Excellence in Cities - 
The Gifted and Talented Strand

The Gifted and Talented Strand (G&T) is a part of the Government‘s Excellence in Cities Initiative that was launched in 1999. At this school it is referred to as the G&T Programme. For us this has meant a three-part approach to enhancing the learning of our more able students. Firstly, we can now provide additional resources for use with the registered students and those identified by subject as more able. Secondly, we are developing a distinct Teaching and Learning Programme designed to meet the needs of the identified students within most curriculum areas. Current provision is been monitored and will shortly be evaluated. Thirdly, we have linked with the Out of School Hours Learning Co-ordinator to extend the well-established programme of extra-curricular activities with a programme designed to meet the needs of the identified students. As with the rest of the provision, many other students could also benefit from the resources and opportunities provided by the Gifted and Talented Strand.

The Register
The Government allowed for the identification of up to 10% of the School role as Gifted (7%) or Talented (3%). We have done this by Year group. Consideration was made of issues of gender and ethnicity. students were identified as 'gifted' through statistical, quantitative data - CATS ( NFER), SATS, GCSE Predicted Grades - as well as by subject recommendations. Designated departments were asked to provide a list of identified 'talented' students in their subjects. All departments were also asked to identify up to 10% of students as gifted or talented in their subject. Selection criteria were also to be provided. The Register and all subject lists are reviewed twice a year.

Current Position
The school has a policy on Gifted and Talented issues. Two members of staff share the role of co-ordinating the G&T provision. One has over-sight of the Programme and focuses on in-class provision. The other concentrates on extra-curricular provision and mentoring. She also works on reviewing the register and monitoring the provision. (The post has now been fused again into one, with one member of staff over-seeing all G&T issues) A significant number of departments and individuals have undertaken projects with the students.

Departments continue to review their curricular provision for G&T students and are developing and updating resources designed to enhance the students' classroom experience. Additional funding has been made available to assist in this process. Most members of staff have received some training on G&T issues. Training continues to be an ongoing matter with the focus on classroom provision and monitoring.

We are continuing to develop library resources with the purchase books aimed at the more able students. This will continue into next year, and we hope to have a fully stocked section by Dec 2005.

Departments that worked on pilot projects for their G&T provision have now integrated those materials into their Schemes of Work. These include History, Geography, RS, Media Studies, Art and English and PE and Bengali with ICT.

Funding has been provided for purchasing equipment for pupils working towards the Duke of Edinburgh award as well as educational trips, master classes, KS3 and KS4 challenge days at a local university. A Dance and Video Art project and the School Musical productions.

Current Extra-Curricular Projects include Bengali dance, table tennis coaching, instrument lessons and a web page design course set up jointly with the Art Department.

To date, the following projects have received funding from the Programme:

• Bengali dance

• Grease Musical production

• Singing lessons

• Duke of Edinburgh Awards

• Advanced Maths

• English support papers

• Gamelan, Les Miserables (Music)

• Masterclass in Table Tennis & football skills at Manchester United (PE)

• CD Rom & accessories for teaching Spanish (MFL), Food Tech and Art

• Crest awards ceremony and masterclass (CDT)

• Study support groups and Year 9 SATS study support CD Rom (Science)

• A field trip for Year 11 (Geography).

• Screenprint workshop and Drypoint Etching taster classes at an Art College

We have funded Artists in Residence to work with Year 10 and 11 Exam groups taking the GNVQ Intermediate course and Summer School places for Year 11 students (Borough).

This year an E-mail mentoring project has been set up and is being piloted with Year 9 and 10 pupils.

Staff Training
Training has focused on departmental needs with staff attending the sessions set up by the borough G&T team at the City Learning Centre. In school, most training has been at the level of resource planning and development.

In addition, some departments have met with colleagues from the other cluster schools to exchange ideas and develop collaboratively. The cluster schools co-ordinators have met together and with the other Boroughs schools co-ordinators for training and information.

The school also has links with various external agencies that can provide training and resources. These links are being developed.

Future Developments
Next year, we will continue to work with departments to develop resources for use with G&T students. We will continue to take part in borough planned activites like the Science and Technology challenge days as well as taking part in new exciting opportunities like the London Debating Challenge. We will also continue monitoring and evaluation to ensure that the resources are allowing for enhancement of the learning experience of the G&T students. We will also review the School's Gifted and Talented policy. Finally we will work on ensuring that parents are informed and updated on their child's status on the register.

S. Hill
Gifted and Talented Co-ordinator