Cornwall Learning

Able Gifted and Talented Education for Cornwall Governors May 21 2011Sally Griffin

Cornwall Learning Senior Consultant

• Participants will explore guidance on how to identify and provide for able, gifted and talented learners

Cornwall Learning

Introductions…

• Sally Griffin Senior Adviser Cornwall Learning

Cornwall LearningSupporting Education in Cornwall

Say hello to a stranger

• Tell them something that you are good at…

• In England and Cornwall we are not very comfortable generally telling people what we are good at, or owning our gifts, talents and abilities…

Discuss in 2’s or 3’s

• What does able gifted and talented mean to you and maybe your school, if you know…

New Ofsted Framework

• A new Ofsted framework will be piloted in the summer term but will not impact on us immediately.

• There is an expectation that the achievement of able learners as a group of students and a subset of other vulnerable groups of students will continue to be inspected.

Overall effectiveness: how good is the school?• Outcomes for individuals and groups of pupils• Outcomes: how well are pupils doing taking account

of? • Pupils’ achievement and the extent to which they enjoy their

learning, taking into account• Pupil attainment • The quality of pupils’ learning and their progress• The quality of learning for pupils with special educational

needs and/or disabilities and their progress• How effective is the provision?• The quality of teaching taking into account • The use of assessment to support learning• The extent to which the curriculum meets pupils’ needs,

including, where relevant, through partnerships• The effectiveness of Care Guidance and Support

Pupils’ attainment and Progress

• National test and examination results set against national benchmarks

• Not CVA but value added information• Progress in relation to similar schools and new

value added information for particular groups e.g. buys/girls; looked after children; different social and ethnic groups

• Primary % Level 5 attainment at KS2 including representation of FSM and other vulnerable groups.

• KS 2-4 Level 5+ conversion to A A* • Future new tests

SEF

• No longer a requirement to complete the online SEF but an expectation to self evaluate.

• What ever the school uses, it is the impact that is appropriate evidence of effective provision. (Increased participation, higher attainment etc)

• Outcomes for individuals and groups of pupils:

• Use the IQS provides the information to demonstrate good practice for the most able.

• How are we identifying tracking and monitoring the progress of all students including the most able

•

• Institutional Quality Standards

• Audit tool for schools to monitor provision

Planning for stretch and challenge

• is Not • MOTS : more of the same• Extra to do after you did what you could

already do

• IS• Differentiated activity which stretches

challenges encourages creative thinking and problem solving

The G&T Register

• The census

• Top 5% of the most gifted (academically)

• + % talented = Total 10+%

• Some schools have also adopted an inclusive register of all students and recorded their gifts.

Renzulli’s concept of giftedness...

• above average ability• creativity• task Commitment

• 2 types of giftedness• A) good at tests and school work• B) creative, non-conformist…not necessarily

good at school, original thinker, likes to do own research.

Who are the able, gifted and talented?

• Identification Guidance • See Pack of resources

• What are the barriers to underachievement?

G&T population in line with school population…

• Have you looked at your G&T cohort for ?

• Gender• Birthday• Ethnicity• EAL• Children in Care• Socio- Economic Background• SEN • Traveller Children• Child Carers• Less appealing children…a judgement

call…

Looked after Children

• Where are they? Have you checked your cohort?

• Jeanette Winterson• David Peltzer

• If a looked after child is achieving age related expectation in difficult circumstances they should be considered as able…

Jeanette Winterson was born in Manchester, England, and adopted by Pentecostal parents who brought her up in the nearby mill-town of Accrington. As a Northern working class girl she was not encouraged to be clever. Reading was not much approved unless it was the Bible.

While she took her A levels she lived in various places, supporting herself by evening and weekend work. In a year off to earn money, she worked as a domestic in a hospital

for the mentally ill.She gained a place at Oxford.

Born with spina bifida Tanni Grey is a wheelchair-user, and is considered to be one of the most successful disabled athletes in the UK. She holds 11 Olympic Gold medals.

FSM

• Children who are FSM should be represented in terms of attainment and achievement in the same % of the AG&T register as those non FSM

• Why is this?

• There is no evidence that FSM children are less able.

• See Rural Schools Information on the impact of being in a rural school in terms of deprivation

Be aware: Able children who make slower progress…tend

• not to share across a whole class• to attempt questions only when they are

sure of the answer• to prefer to discuss in small groups• to be happy to leave work unfinished• to be girls in maths• to be quieter……………

Use of praise and labels

• Needs to be handled carefully…

Dweck Research

• Several hundred secondary children…10 problems to solve…most children did well.

• Some were praised for their intelligence…”you did really well, you must be clever at this”

• Others were commended for their effort…”that is a good score you must have worked really hard…..”

– What do you think the difference will be when they are given a more challenging task…?

• Students praised for their intelligence shied away from more challenging tasks whereas

• those praised for their effort did not lose confidence when faced with harder questions from which they would learn…

Carol Dweck Professor of Psychology Stanford University

• “People do differ in intelligence, talent and ability. And yet research is converging on the conclusion that great accomplishment is typically the result of years of passion and dedication…and not something that flows naturally from a gift.”

• 30 Years of scientific investigation suggests that an overemphasis on intellect or talent leaves people vulnerable to failure, fearful of challenges and unwilling to remedy their shortcomings

• Praising Children’s innate abilities reinforces this mind set which can prevent them from living up to their potential

• Studies show that teaching children to have a “growth mind set” which encourages a focus on effort rather than on intelligence or talent helps make them into high achievers in school and in life

• Such children believe that intelligence is malleable and developed through hard work…they want to learn.

• Children with a fixed mind set were concerned with looking clever and had negative views of effort, believing that having to work hard at something was a a sign of low ability. They thought that a person with high ability did not need to work hard to do well….

• So how do we get this message to our colleagues?

CQS and IQS

• Audit tools to monitor provision and record development in practice as evidence for Self Evaluation of provision for the most able.

• Most schools have appointed a Lead Teacher to work with the Leadership team to develop good practice

• See Rural Schools Information on the impact of being in a rural school in terms of deprivation

What’s come out of monitoring for one school

• Checklist of what G&T provision looks like• TA and whole school staff training• Camera for G&T e learning logs• Cross curricular planning groups• Student voice ideas - practicals, go on trips, work outside,

discuss topical issues & lead younger students

• Strength of character / resilience• Shared ID criteria• Mentor Support• Parents leaflet• Directory of local opportunities

Discussion and Questions

What can we do as governors, working with the Lead Teacher and the Leadership of the school?

• Contribute to Policy Writing ….stretch challenge for all abilities?