever your circumstances, with only two days’ notice of an inspection it is a good idea to consider what training or type of meeting you wish to hold with your staff.

Rationale

The first key decision is how long the training should last and when it will be delivered. Under the current arrangements, Ofsted will telephone the headteacher in the morning; you will then have one more school day before the inspectors arrive. It is likely that on the day Ofsted telephones, your head will wish to spend the day in ‘lockdown’ putting the finishing touches to the school self-evaluation form, which Ofsted will expect to be completed by 4pm. On the day before inspection, your headteacher is likely to take two long calls with the lead inspector. The aim will be for the pre-inspection briefing paper to be completed by the end of the second day. As a result your head may be expecting other members of the senior leadership team to step up to look after the staff.

Most schools will wish to prepare their staff and this is one of those rare occasions when, even though such a meeting is not directed time, most staff will attend. In a two-day window there is a limit to the amount of preparation you can give staff and it is probably best to concentrate on the quality of teaching and learning and the leadership of teaching and learning.

There are two elements to this session, so it could be delivered over two afternoons – the day of the initial telephone call and the day before Ofsted arrives. You could also deliver the training in one session, preferably on the day of the telephone call.

The first part of the session focuses on all staff and covers three elements:

• planning and lesson plan proforma
• demonstrating pupil progress during a part lesson
• the use of questioning as a method of teacher assessment.

The second part concentrates on middle leaders’ preparation for an inspector’s interview, focusing on three questions:

• What progress are the pupils making?
• How do you know this?
• What intervention strategies have you used?

It is important that the first piece of training is delivered on the day you receive the Ofsted telephone call so teaching staff have enough time to use the information in their planning of lessons. The training for middle leaders could, though, be delivered the day before Ofsted arrives.

Session 1: working with all teaching staff

Introduction – 5 minutes
Distribute one completed and several blank copies of your school lesson planning proforma to every teacher. Provide enough for one for every lesson over two days and/or explain where the proforma can be found electronically. Give staff a chance to browse the completed version. Share your aims with staff (see table).

Development – 30 minutes

• Task 1: On the interactive whiteboard have a copy of the completed lesson plan. Invite staff to consider how the lesson plan reveals opportunities for outstanding learning to take place. Ask them to pinpoint places in the lesson, for example, where pupil progress can be shown, where pupils are actively demonstrating their learning, and where assessment for learning techniques will be clearly used. Ask them to consider whether the lesson structure will allow them to ensure that their lesson has pace and challenge appropriate to the ability of the students. Ask them to highlight the differentiation opportunities. Finally, ask them to consider where there is specific planning for vulnerable/gifted and talented/supported SEN students.
• During the discussion time ask members of staff to come out to the board and annotate the plan with such features. Create a key if you like: red for differentiation, blue for assessment for learning opportunities, green for pupil progress demonstration.
• Task 2: Discuss the plan’s strengths and weaknesses. What would the inspectors be hoping to see that the plan doesn’t suggest might be a feature of the lesson? Advise against overplanning – scripted lessons are never the most engaging – but, equally, encourage confident staff to be bold if they are looking for an outstanding judgment.
• Task 3: Now ask staff to discuss with three colleagues effective assessment for learning techniques they may use. This is probably best done in department teams. Take suggestions as a whole staff and encourage quick opportunities for pupils to signal understanding to the teacher, and for thinking and reflection time. Also, encourage staff to let pupils lead plenaries or be leaders in group tasks, reporting back their group’s learning points to the class.

Plenary – 5 minutes
Finally, return to the topic of pupil progress. Ask the question of all staff: if an inspector came into your lesson, how could he or she see pupils making progress? Leave them with this as a mantra. A final cartoon up on the whiteboard should end the session with a smile as teachers leave with concrete planning ideas. Try www.cartoonstock.com/directory/o/ofsted_inspection.asp or www.mchumor.com.

What next?

Teachers need to plan their lessons. On the mornings of Ofsted, if the inspectors are not present in briefing, remind teachers that if they wish to gain an outstanding lesson grading they cannot play safe.

