NB This is a DRAFT document for consultation
‘We want all our pupils to have the best start in life……We want to drive up the standards of teaching and learning in all our schools, valuing and supporting the teaching profession to support this’
The Learning Country (2001), Welsh Assembly Government
‘The needs of more able and talented pupils cannot be separated from the move to raise standards for all pupils. Research shows that schools that focus on the needs of more able and talented pupils improve the quality of learning and raise standards of achievement for all pupils’
Meeting the Challenge (2008), Welsh Assembly Government Circular 006/2008
‘A Rising Tide Raises all Ships’
Renzulli J (1998).
CARMARTHENSHIRE EDUCATION AUTHORITY’S POLICY AND STRATEGY DOCUMENT ON MORE ABLE AND TALENTED PUPILS
Contents Page
Our Aims
Introduction
The National Context
A Revised Policy
Why do we need to revise our
Policy and strategy document?
Our plan
References
Introduction
Carmarthenshire Local Authority is committed to working with its pupils, schools, parents, governors and other stakeholders in the education of its young people towards the realisation of their full potential. Carmarthenshire aims to produce a population of life-long learners who will be well prepared for adult life, both educationally and socially, and who will be resilient and able to face the challenges that lie ahead of them. This policy/strategy document aims to promote and support the provision for more able and talented pupils in Carmarthenshire schools. It seeks to establish effective and sustainable practice for meeting the needs of the more able child within the context of an inclusive curriculum.
The National Context
In recent years, the Welsh Government has produced a number of documents related to pupils who are More Able and Talented (MAT), with common themes running through them all. ‘A Curriculum of Opportunity’, produced by ACCAC (Awdurdod Cymhwysterau, Cwricwlwm ac Asesu Cymru/Qualifications, Curriculum and Assessment Authority for Wales) for the Welsh Assembly Government (as the Welsh Government was then called) in 2003, was the first document to state that More Able and Talented is the term to be used in Wales to ‘describe those pupils who require opportunities for enrichment and extension that go beyond those provided for the general cohort of pupils’. Within this document it is emphasised that the identification of MAT pupils is linked to context and that approximately 20% of the school population may be more able, while 2% could be considered ‘exceptionally able’. This is a very INCLUSIVE definition which means that every teacher will have a number of more able and talented pupils who need to be ‘stretched’ within the context of their own classroom. It is therefore no surprise that the document emphasises that the needs of more able pupils should be ‘met in the classroom through high quality day to day provision’. A Curriculum of Opportunity is a comprehensive document providing guidance on the identification of more able learners, on ways of organising and grouping learners and of extending and enriching their learning. Much of this guidance is still relevant. ‘Educating Pupils Who are More Able and Talented: Guidance for LEAs’ was a consultation document produced within the same year to complement ‘A Curriculum of Opportunity’. It defines the roles of the LEA, of schools and of the school’s governing body in relation to MAT pupils.
Further Guidance, entitled ‘Meeting the Challenge’ was produced by the Welsh Assembly Government in May 2008 and supersedes the consultation document. It notes that the term ‘More Able and Talented’ includes pupils who show talent in practical, creative and social fields as well as those pupils who are more able across the curriculum. It provides a clear framework of ten standards which can be used as a tool for development, auditing/planning actions and for self-evaluation, depending on the stage the school has reached in terms of its whole-school strategy in relation to MAT pupils. Schools with well-established provision and action-planning systems can use it to be assessed, by The National Association for Able Children in Education (NACE), for ‘The Challenge Award’ quality mark.
