Improving teaching and learning for the gifted and talented at Redbourn Infants School, Hertfordshire, has helped all the children make progress.
'When I joined as inclusion manager in 2006, it was in special measures,' says Louise McLellan, who is now deputy head teacher. 'One of the targets was to improve the education of the more able children. The county gifted and talented adviser suggested that working towards the National Association for Able Children in Education (NACE) Challenge Award would be a good way to audit what was already happening and think about ways to improve.
'We won the challenge award in 2007. It has raised the children and raised the school. We are now oversubscribed. We were a bit concerned that our parents would think it was elitist, but it benefits the whole school.'
IDENTIFYING A CHILD
Practitioners have a crucial role in supporting the gifted and talented. Assessment is generally seen as inappropriate until a child is six and can be referred to an educational psychologist, yet in a recent survey by NACE, 85 per cent of parents said their child started needing support for their talents between the ages of two and seven.
About 10 per cent of children are gifted and talented, says Angela Stanton, head teacher of Alfreton Nursery School, Derbyshire, which also holds the NACE Challenge Award. The school has devised its own system for identifying children who are ahead of their peer group, not just academically. In the first term, there is a baseline assessment when children start school, and a second about a month later once they have settled in.
The areas for assessment are: mathematics; knowledge and understanding of the world, ICT; physical development; artistic imaginative; writing, reading and verbal linguistics; social emotional, leadership; motivation/speed of learning; musical linguistics.
In the second term, children are assessed by the criteria for gifted and talented (see box). During the third term, the school conducts home-school consultations and looks at the progress of each child in the cohort in literacy and mathematics and explains to parents where their child is in terms of the early learning goals and what they think they will achieve in the next term.
Redbourn uses a profile from the Devon and Cornwall gifted and talented team, which it has tweaked, and identifies children through observations, play and questioning.
SETTING CHALLENGES
'We create a multi-sensory environment to meet all styles of learning,' says Ms Stanton, who has advised Primary Strategies on early years practice with gifted and talented.
'This is not about hot-housing; it is about providing the extra opportunities an individual needs. It is all done in a very low-key way. We provide learning support for children with special needs and provide support as well for the gifted and talented children. If they are not extended, they can become bored and frustrated.
'All the children benefit: with a child with more awareness of phonics you provide a differentiated vocabulary, but the others hear it, absorb it and benefit from it. There is a knock-on effect in that the other children follow in the slipstream. That is what we found in the action research we have done.
'A physically talented child will be set physical challenges in the garden, while one excelling in leadership would be extended through role play.'
In the nursery at Redbourn, says Mrs McLellan, 'we use questioning and learning through play to challenge the children. We use the things they are good at to support them in the areas they need to develop. So, if a child is very good at construction we will use a construction activity to help them think up ideas for a story and about the setting and the characters.'
WORKING WITH PARENTS
'The children don't know they are regarded as gifted and talented because we do not use that language,' says Mrs Stanton. 'The word we use is "strength".
'We work closely with the parents. We would not say to parents that their child is gifted at maths but would say, "Do you realise how clever he is at numbers or counting?", and show them where average is on our assessment system in relation to their age and where their child is. It is very personal.'
The school values home links and applies information from parents about a child's special interests at home to stimulate them further.
At Redbourn the children are challenged to 'think outside the box' by posing them a question linked to the current topic. The nursery children respond by drawing a picture, making a model or using the computer. If the topic is a windy day, for example, the question could be 'can you create an outfit to protect you from the wind?'
'They have a lot of fun and are learning,' says Mrs McLellan. 'They think about what they are learning, what has helped them to learn, what they found challenging and how they overcame those challenges.'
Mrs Stanton adds, 'We are not building an elite. Children want to be accepted; they want to play with everybody; they don't want to be pulled out for special lessons on their own.
'It is about nurturing a child's abilities, and experienced early years teachers supporting the parents, who might have no idea that their child is exceptionally good at something.'
The areas for assessment are:
- mathematics
- knowledge and understanding of the world, and ICT,
- physical development,
- Artistic imaginative,
- Writing, reading and verbal linguistics,
- Social emotional, leadership,
- Motivation/speed of learning, and
- Musical linguistics
MORE INFORMATION
- National Association for Gifted Children, www.nagcbritain.org.uk
- National Association for Able Children in Education, www.nace.co.uk, tel 01865 861879. Information on its self-evaluation framework, the NACE Challenge Award and its early years conference, 'Providing for Young Able Learners: Playing, experimenting and taking risks' on November 12 in Leeds, is on the site
- 'Too much too young' (Nursery World, 26 June 2008)
ASSESSING GIFTEDNESS IN MATHS
Alfreton Nursery School uses the following criteria to help identify
Mathematical Multiple Intelligence.
A child:
- is persistent, resourceful and self-directed
- learns and understands mathematical concepts quickly
- works systematically and accurately
- sees connections quickly which are not obvious to peers
- displays a high mathematical ability
- has excellent memory skills
- displays superior powers of reasoning, inductive and deductive
- prefers adult to peer company
- communicates reasoning and is able to justify approaches and solutions
- has the ability to concentrate and remain on task for periods of time
longer than peers
- asks many questions which demonstrate an interest in a range of
subjects
- takes a creative approach to solving mathematical problems
- can become frustrated and self-critical, but elated when the solution
to a problem is achieved
- is more adept at posing their own questions and pursuing lines of
enquiry
- is a good guesser and thrives on complexity.
Children provisionally thought to be gifted in this area are assessed
against these criteria and compared to a child considered to have a more
average ability.