Session 2: Working with middle leaders

Introduction – 5 minutes
Arrange seating in small groups, ensuring each contains a mixture of pastoral and curriculum leaders and a senior leader. Explain that a selection of middle leaders will be interviewed by inspectors. One of the things they want to identify is the progress children are making. Ask the teachers to spend five minutes brainstorming ways to measure the progress children make.

Development – 30 minutes
The major part of the session is to enable middle leaders to practise answering questions. Each group considers the following questions and discusses possible answers. To give the task more pace, why not consider running the task in each group as though it is speed-dating? Have all the questions on cards. One person asks their date a question and the person has one minute to answer. At the end of the minute, another member of the group comments on the answer. The person who answered the question then chooses a new question and a new date.

1. Is attainment and progress in your subject in line with expectation and with other subjects in your school/nationally?
2. In comparison with other subject areas in the school/nationally, are there individual pupils or groups of pupils who are achieving less well in your subject? What has been put into place to support these
3. What is your broad view of the strengths and weaknesses of your subject area?
4. What developments have you put in place to address weaknesses and build on your strengths?
5. How do you work with your team to promote learners’ personal development and wellbeing?
6. Is there a system for tracking learners’ progress against their targets and for responding to learners who fall behind?
7. What intervention strategies are being used to support pupils who are achieving below expectations? What has been the impact of these interventions?
8. Do whole classes, groups of learners and individual learners have curricular targets and know what they have to improve?
9. Do learners receive feedback targeted at improving their work? Does marking include teachers’ comments showing clearly what a learner has to do to improve? Is a response from learners expected?
10. How effective is your self-evaluation in identifying strengths and weaknesses of the department, and is there a clear link to development planning, performance management and CPD?

Plenary – 5 minutes
In groups the middle leaders brainstorm the various intervention strategies they have used over the past two years to increase pupil progress.

What next?

• Middle leaders could further practise the questions.
• Look for data that highlights the progress pupils have made.

Paul Ainsworth is the author of Developing a Self-evaluating School: A Practical Guide (Continuum) and vice-principal of a Leicestershire secondary school.

G&T coordinator Jo Smith explains how to get the most out of working with parents.

Parental communication – the theory

The people management role of G&T coordination is probably one of the most challenging parts of the job. However, if you thought dealing with teachers was hard enough, parental communication can be even more of a minefield.

It can be very tempting for a G&T coordinator to avoid involving parents in school-based decisions about pupils placed on a G&T register. Arguments may be put forward that the school is concentrating on the classroom approach or that publishing a G&T register is not helpful to the school or the pupils’ wellbeing. Recently I attended presentations by Professor Charles Desforges from Exeter University at the Leicestershire Extended Service conference and by Doctor Stephen Tommis the director of NAGC at the National G&T Conference. Both argued very cogently that parental communication could be one of the most effective levers for school improvement.

Desforges argued that there are many factors that shaped outcomes in education. Research has identified 60% of these factors: amongst them socio-economic factors, quality of schools, resources and so on. However, the remaining 40% can be best described as the hopes and aspirations of the pupil, which are generally formed through parent and child interactions.

Certainly parents can be seen as co-educators both in and around school and in the home, but also as students themselves studying that most challenging of courses, parenting: informally through family learning and the steep learning curve of experience, and formally through initiatives like the Campaign for Learning (CfL) and specific parent partnership initiatives.

The government recognises the key role that parental involvement has in raising achievement and has sought to support schools and other groups in promoting home-school liaison. The role of the parent governor has been emphasised, a great account is given to parent’s views in the inspection process, home-school agreements are an ever-increasing part of school life and parents are now given a increasing amount of regular and well presented information about school.

Desforges quoted Sacker et al (2002) to show that  parents and schools affect pupil achievement by different proportions according to the age of the child (see results below). This would appear to indicate that the effect of the parental role decreases over time as pupils gain independence and are increasingly confident at articulating their own needs and opinions. However, Desforges argued that schools do not create achievement for individuals but instead lift the achievement of everybody in the school or, in the worst case hinder the achievement, of the cohort of pupils. What can and does create achievement for individuals is parental involvement.

