The Extent, Nature and Effectiveness of Planned Approaches in ...

are tackled. Teachers provide assistance on request and monitor children’s work on an on-going basis.They hold regular individual conferences where students’ work is reviewed. If teachers note that thework is not challenging the children, they allow them to either “skip” levels or work on every secondworkbook to accelerate progress through the levels.PAT tests, diagnostic tests and running records in reading alert teachers to children who are possiblygifted and talented. However, the main method of identification is through scheduled and incidentalteacher observation. Indicators of giftedness staff look for include exceptional performance, highlevels of interest and motivation, insightful questions and certain behaviours such as task persistence.With twice weekly school assemblies, school-wide activities, playground duty and interclass sharingof work, teachers get to know all the children in the school well:You can watch the ones that shine in certain areas and you will recognise it and we’ll find thatnine times out of ten as we talk to each other about various kids we all say, “Hey, yeah, so andso’s really good in this area” so you identify them that way.The individualised learning system caters for children who are gifted “across the board” and for thosewho have gifts and talents in a narrow field. It also provides both acceleration and enrichment.Workbooks and similarly styled teacher-prepared units are used to broaden children’s learning.Enrichment modules are available in a range of subjects including Hebrew, motor mechanics, biblestudy and animal science. Hands-on experiments and activities are included in individualised modulesas are homework tasks and additional teacher-added enrichment content such as relevant videos.The individualised learning system was not adopted specifically to benefit gifted and talented students.This is seen as a fortunate “by-product.” The principal noted:We established the school to serve the Christian community but one of the hallmarks of ourChristian faith is that we’re all individuals, we’re all special to God, we’re all unique, we allhave special giftings if we can identify them and this system is consistent with that. We’re not allput in one box, we’re saying, we are all different, let’s be different, let’s celebrate ourdifferentness.Children work on their individualised programmes in the morning. In the afternoon music, physicaleducation and sport, drama, art and topic work are covered in a more “conventional” style of teaching.Because the school is small, whole school activities and cross-class grouping are easilyaccommodated. The school provides for a wide range of gifts and talents including spiritual andemotional giftedness. Spiritual gifts are not taught as such but a supportive, responsive environment isprovided to enable them to surface. When they do, they are acknowledged and reinforced.Interpersonal gifts such as outstanding compassion, leadership and service to others are alsoacknowledged and reinforced.Gifted and talented children are also provided for via Correspondence School programmes. This year,one pupil is enrolled in secondary level mathematics and another is studying advanced English.Similarly, the local regional cluster group is used to extend gifted children. The student who qualifiedfor involvement this year goes off-site for one and a half hours a week to work with gifted childrenfrom other schools in the surrounding district. There is also a pre-entry programme for youngerchildren. Although the school has no-one presently attending this programme, they have had studentsqualify for inclusion in previous years.A number of school-wide activities provide opportunities for gifts and talents to surface and bedeveloped. These include a lunch-time talent search. The talent to be focused on is announced a weekin advance. Children who wish to participate have a week to prepare themselves before performing.Talents covered include singing, chess, acting, instrumental items and puppets. Children also preparespeeches, the best of which are chosen to be performed at assembly. Finally, the school has previouslyparticipated in an annual, three day national Christian school convention. One hundred activities are210