‘A Curriculum for all Learners’ (Welsh Assembly Government 2010) again stresses that, in every school, there will be a group of learners who require extending, regardless of how they compare to More Able and Talented pupils in other schools. It notes that the needs of MAT pupils cannot be separated from the move to raise standards for all learners, quoting Renzulli (1998) ‘A Rising Tide Lifts all Ships’. This means that provision which challenges more able learners must be an integral part of a school’s curriculum design and notes that the following factors contribute to improvements in attainments for all learners:
· the provision of a learning environment that will permit and encourage learners to develop their potential
· a climate that values and enhances intellectual ability, talent, creativity and decision-making
· opportunities to develop thinking, including analysis, synthesis and evaluation
The fact that the best provision for More Able and Talented learners is made by extending that which is available to all learners is emphasized once more. The teacher uses his/her professional skills and action research methodology – carefully monitored – to make adjustments based on evidence. The link is made between this approach and the Welsh Government’s work on Developing Thinking and Assessment for Learning, which has the potential to improve questioning and develop higher-level thinking skills, reflection and evaluation for all learners. Appendix 1 in ‘A Curriculum for All Learners’ clarifies that pupils who are more able and talented are NOT considered to have ADDITIONAL LEARNING NEEDS unless they have special educational needs or they have, for whatever reason, greater difficulty learning a particular subject or skill in comparison with the majority of persons of the same age who are not able and talented.
A recent ESTYN report on ‘Supporting More Able and Talented pupils in the Primary Schools’ (July 2011) expresses concern that MAT pupils are not, generally, sufficiently challenged but does include some examples of good practice. A survey of provision in Secondary schools is currently underway by ESTYN.
The documents mentioned in this section are available on the More Able and Talented section of the Learning site within AMDRO. This is also where you will find new documents as they are published. Go to www.amdro.org.uk and follow the pathway AMDRO > Learning > More Able and Talented > Documents > Welsh Government/ESTYN Documents. Alternatively, you can go directly to the links below:
http://www.amdro.org.uk/English/Learning/MoreAbleTalented/Docs/WelshGovESTYNDocs/Pages/default.aspx
http://www.amdro.org.uk/Cymraeg/Dysgu/MoreAbleTalented/Docs/WelshGovESTYNDocs/Pages/default.aspx
Why do we need to revise our policy and strategy document?
As already mentioned, the documents produced by the Welsh Government in recent years provide a very inclusive definition of More Able and Talented as referring to approximately 20% of the total school population who require enriched and extended opportunities to develop their abilities or talents in one or more areas. Abilities and talents can manifest themselves in a variety of academic, practical, creative and social activities. We have entitled this document ‘Raising the Bar for All’ since we believe that the pupils who are considered to be More Able and Talented will vary depending on the particular area of ability or talent being considered. We believe that the focus should not be so much on identifying a finite number of pupils who require enriched and extended opportunities, but to provide such opportunities for all. By doing this, the abilities and talents of more pupils will emerge in each context
This latest revision of the More Able and Talented Policy is being written as a number of new changes are taking place regarding the delivery of educational services in Wales. The need to raise standards has been highlighted by the results of the 2009 survey of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). The report produced by Bradshaw et al (2010) ‘Achievement of 15-year-olds in Wales’ provides detailed summaries of the disappointing rankings Wales achieved in relation to other participants in the survey, including the other countries in the UK.
Other major developments since the publication of our last revised policy (2009) on More Able and Talented Pupils include:
· Identification of the three national priorities for Education, namely:
o Improving literacy standards of achievement
o Improving numeracy standards of achievement
o Reducing the impact of poverty on educational attainments
· Introduction of The School Effectiveness Framework – the overarching policy framework for transforming educational standards and provision in Wales. This has led, in turn, to changes in ways continuous professional development is funded (the School Effectiveness Grant) with its emphasis on developing professional learning communities of teachers using action research approaches to enhance teaching and learning. From September 2012 planning for teachers’ Continuous Professional Development will take place on a regional, as well as, a Local Authority, basis
· Further developments in terms of roll-out of the Foundation Phase and the 14 – 19 Learning pathways
· An increased emphasis on the use of data in order to target improvement, using the All-Wales Core data set. This will develop further to include nationally standardized testing of literacy and numeracy.
The 2009 Revision of the Policy will be retained on the ‘Carmarthen Documents’ site on AMDRO as it is written from a somewhat different perspective and includes guidance which MAT coordinators may continue to find useful and relevant.