Considerable research has been conducted on the effect of parents upon pupil achievement and Desforges described conducting a detailed review of educational papers published in English. He identified a collection of about 40 papers that he considered to be examples of best practice. These highlighted four main foci of parent involvement: parenting, communication, volunteering and decision-making. His conclusion was that the most significant impact that parents made was at home through communication and conversation. He stated, ‘it’s what parents do rather than who they are that counts’.

The role of the G&T coordinator

If conversation between the pupil and parent is one of the greatest levers upon school achievement then how can the G&T coordinator support this process? A starting point can be facilitating strong communications between the parent and child, by first communicating well with the parent. Parents can then have a richer, more purposeful dialogue with their children about their learning and educational progress.

Dr Tommis, the director of the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC), shared research from America on factors that affect children’s success in schools. The research indicated that a more critical factor in pupils’ progress than teacher salaries, teacher curriculum participation, the quality of the teacher and pre-school educational experiences, was family background. The research revealed that schools in more affluent districts almost without exception performed at a higher level than those in poorer areas. However, in some less affluent areas where schools had worked with parents, those schools outperformed others. This is in agreement with Desforges’ earlier thoughts.

Changes in parent and school effects on pupils’ achievement according to age of child

Achievement at Age / Parental Effect / School Effect

7 / 0.29 / 0.5

11 / 0.27 / 0.21

16 / 0.14 / 0.51

Source: Sacker et al (2002) ‘Social Inequality in Educational Achievement and Psychological Adjustment throughout Childhood: Magnitude and Mechanisms.’ Social Science and Medicine, 55: 863-880.

Engaging parents

Desforges talked of the ‘impact of parental involvement’. Tommis moves a step further, emphasising that ‘engaged’ parents are key. What does this mean in practice?

• Engaged parents initiate involvement in their child’s education rather than the school prompting such dialogue.
• Parents see their role as co-educators of their children and do not see it as being left entirely to the teacher.
• Parents provide a wide range of educational experiences for their children outside of school rather than purely relying on the school.
• Parents believe their direct interaction with their child’s education impacts not only on their child but also on the school.
• Parents work with the school and the pupil to set appropriate targets against which the pupils’ academic success can be measured.
• Teachers are seen by the parents not as an education provider but as a facilitator to their child’s education.

This of course suggests that for parents to become engaged with their children’s education they need to be able to draw upon a wide range of information. For many parents their sole way of accessing this information is through the school. There will be some proactive parents who will gather information for themselves and through their own efforts will become engaged with the school. However, if we wish to raise achievement across our G&T children, including our G&T underachievers, these pieces of research indicate we must engage all the parents and communicate carefully with them.

It is very easy in school to immediately say we are communicating with parents. To gain a national picture the NAGC conducted research on parents of G&T pupils that was published in Neglected Voices? Engaging Parents in the Education of their Gifted Child (July 2006). Some of the findings are quite surprising:

• 41% of parents knew their child was on the school G&T register
• 8% of parents said they had meetings with the school G&T coordinator
• 55% of G&T coordinators provided IEP but only 6% of parents had seen a copy
• 12% of parents had been offered enrichment resources outside school.

The case of schools specifically informing parents that their child is on the school G&T register is a contentious one and to fully explore, would take an article in itself. However, schools can potentially manage the many questions that might be raised by parents by informing them that their child has been recognised as ‘able’ within the school.

For parents to fully engage with their child’s schooling, whether they be G&T or not, they need information about what the child is studying and then offered practical and workable strategies for how they can help and become co-educators. They need to know how their child is progressing against national criteria and then be involved in the pupil’s target setting. If a pupil has specific talents it would be helpful if the school signposted opportunities in the local community where these can developed. This can be done for all children through extended schools and not just for G&T children.

In terms of methods of communication, schools should seek to use a variety of tools on a regular basis. Whichever medium is used ideally it should be a two-way interaction so that parents can take the co-educator’s role.

