Sarah Jackson spent her two week professional enrichment placement based at Manor CE Academy and visited other local schools. She writes...
OFSTED have
recently stated that bright children are being "systematically
failed" by England's non-selective secondaries. These findings, however, were
certainly untrue of the schools that I was lucky enough to visit during my
two-week professional enrichment as part of my PGCE at the University of York. I
had the opportunity to focus entirely on gifted and talented provision on a series
of visits to a mixture of independent, academy and maintained schools, and
therefore had the opportunity to compare practices and see what, if any,
differences existed.
Certainly,
there were certainly no opportunities for ‘coasting’, or as OFSTED puts it,
“[treading] water” in any of the schools I visited. Rather, students were provided
with inspirational teachers to develop their passion for learning, but also
faced with challenging ideas, activities and questions to stretch them. While there were differences in the basics of
provision between the independent and state schools – in terms of class size and
the general ability in each class – the nature of support for the gifted and
talented was surprisingly similar throughout. Below are some of the common
approaches that I came across, which could all be used within a mixed-ability
classroom:
1. Creativity - Nearly all teachers that I observed
provided opportunities for creativity within their lesson to challenge their
‘gifted and talented’ students. My own mentor simply provides the students with
a set of objectives (for example, to show the differences between the
suffragettes and suffragists and the reactions to these groups), and then sent
students off fulfilling these objectives, giving them the option to address
them in any format they chose. This allows the students to show off their
abilities to their best: work produced including guides to becoming a
suffragette and a suffragist, a newspaper article, and a video with a voice
over. A similar approach was taken in other lessons that I observed: in a R.S.
lesson choice was given to students about whether to write an essay or poem and
then reflect on this in a piece of writing, and in another R.S. lesson in a
different schools, students were challenged to create their own starter
activity for their partner then to complete. This opportunity for flexibility,
not only gives students the chance to ‘shine’, but also encourages them to feel
more passionate about their learning as they can approach in a way that engages
them most.
2. Independent thinking - This is also linked to another
common theme that I found of learning being turned on its ‘head’ to challenge. Instead
of the teacher giving the students the answers, students were given a problem
to solve for themselves. For example, in a science lesson students were given
the opportunity to design their own experiment to test for rusting. In another
school, in an English lesson, students had to come up with their own criteria
for what makes a good newspaper article, and then use this to peer-assess each
other’s work.
3. Questioning - this was used unanimously in classes
that I observed to stretch the most able. Teachers knew their students well,
and aimed higher level questions at students that needed to be stretched, as
well as getting students to develop their responses by further questions. Students who asked questions, were answered
with questions, and therefore as a result were able to come up with their own
answers. This again turned the focus of the learning back onto the student.
4. Group work - students were given opportunities
for testing their own learning through group work. A panel of ‘gifted and talented’ Year 8
students told me they really enjoyed working within mixed ability groupings, as
it gave them leadership opportunities, and therefore the chance to be in
charge! Furthermore, many said they liked the opportunities that they got to
coach and teach other students, as this enabled them to really test their own
understanding. One of the teachers I spoke to also reflected on how to vary
group work for different effects; sometimes she also ensures that ‘gifted and
talented’ aren’t always in leadership roles, to allow them opportunities to develop
their teamwork skills.
5. Extension tasks - Finally, in nearly all lessons, a
series of extension tasks where often available, which stretched and challenged
the most able. This varied from ‘extension questions’ at the bottom of
worksheets to providing students with an opportunity to choose which themes of
gothic literature they were going to search for in a text by putting them on a
‘difficulty’ scale (again providing students with choice). Furthermore, another
teacher told me how she differentiates homework by providing different tasks to
different students – sometimes even as simply as taking out the first 3 steps
of a question, so the more able students are immediately challenged.
Gifted and talented work outside the
classroom
Furthermore,
in York, provision for the gifted and talented goes beyond the classroom. The ISSP
project in York offers ‘gifted and talented’ students a real opportunity to not
only be inspired but also to challenge themselves. Some KS3 students get the
opportunity to challenge themselves with A-level standard Maths. Others get the
opportunity to take part in an oral history workshop with real life war
veterans. Among the students I talked to, there was a real excitement about
these projects. At one school, I met with a group of about 20 students who all
seemed incredibly keen to take part in the ISSP’s GCSE Latin programme.
Furthermore I met with a student who was already part of the project: she
relished the opportunities the project gave her to have a challenge outside
school, despite having to give up several hours on a Monday evening to it.
It certainly
seems to me therefore, that instead of ‘gifted and talented’ students being
failed, by contrast, their educational needs are carefully addressed both
within the classroom and outside it. This went beyond trying to get students to
a certain level or grade: teachers wanted students’ to gain a passion for
learning and for their subject through giving them opportunities to express
their individual talents and flare. I finished my two weeks inspired; and I’m
sure I was surrounded by students who felt the same.
Sarah Jackson, York PGCE History 2012-14
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