Our Aims
To help schools to:-
· raise the level of aspirations and achievements for all pupils
· nurture the abilities and talents of all pupils
· foster the emotional well-being of all pupils so that they learn to value and share their abilities and talents.
Our plan
1. To help schools to develop their provision for more able and talented pupils by:
· Providing relevant and up-to-date information through continuous development of the More Able and Talented site on the Learning section of the AMDRO website. To access the home page for this section go to www.amdro.org.uk and follow the links AMDRO>Learning>More Able and Talented. Alternatively type in the following and add to your Favourites list:
http://www.amdro.org.uk/English/Learning/MoreAbleTalented/Pages/default.aspx
or
http://www.amdro.org.uk/Cymraeg/Dysgu/MoreAbleTalented/Pages/default.aspx
This site will include:
o Relevant documents (particularly from the Local Authority and the Welsh Government/Estyn)
o Signposts to other useful resources/websites
o News
o Opportunities for the Local Authority, schools and Professional Learning Communities to be able to share their practice in the ‘What’s Happening in Carmarthenshire’ section
o A ‘Professional Learning Communities’ section so that PLCs can provide news of their intentions and seek contact across other PLCs etc.
· Securing funding, when possible, to offer training events specifically related to More Able and Talented pupils for teachers. This will be in the form of Stimulus Days and schools will need to prioritise their need for such provision through the Schools Effectiveness Grant and Pupil Deprivation Grant.
· Ensuring that all training offered by Local Authority personnel emphasizes the need to teach all pupils at an appropriate level; that is, a level which consolidates upon their current learning and extends them to the next step. All Local Authority Systems Leaders and officers will make links to the More Able and Talented agenda. County initiatives on Developing Thinking, Assessment for Learning, Foundation Phase, Literacy, Numeracy and ‘Gwella’r Gymraeg a Dwyieithrwydd’ all pay due regard to identifying where individual pupils are now and helping them to move on to the next stage. For example:
o The ideas and approaches from Developing Thinking and Assessment for Learning should be considered essential to ensuring that pupils’ abilities and talents are stimulated and developed.
o Training in relation to effective learning in the Foundation Phase focuses on individualized learning and ensuring that the provision offered by teachers/support staff extends the ability of all learners, including more able learners.
o In relation to developing literacy, many schools are following the County guidelines and teaching synthetic phonics by grouping pupils according to their ‘stage’ rather than their ‘age’. The use of the First Steps approach to acquiring literacy skills, with its emphasis on a developmental approach, has been promoted for several years and the Local Authority has hosted a Stimulus Day, presented by Pie Corbett, to encourage Professional Learning Communities to be created so that schools can support each other in implementing his innovative approaches to developing and extending children’s story telling and writing skills.
o A number of Professional Learning Communities have been established to support the development of pupils’ thinking skills in the context of mathematics, using ‘Let’s Think thorough Maths’ and ‘CAME’ (Cognitive Acceleration in Maths Education).
o The ‘Gwella’r Gymraeg a Dwyieithrwydd’ Service supports schools in developing language extension activities on request.
· Securing funding, when possible, to involve pupils in activities to develop their talents; for instance, in relation to:
o Musical activities – particularly ensuring that exceptionally able and talented musicians are enabled to progress to Senior county Ensembles, Cross-boundary Ensembles and National Ensembles
o Design and Technology; for instance, the F1 Challenge, the Arkwright Scholarship and the Innovation and Sustainability Awards
o Art projects, such as the Joseph Herman Award
o Writing Squads, ‘Cwis Llyfrau’/Book Quiz etc.
o Involvement of pupils in Eco Schools and Fairtrade initiatives
o Sexual Health Peer Mentoring opportunities for sixth formers as part of The Healthy Schools Initiative
o The Welsh Heritage Schools Initiative
o Physical Education and Sports, as promoted by the PE and Sport (PESS) project
· Publicizing good practice and the success of individual pupils through the annual Carmarthenshire document ‘School Improvement Service – Schools’ Performance and Achievement’ and inviting schools to report their successful interventions on the ‘What’s Happening in Carmarthenshire’ section of the More Able and Talented site on AMDRO.