This can include establishing opportunities for parents and school to share information about individual children’s progress, multiple intelligences and learning preferences.

Pushy parent syndrome

Ironically, one of the biggest barriers to parental engagement is the so called ‘pushy parent’ syndrome. Some parents can be reluctant to seek information from the school as they are anxious not to be given this label. G&T coordinators can be concerned that the more information they share, some parents will demand even more from them that is not practical to deliver. The reality, however, is that the proportion of pushy parents is relatively small and it is a role of senior leadership teams to protect all teachers from excessive demands from any group of parents.

The author would like to acknowledge contributions to this article from Paul Ainsworth, deputy headteacher at Belvoir High School.

Further information

NAGC has produced toolkits that schools and parents can use to aid more effective communication. These will fall under the umbrella framework of the Institutional Quality Standards (IQS).
www.nagcbritain.org.uk

Storytellers in ancient, preliterate cultures could remember word-for-word epic tales that might take several evenings to recount. They would store the entire tribal history in their minds and retell it at celebrations and ceremonies.

Writing stories down in books and reading them again liberates the mind from these feats of memory. But traditional storytelling still has a role to play and is a skill worth cultivating.

Why tell stories with children?

Introducing traditional oral storytelling to your class will benefit children by:

• providing opportunities to both tell and hear stories, encouraging the development of active speaking and listening skills
• fuelling their imagination and allowing children to develop their own mental images
• developing the memory
• influencing children’s written work as well as their selection of reading material
• familiarising them with traditional tales, myths, legends and fables that speak in metaphor about deep-seated truths and conflicts. They provide a vehicle for the discussion of social mores and personal ethics
• creating fun and excitement – children love it!

Developing the skills of storytelling will particularly appeal to your gifted and talented children because of the opportunities it brings for developing expression, linguistic skills, the subtleties of timing and the flexibility of delivery. Storytelling also allows a dramatic element to enter the tale with facial expressions and a degree of acting out the story.

Getting started: teacher as storyteller

Although these notes are written for a teacher, or TA, they can just as well be used with an older G&T student who shows potential and interest in developing storytelling skills to use with younger children:

Before you can broaden your children’s cultural horizons and imaginations with stories from around the world you will need to make a start as a storyteller yourself. This can be a daunting prospect.

Start with something simple. For Reception or KS1 you might choose a well-known tale such as the Three Little Pigs or Little Red Riding Hood. For Lower KS1 you might go with something a little longer and more complex like Rapunzel or a selection of Aesop’s Fables. Upper KS2 children will want something they don’t perceive as ‘babyish’ (especially the more able). Trickster tales are good for this age group and there are many in African and North American culture. Look for stories about Br’er Rabbit or Anansi the Spider. These tales are short, which is good for you, and have a twist, which the children will enjoy.

Read the story through several times to make sure you have it clearly in mind. For the kind of short, simple stories that I suggest you start off with you won’t need to make notes. Try telling the story to yourself as you stand in front of a mirror or saying it out loud as you drive home from school. This will ensure that you are comfortable with the sound of your storytelling voice and will also help your brain to store the story.

Gather the children around you and tell them that you have been learning a new skill. Children always like to know that their teacher is still learning. Then simply tell the story. Don’t feel you have to put on voices or use lots of facial expressions or arm movements this first time.

Tell the same story a couple of times in a week to build your confidence. Ask the children for feedback. Then choose another story. Aim to tell your class a new story each week and gradually expand your repertoire as your confidence grows. You can find stories to use in anthologies of tales from different parts of the world and the internet is a source of many traditional tales from different cultures.

Over the first term or two of telling stories to your class you will begin to find stories that you are drawn back to time and again. These favourites will form your core repertoire – stories that you know well and are confident with. Don’t feel that a story has to be told in exactly the same way every time you tell it. That is one of the great pleasures of storytelling. You can describe a forest in a different way the second or third time you tell a tale. As long as you don’t change the key points of the story it’s fine to experiment.

