Policy Statement

We believe at Saint Clare’s that all children deserve an education that challenges and motivates them to achieve their full potential and become independent learners. We endeavour to help pupils develop their skills and abilities intellectually, spiritually, physically and creatively. All pupils are entitled to enriched and extended opportunities across the curriculum in order to develop abilities in one or more areas. They must be supported to take risks in their learning and encouraged to value their own and others’ achievements.

 

Definitions

  • ‘Gifted’ or ‘Academically More Able’ refers to a child who is working significantly above their peers, typically in more academic subjects, and can apply and synthesise this knowledge across different situations.
  • ‘Talented’ refers to a child who excels in one or more specific extra-curricular skills, such as sport, music, art.

 

Identification

Academically more able pupils are identified as part of a continuous process of ‘talent spotting’ in which all school staff and parents are involved.

We identify academically more able pupils from;

  • Ongoing formal and informal assessment of children’s performance to highlight those working significantly above their peers.
  • Moderation of assessments between staff.
  • Analysis of children’s work including regular marking, feedback and pupil reflection time.
  • Use of questioning to delve deeper into children’s knowledge and understanding.
  • Information from parents (including informal discussions, discussion at parents’ evenings ect…)

Identifying talented pupils that excel in other areas of the curriculum such as art, sport or music requires information from other sources such as parents, coaches or out of school organisations. Parents who feel their child is performing above age expectations in a specific skill should contact the class teacher or gifted and talented coordinator.

 

Roles and Responsibilities

Class Teacher

Class teachers are primarily responsible for ensuring that more able pupils continue to excel and make enhanced progress. They should ensure that more able pupils have access to an appropriately challenging curriculum and that they develop an awareness of their area(s) of ability. Differentiation should be well considered and planned with appropriate challenge to stretch more able pupils. Questioning should be likewise planned and targeted to develop more able pupils at all stages of the lesson. Such pupils should be identified in planning to ensure they are given a high profile.

Subject Leaders & Senior Leadership Team

Subject Leaders and the Senior Leadership Team will periodically monitor the progress of Academically More Able Pupils and provide guidance on how to better support their development as part of their planned monitoring activities.

 

Entitlement of Provision

Academically more able pupils are entitled to a curriculum and a style of teaching which supports and enhances their area of strength. This is underpinned by the following key principles:

Depth of understanding – more able learners should be given access to the curriculum at a greater depth. We encourage children to go deeper into the subject before accelerating higher. Children must demonstrate that they’ve thoroughly mastered an area of learning, rather than racing ahead to the curriculum for the following school year.

Open-ended problem solving – closed questions and tasks reduce the level of challenge. More able learners should be given open ended tasks and opportunities to problem solve that encourage perseverance and help develop independent enquiry.

Responsibility for learning – more able learners should have the opportunity to shape and reflect on their own learning and be given the responsibility to learn for themselves, helping them to develop self-motivation and independent thinking skills.

Articulate learners– more able pupils should be given the opportunity to discuss their ideas with likeminded peers and engage in higher level conversations. This is supported by Saint Clare’s ‘Talk for Learning’ pedagogy, a collaborative approach that encourages pupils to articulate and discuss their ideas and help each other explore learning independently.

 

Monitoring

Provision for gifted and talented pupils will be monitored using the following methods:

  • All staff are involved in identifying more able and talented children.
  • Progress of pupils will be assessed through normal classroom practice and whole school termly assessments.
  • Additional monitoring is done by senior leadership, individual subject coordinators and Gifted and Talented coordinator to ensure that the whole school curriculum meets the needs of the more able, gifted and talented.
  • Lesson observations by senior leadership across the curriculum will ensure the correct provision for the most able pupils in our school.
  • Regular pupil progress meetings will be held by senior leadership with each teacher in which the progress and support of more able pupils is monitored.
  • Monitoring of books will identify strengths and weaknesses in provision for the more able students with an emphasis on appropriate differentiation and challenge.