Aims and Objectives
The aims of this policy are to promote good practice in identification, teaching, learning and management of students who are gifted and talented. In order to do this, AKAIS will:
- Provide a structure to identify and monitor gifted and talented students.
- Promote a whole school approach to gifted and talented provision.
- Create a positive atmosphere wherein students can develop confidence and self-respect.
- Develop the whole child socially and intellectually.
- To empower students, staff and parents through specialist support, as appropriate
The objectives of this policy are to:
- Ensure that gifted and talented pupils have access to a broad, balanced and relevant curriculum, which meets their individual needs and that there are opportunities for them to access further enriching experiences outside the regular timetable.
- Enable all staff to take responsibility for identifying and supporting gifted and talented pupils, by providing them with relevant training.
- Encourage a parent partnership to support a joint learning approach at home and at school, by offering information sessions and individual meetings as required.
Definition of Gifted and Talented
The term giftedness refers to ‘a student who is in possession of untrained and spontaneously-expressed exceptional natural ability in one or more domain of human ability.’ These domains will include intellectual, creative, social, physical abilities. In the case of a gifted student, whilst exceptional potential will be present, they may actually under achieve.
- The term talented refers to ‘a student who has been able to transform their ‘giftedness’ into exceptional performance’. Talented students will always demonstrate exceptional levels of competence in the specific domains of human ability. – UAE Schools Inspection Framework (2015-2016)
- Students who are gifted and talented are considered to have a special educational need on account of their need to be challenged and differentiated for in order to reach undoubted potential.
Gifted: the top 5 -10% of students per school as measured by actual or
potential achievement in English, Maths, Science, History, Geography,
Modern Foreign Languages, RE, ICT or Design and Technology
Talented: the top 5 -10% of students per school as measured by actual or
potential achievement in the subjects of Art, Music, PE or the Performing Arts
Roles and Responsibilities
The subject HOD will:
- support and oversee identification and provision for the whole school and liaise with all members of the teaching staff, reporting to the senior leadership team.
Teachers will:
In line with the Teaching Standards 2012, models for differentiation and guidance from the UAE Schools inspection Framework, it is a whole school responsibility to cater for the needs of all students, regardless of ability. Therefore,
- every teacher is responsible and accountable for all students and for the everyday provision of quality first teaching to ensure that students who are gifted and talented achieve their potential and are challenged appropriately and successfully in the classroom environment and beyond.
- Subject leaders are responsible for individual educational needs provision in their subject areas. Class teachers are responsible for this provision in their class.
- Teachers will ensure that he curriculum in any given subject area should meet the needs of all the students to whom it is delivered and should be modified where necessary and appropriate.
- Before meeting a new class, all staff should make themselves aware of those students in each of their classes who are on the Gifted and Talented register and communicate where possible with the previous teacher in order to ensure that progress continues and transition is smooth.
- Participate effectively in the identification, assessment and referral process
Parents as Partners:
The school prides itself on the partnership it has with parents. The school will actively seek the involvement of parents in the education of their children. It is recognized that it is particularly important for students who have learning support needs, including those who are gifted and talented, to have the support and encouragement of parents so that they can achieve success. The school considers parents as partners in the student’s learning and encourages parents to view themselves as such. Parents will always be kept informed about their child’s learning and regular communication will take place.
Student Voice
- The school will work to ensure that, where possible, students are fully aware of their individual needs and have involvement in the targets that are set for them.
- As far as is possible and practicable, students will be involved in the decisions which are taken regarding their education.
- Peer identification of gifted and talented students is another important way of identification. Where appropriate, peers will be asked for their feedback.
Identification, assessment and referral process
- Identification of students who are gifted and talented is not a straightforward process.
- At Hartland International School, all available material – CAT scores; reports from previous schools; information from parents; the school’s identification checklist and crucially, teacher judgement will be used to decide if a child is entered on the gifted and talented register. The decision of Hartland International School of who should be included on the register is final.
- A list of students who are gifted and/or talented will be kept on a register which will be available to teachers on the whole school shared drive in the Gifted and Talented folder. This list is always a working document and students can be added to it – or withdrawn from it – following appropriate evidence.
- Teachers will have access to documentation such as check-lists that will help with the identification of students they may consider gifted and talented.
- Ongoing teacher assessment will monitor progress of gifted and talented students.
- The Gifted and Talented Coordinator will review progress of all children on the register and follow up any children who may be underachieving.
Provision, curriculum access and modification / inclusion
The school aims to nurture independent and creative thinkers who are able to meet the challenges of the wider world and this includes providing for those students who already have or are showing signs of these capabilities, such as those who would be deemed gifted and talented. It is the school’s policy to provide a broad, varied and balanced curriculum for all students, giving them a chance to thrive and to demonstrate skills and abilities that might not otherwise.
Provision for students who are identified on the gifted and talented register is generally provided by the class and subject teacher through effective quality first teaching and differentiation.
It is the school’s aim to ensure gifted and talented students are catered for in their peer groups through the development of higher order thinking skills and challenging age-appropriate work. Research has suggested that acceleration through age-groups is not necessarily the best course to take for students who are gifted and the school accepts this. However, where needed and when appropriate, a child may move between year groups for elements of the curriculum or may have individual and small group intervention to enhance their skills and develop their giftedness. The aim is to promote deeper thinking in age-appropriate topics and subjects and to focus on the quality of provision rather than the quantity, through effective differentiation in the classroom.