Moving on: children as storytellers

Once you have told a few stories yourself and the children are beginning to become enthusiastic about these sessions you can coach them in developing their own storytelling skills. Here are the techniques that I use. They are in a particular order which will allow skills to develop progressively, and I suggest you stick to this order.

Paired storytelling
I like to start children off with a storytelling activity that they feel comfortable with. Simply sitting with a partner and retelling a story together works well. I sit children on chairs in a circle and tell them a short unfamiliar tale. I choose a story they don’t know because I want there to be a certain amount of challenge in this initial task.

Once I have told the story I ask the children to turn their chairs so they are facing a partner and to have a go at telling this story together. I stress that this is not one person telling the whole story and the other person passively listening. They are telling the story together. One will start off and then the other takes over, or one might chip in some extra detail that the teller has forgotten. They might discuss a part of the story to refresh their memory: two heads are better than one. Use this technique with a couple of stories over a week before moving onto the next stage.

Circle stories
Once a child has told a short and simple story with a partner they may feel more comfortable about sharing a story in a group. For this activity the whole class, including yourself and any adult helpers, sit in a circle. You tell the story you have chosen in its entirety.

Everyone present then takes it in turns around the circle to tell a piece of the story. It is a good idea to have an object that you can pass around the circle as the story passes from person to person. You start off the story again and after a few opening sentences you pass the object to the person next to you: left or right, it doesn’t matter. They then tell a little bit of the story and pass the object on. Piece by piece the story takes shape around the circle.

This is a cooperative story so if someone gets stuck it is OK for another person to chip in a bit of the story to help them. The first couple of times you do this it is a good idea to include an opt-out. If a child really doesn’t want to tell part of the story they can say ‘pass’. (Adults don’t get to use the opt-out!)

The one-minute story
Once children seem relaxed about telling stories to each other you can introduce the one-minute story. Use a story that the children are familiar with. It might be one they have already used in the previous two activities. Tell them to work in pairs. One is going to tell the whole story while the other listens and then they will swap over. They only have a minute to tell the story and you are going to time them. Get your stopwatch out and count them down to the start. Tell them when they have had 30 seconds, when they have 15 seconds left and then count down the last five seconds. This time pressure forces children to cut the story down to its bare essentials. There just isn’t any room in the one-minute story for any frills. This activity is great fun and able children especially love the challenge.

‘Bare bones’
With a one-minute story under their belts, the children are now ready to learn the key technique of storytelling. I call it the ‘bare bones’. Give pairs of children a piece of paper and a pencil and tell them they have to tell the whole of a story you have just told them in just 10 sentences. This is another way of getting them to concentrate on what matters most in the story. I have a template I use. You might like to make yourself one. It is a sheet of A4 paper with the outline of 10 bones on and the children write their sentence on the bones. These ‘bare bones’ are the notes the children will use when they move onto the next stage which is actually telling a story to an audience.

As a professional storyteller I will condense any new story I hear down to its bare bones and use the slip of paper as an aide-memoire when I am telling it for the first time. When I am working with children I will explain this technique to them and will ask them to count how many times I refer to my notes.

Children becoming storytellers
Your children are now ready to tell a story to the rest of the class. The most comfortable way for them to do this is as part of a small group. Give each group a printed copy of a story that you have never used before and ask them to write the ‘bare bones’ together. Once they have done this each group then stands in front of their audience and tells the story. Some children will simply read out their ‘bare bones’. Other, more confident children, will embellish their part of the story. Children who are good at this can be offered the opportunity to tell a story to the whole class on their own.

Storytelling for G&T children
Not all gifted and talented children are good communicators, but you will generally find that it is your more able children who take most readily to storytelling skills. Once they are confident in the basics of the art you need a couple of extra techniques up your sleeve to really stretch them. You can consider:

• Performance: to younger children, in school or at a local pre-school, or consider putting on a ‘literature festival’ with friends and relatives in the audience.
• Production: with computer software, groups of children can record themselves telling a story and then add computer generated sound effects or even add background music. A compilation CD of your best storytellers should sell well.
• Adaptation: challenge able children with the task of adapting traditional stories, for example setting them in a modern-day context.

