THE KINGSLEY SCHOOL G & T Policy The effectiveness of this policy will be monitored by Ian Stickels and reviewed every two years by G & T Coordinator in conjunction with Head of Prep REVIEW September 2019
The Kingsley School Policy for Gifted and Talented Pupils 2017 UPDATE This policy applies to all pupils at The Kingsley School, including those in the Early Years Foundation Stage. General The programme for gifted and talented pupils at The Kingsley School is The Minerva Programme. Rationale The Kingsley School's aims state that we: are committed to providing the opportunity for each child to realise his or her potential and pursue excellence in all areas provide teaching which makes the educational process enjoyable, valuable and engaging. These aims lie at the heart of The Minerva Programme. Pupils identified as 'gifted', 'talented', able and/or interested with potential should be encouraged to fulfil their potential in a challenging and supportive environment. Within the spiritual, moral, social and cultural framework of the School we aim to encourage all students to develop their personalities, talents and abilities to the full. We also believe that any special abilities or talents should be identified as early as possible and developed throughout a pupil's time at The Kingsley School by experiences both inside and outside the School. In order to achieve this we must create and sustain a climate within the School that
ensures that all pupils feel positive about achieving high standards and are not afraid of failure. Aims We also aim: to identify gifted, talented, able and interested with potential pupils as early as possible to help pupils with special ability to recognise and benefit from their talents to maintain an ethos where it is acceptable to be able and want to challenge yourself to provide access to a suitably differentiated and challenging curriculum to identify our gifted, talented, able and interested with potential pupils and support their pastoral development to help them become positive and effective members of society to raise staff awareness of the full range of strategies available to them in supporting or challenging pupils who are gifted, talented, able and interested with potential to use the experiences and provision for gifted and talented pupils to raise the standards and aspirations of all children. to ensure a continuity of provision throughout The Kingsley School System. The staff at The Kingsley School endeavour to make the transition from the Early Years Foundation Stage to Preparatory School and onto Senior School, as smooth as possible in all areas of School life. We aim to ensure continuity and a clear progression of skills within the curriculum for each subject. The staff body will always use their professional expertise to make judgements that take into account the age or ability of each individual child to ensure that methods and strategies are employed appropriately. In the absence of any nationally defined cohort size or guidelines, the purpose of this policy is to help to ensure that we recognise and support the needs of those children in our school who have been identified as 'gifted' and/or 'talented'. This remains necessary within the wider context of raising attainment and aspiration for all pupils in our School.
Identification The Kingsley School seeks to identify gifted and talented students using a range of strategies. It is expected that individual class or subject teachers will have a significant input into the identification of these pupils. The identification and provision for gifted and/or talented pupils is a matter for the school as a whole and needs to be ongoing. Identification is usually made by: teacher nomination - subject teachers, form tutors, heads of year using professional judgment, classwork and assessment results. reports from previous schools intelligence tests - school's entrance examination, INCAS, MidYis, Yellis, Alis, Wordchains, educational psychologists' reports internal subject examinations information provided by external agencies - e.g. sports organisations, music tutors, etc peer/self nomination parent nomination Whilst checklists of characteristics (generic and subject-specific) can be useful, it must be remembered that no child will show all the characteristics on a checklist Class teachers, heads of department, heads of year and form tutors are responsible for communicating nominations to the coordinator of The Minerva Programme. The register is produced in the autumn term and reviewed in the summer term. Modes of Working Headteacher The Headteacher has responsibility for the day to day management of all aspects of the school, including provision for gifted, talented, able and interested with potential pupils. The Gifted and Talented /Minerva Programme Coordinator and the Head of Prep It is theie responsibility to: oversee the day to day operation of the school's Minerva policy liaise with class teachers and form tutors about gifted, talented, able and interested with potential pupils, and advise where appropriate collate assessment materials and results in a database to help identify and monitor gifted, talented, able and interested with potential pupils
create and maintain a register of all gifted, talented, able and interested with potential pupils, which is updated annually notify staff of any changes to the register that are made throughout the year, so that effective teaching strategies can be implemented immediately work with fellow teachers and parents to support each pupil on the register work with fellow teachers to identify and address the needs of underachieving gifted, talented, able and interested with potential pupils review provision on a regular basis review the effectiveness of the policy Subject Leaders It is the responsibility of individual heads of department to: maintain the expertise of all members of the department so that each has the knowledge, skills and understanding to teach the most able students effectively ensure that schemes of work reflect the needs of gifted and talented learners. Areas to consider are: differentiation, classroom management, teaching materials and resources, activities, assessment, homework, self-study and out-of-hours learning and educational visits review the effectiveness of the departmental policies relating to The Minerva Programme The Subject Teacher All teachers are teachers of pupils who are identified as gifted, talented, able and interested with potential. The subject teacher will: check the Minerva Programme register at the start of each year to identify those who they teach who are already recognised as gifted, talented, able and interested with potential take steps to identify very able/gifted/talented/underachieving pupils within their class as soon as possible and pass information to their head of department and the G & T Coordinator gather data to support the nomination implement appropriate provision share insights into successful teaching strategies and differentiation for individual pupils with other members of staff ensure that planning involves an appropriate level of challenge to all pupils in lessons
