St Chad's Vision for More Able Learners

At St Chad's school, our values are Aspirational, Adventurous, Individual, Enlightened and Compassionate. We have made a conscious decision to place aspiration as our foremost value because we want our children to want to succeed, and then make it happen. We believe it is not about being born “gifted”, but about the desire to be so. Out of this aspiration comes endeavour. Our vision is therefore to encourage aspiration and then support and reward endeavour.

It is our expectation that parents/carers, staff and governors are aspirational for the children and we work together to identify, support and extend children’s learning to meet their full potential. Together, we make a determined effort to ensure the children with the desire and capacity to obtain the highest possible educational outcomes become local and national leaders in academia, industry and public service.

More Able Co-ordinator

The school’s More Able Co-ordinator is Mrs Renu Poddar. There is also an allocated lead on Senior Leadership for the more able, currently Mrs Paula Mitchener. If you would like to find out more our identification and provision for the more and most able learners, please explore the resources on this website or make an appointment through the school Reception.

Achievement or Ability?

At St Chad's, we focus on achievement and ability to ensure that children who are underachieving also realise their potential. There may sometimes be big differences between a child’s ability, the progress he or she makes or in their achievement. St Chad's actively seeks to remove any obstacles leading to underachievement by:

• ensure there is a breadth and depth of opportunity to develop abilities, and to show what the child knows and can do
• strongly encouraging and fostering each child to take advantage of their talents
• putting in place effective transition systems so what is known about a child’s learning – from home or from a previous school or setting – is not lost
• focusing on the development of writing skills (to ensure children who are exceptional in an area but have difficulties in writing have opportunities to highlight their abilities)
• making full use of Pupil Premium funding to remove any economic barriers
• working in partnership with parents/carers and the local community to promote and celebrate aspiration, ability and achievement
• providing high quality social and emotional support to the more able learners who require it.

Provision for the More Able: What to Expect

We feel it is appropriate to adopt a fluid approach to providing for the more able learners, as this allows us to identify and make provision for this group in a flexible and considered way. We provide a rich and varied curriculum that can be accessed by all, regardless of ability across a range of subjects. Through skilful teacher assessment of learning and achievement, we identify those with high potential (both those who are maximising their potential; and those have not yet done so). These children are then provided with extension for learning, which can include:

• richer and deeper questions
• more complex problem-solving
• access to a broader range of texts

We also include in our school policy for teachers criteria to be mindful of in various subject areas so that earlier and more ongoing identification is further supported.

 

Further Resources

Potential Plus UK runs events for parents/carers and children. They have an events diary and online booking system on their website. Parents/carers of young children aged 0-5 may also be interested in Potential Plus UK’s e-zine called SPARK.

There is a range of helpful websites that you might like to look at, including:

http://www.potentialplusuk.org: this is the independent charity that supports the social, emotional and learning needs of children with high learning potential of all ages and backgrounds. There is information about children and young people who have been identified as gifted and talented, as well as those that (i) have the ability to achieve; but who, for whatever reason, are not achieving their potential, (ii) those who are dual and multiple exceptional (gifted with a disability or learning difficulty) and (iii) the profoundly gifted

http://www.sengifted.org/: this is an American organisation with information, advice and guidance about the social and emotional needs of gifted learners

http://www.pegy.org.uk: Profoundly Gifted and Exceptional Youth is a voluntary organization with worldwide contacts in the field of exceptionally and profoundly gifted young people. They aim to  support profoundly gifted children and their families; to influence strategy in schools and to support research