Further information on storytelling

Steve Mynard is a teacher and professional storyteller

Josephine Smith and Paul Ainsworth, both senior teachers with responsibilities for G&T, look at the evolution of the role of the G&T coordinator at Casterton Community College and the effect that TLR reforms are having on it now

The job description looks great doesn’t it? ‘Teacher needed to work with bright, motivated, able pupils to celebrate learning and to oversee opportunities for extra curricular excellence’. Who, in the daily grind of detentions, homework chases and teenage mood swings, wouldn’t want to be a part of that? When schools began to consider implementing a G&T programme in the late 1990s the first action was to appoint a coordinator. Schools took many different stances over who to put in post; it could be a completely new appointment, from a main scale teacher given a management responsibility, to a new whole-school leadership role with membership of the senior management team. Or it could be added to an existing role, SENCO, head of department, assistant or deputy head. Just as every G&T student is very different in outlook, this was seemingly mirrored by their coordinator.

At Casterton Community College, the figure of the G&T coordinator went through several Dr Who style transformations, with the post being occupied by three people in only four years. Whether this was because the role gave vital experience for promotion or because it was the poisoned chalice to escape from has still not been decided. The implementation of the teaching and learning responsibility (TLR) pay structure now makes a difference. The job description needs to be more carefully aligned with leadership for it to become a salaried post, or it could become comparable with the status of form tutor in the eyes of the person from the DfES – that is, not a staff management role.

In this article we, as two of the ‘time lords’, present our views of the strengths and weaknesses of the position through descriptions of our times as G&T coordinator. We begin, however, by describing the experience of our predecessor in the role.

There was a feeling that the coordinator should implement the strategic direction determined by the SMT. As a result the coordinator concentrated on the day-to-day issues that he could affect

The first G&T coordinator: the teacher with three years’ experience Casterton Community College is a rural 11-16 community college, located within in a Rutland village, with 850 pupils on roll. Half of the pupils are from a county with a selective system, whereas the other half of the intake is truly comprehensive , so the school does have some very able pupils. Indeed, for the last two years at least one pupil has achieved an A* in all of their nine GCSE subjects. The college had always placed teaching and learning at the heart of its improvement. An important part of this process consisted of regular teacher workshops, twilight Inset sessions presented by colleagues. One of these had a G&T focus delivered by two members of staff who had been on G&T one-day courses. In the late 1990s the senior management team (SMT) decided to implement a more formal G&T programme, which aimed to complement the provision for G&T students delivered through lessons and broad extra-curricular opportunities. The college had for many years run compulsory extra-curricular sessions, where all pupils had to choose one additional activity and free transport was provided for all pupils – an impressive precursor of the extended schools programme which is now offered in an increasing number of schools.

A G&T coordinator post was advertised internally with one management point attached to it. It was never formally stated, but colleagues perceived this as a role for a teacher who did not have any existing additional responsibilities. A teacher in his third year of teaching with an excellent rapport with pupils was appointed and began his new role at the start of the academic year. This coordinator was given considerable support by the SMT and presented a number of whole-school twilight Inset sessions. At the beginning of each, the principal stated his conviction that G&T provision was important to the college. There was a feeling that the coordinator should implement the strategic direction determined by the SMT. As a result the coordinator concentrated on the day-to-day issues that he could affect. He organised a very successful series of masterclasses in his own subject of art with artists in residence. These greatly motivated able children who may not otherwise have achieved success in a practical subject. Individual pupils were met and individual action plans were written for them.

It is a shame that these plans were not more widely used across the school, reflecting the time and effort that had been spent upon their preparation. Perhaps this was due to lack of seniority of the coordinator in the college hierarchy.