The Form Tutor Form teachers have a responsibility to make themselves aware of any girls in their form who have been recognised as gifted, talented, able and interested with potential. The form teacher should also monitor the social and emotional needs of gifted, talented, able and interested with potential pupils in their form, and liaise with other staff and the Minerva Programme coordinator where appropriate. Provision This will vary greatly according to the subject area and more detail is available in department policies. Provision may include: differentiation, acceleration, extension tasks and extra-curricular activities. Differentiation Classroom activities will be designed to ensure an appropriate level of challenge to all abilities within the group and enable all pupils to pursue work at their own level. In order to meet the needs of gifted, talented, able and interested with potential pupils, the teacher may differentiate through: pace; task; dialogue; questioning; support; outcome; resource; content; expectations; and responsibility. Acceleration Students usually remain with their peer group but occasionally complete designed for older pupils. This may occasionally involve lessons which take place at lunchtime or after-school. There may be occasions when gifted, talented, able and interested with potential pupils sit examinations earlier than their peers if this is deemed to be beneficial and appropriate by all parties involved. Extension Tasks All schemes of work indicate appropriate extension resources to use with gifted and talented students. A list of website addresses and books with ideas and resources for teaching pupils who are gifted, talented, able and interested with potential can be found in the shared area of the network in the Minerva file. Enrichment Activities A list of enrichment activities is displayed and regularly updated on the Minerva noticeboards. Activities include: drama productions / LAMDA
World Challenge Duke of Edinburgh Award public speaking debating educational visits residential visits competitions such as: Maths Challenge, Artist of the Year, Writer of the Year Mandarin choirs musical ensembles / concerts orchestra sports teams inter-house sports competitions Amnesty International Monitoring and Evaluation The gifted, talented, able and interested with potential cohort is monitored in the following ways: progress is monitored by subject teachers and Heads of Departments in liaison with Heads of Year and the Gifted & Talented coordinator form tutors and Heads of Year monitor and feed back on the overall academic progress and social and emotional well-being of pupils pupils are encouraged to review and reflect upon their own performance by the Head of Prep Review This policy will be reviewed every two years by the Minerva Programme coordinator. Reviewed : September 2017 Next review : September 2019
Appendix 1 Preparatory School Provision for Gifted and Talented pupils Provision through Teaching and Learning The Preparatory School and EYFS departments use a variety of teaching and learning styles; our principle aim is to develop pupils knowledge, skills and understanding. We recognise the fact that we have children of differing abilities in all classes and we seek to provide suitable learning opportunities for all children by matching the challenge of the task to the ability and experience of the child. In addition to this, through the Creative Curriculum model, pupils at the Preparatory School are given the opportunity to define and generate their own learning questions. All pupils are encouraged to maximise their full potential in all areas of school life. Most of the differentiated provision will naturally be through the curriculum and therefore will involve every department and teacher. All medium term planning will make reference to Gifted and Talented provision in the schemes of work. From September 2017, cohort sheets will be completed at the start of every academic year, highlighting identified gifted or talented pupils, as well as those for whom standardised assessment data suggests an element of underachievement against potential. These documents will be reviewed on a termly basis and updated as required. Ways of meeting the needs of gifted and talented pupils inside class time include: i. Differentiation should maximise potential, match aptitude and interest and explore relevant teaching approaches such as thinking skills. ii. Interdisciplinary links in the curriculum, for example theme or topic days, building upon the Creative Curriculum delivery in the Preparatory School. iii. Extension the opportunity to study academic topics more deeply, through activities that are accessible, non-restrictive and enjoyable. They can include decision-making, speculation, framing hypotheses, discussion and communication. iv. Enrichment providing additional activities on the same topic but in a more challenging form. Provision through Enrichment The Preparatory School provides a wealth of opportunities for all pupils to participate in a variety of additional experiences. Pupils who have an identified gift or talent will be encouraged to participate in the relevant activity and the range may be adjusted to include specific items into the weekly schedule.
In addition enrichment and extension activities are provided out of class time through such areas as: i. Input from external bodies, for example canoeing, Rugby Tots, Vex Robotics and football. ii. Relevant challenging extra-curricular activities linked to specific curriculum areas or cross-curricular study. iii. Visits, visitors and trips, for example Year 6 French trip, choir festivals, sports tours, and a variety of guests invited to deliver learning experiences in school. iv. Links with specialist organisations, for example the National Association for Able Children in Education (NACE). Monitoring the progress of gifted and talented pupils in the Preparatory School The register of gifted and talented pupils will be reviewed in the Autumn Term and updated at the latest by the end of November. Reviews should take place within each class at least once a term and alterations to the register will be made when necessary. The opportunities for monitoring include, but are not limited to: Staff meetings Communication between class teachers at key transition points Analysis of INCAS and GL Assessment data. End of term/module assessments Scholarship applications at 7+ and 11+ Meetings between the Head of Prep School and the Gifted and Talented Coordinator to discuss the transition of Year 6 pupils in Year 7. The programme of provision itself will be audited annually by the Gifted and Talented Coordinator, in conjunction with class teachers and the Head of Prep School. Development of provision Further exploration of the following areas is necessary to continue developing the School s provision for our more able, gifted and talented pupils: Links between the School and outside agencies will be explored in order to provide a variety of activities for those pupils identified as gifted or talented. Provision of classroom strategies and hints to staff members about extension and enrichment opportunities for gifted or talented students.