The second G&T coordinator: head of faculty When the first G&T coordinator left, the role was assumed by Paul, who was then a head of faculty in his second year of a secondment as the senior teacher in the SMT. The coordinator’s role was not the focus of the secondment but was taken as a short-term solution. Paul saw his role as a strategic one. He immediately recognised that it would be impossible to be an effective day-to-day coordinator, as he was already leading a faculty and had senior management responsibility. Instead he saw it as an opportunity to champion the needs of G&T children at a senior management level. He analysed G&T provision as part of his NPQH school improvement project. A number of problems were identified in the selection procedure after careful data analysis. Many stakeholders’ views were carefully researched through a series of different questionnaires completed by teachers, heads of year, heads of department, G&T pupils and their parents.

From the data it was concluded that the provision needed refocusing. Inset sessions for staff and governors were held and it was decided that an outside-in approach should be taken where all HoDs would hold masterclasses and, as a result, they would receive small amounts of additional capitation.

It seemed at this point as if the G&T provision would really take off for the second time. Unfortunately, however, the focus of the senior management secondment changed due to staff absence. The strategic direction was in place but without the day-to-day management of one person taking responsibility, the planned breakthrough did not occur.

The strategic direction was in place but without the day-to-day management of one person taking responsibility, the planned break-through did not occur

The third G&T coordinator: doing the job but without the title On Paul’s departure, again the college did not appoint a new coordinator: the advent of the TLR reform and a new principal meant savings were sought in the staffing structure. Josephine, who was also a head of faculty and who had a personal belief in the importance of good opportunities for G&T children, offered to manage the provision temporarily. Josephine already led a most popular and successful journalism masterclass. Children applied for the opportunity to work with an editor of a local magazine and some articles were then published.

She also introduced applications to the National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth (NAGTY). Consequently more than 20 KS3 and KS4 pupils became members of NAGTY and currently have access to a whole host of specialist extra-curricular events. However, without additional non-contact time and a budget it was impossible to move the provision forward greatly.

Conclusions Each G&T coordinator brought something to the role both through their own interests and beliefs, and through their place in the hierarchy.

• The main-scale classroom teacher was popular with the pupils because they had direct contact with him, but in the long term it was difficult to integrate the provision within the college and more importantly in classrooms without regular support from senior management.
• Paul, the seconded senior teacher, brought a regular strategic dimension and the analysis conducted could have been a springboard to move the provision forwards, but as the role was not the major focus of the secondment and the coordinator role was also subservient to faculty leadership responsibilities, the pupils could not receive the individual attention they deserved.
• Josephine, the current head of faculty, leads other middle managers by example but without additional non-contact time or payment it can never be more than a short-term solution.
• The new TLR reform requires roles to be linked to leadership of staff and as a result the G&T coordinator role can be difficult to place in the staffing structure. One method of providing this leadership direction is by ensuring the G&T coordinator is involved in senior management monitoring and evaluation of teaching and learning. This would suggest that the most successful solution would be giving a head of faculty a senior management responsibility purely for G&T and relinquishing their tutor group. This would attract additional salary and non-contact time and the coordinator would not be overwhelmed by additional responsibilities. The lack of a tutor group would allow the coordinator the regular occasion to work with individual G&T pupils without disrupting their classroom experiences.

So the reality of the work of the G&T coordinator at Casterton has been far more complex and challenging than the job description we gave in the first paragraph. We hope, nonetheless, that the role of G&T coordinator is still tempting for senior teachers. Gifted and Talented pupils value the G&T coordinator’s input. Now that is being a time lord!

Josephine Smith is an experienced head of faculty who currently has a strategic whole-school role at Casterton Community College.

Paul Ainsworth was the senior teacher at Casterton Community College and is currently the director of studies at Fulneck School, an established 3-18 school, in West Yorkshire.

Selection system for the G&T register The initial system did not differentiate between gifted and talented students. Teachers in each subject nominated the top 10% of pupils in all year groups. When a pupil was nominated by five subjects they were placed on the gifted and talented register. The result was the register was heavily dominated by female students and students described by staff as hard workers.

A new system was implemented where there were two registers: a gifted one and a talented one. Subjects nominated their top two or three pupils and if they had two nominations they went on the register. In addition, the top five pupils on CAT non-verbal reasoning tests for each year were included on the gifted register.