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

additional funds for competitions, however discretionary funds are also available if necessary (in all ofthese schools).The lowering of its decile rating provided one primary school with the funding for its gifted andtalented programme. The school employs one senior staff member as the coordinator at .6. As one ofthe teachers explained:There has been good will which is one thing but you have to have the personnel, theresources, the organization, the structure to go behind something to make it actually cometo fruition and I think, I mean the nuts and bolts of what enabled it to happen this year wasthe fact that xx [name of coordinator] was really keen to do it… but really, what made ithappen was the fact that we got additional funding through a decile drop and $40,000.00 iswhat in reality made this particular project happen.Within school support. Nine out of the ten schools considered the support they received from theirBoard of Trustees, principal, and fellow teachers to be major factors in enabling them to successfullyidentify and provide for their gifted and talented students. In this category teachers singled out eitherone, two or all of the school personnel of whom they considered provided ongoing support. Of thenine schools who mentioned within school support as an enabler, there were five references to theBoard of Trustees, five to their supportive principals, and seven mentions about the support receivedfrom colleagues.Support from management was recognised as a key issue to ensure policies were in place, along withsuitable staffing, professional development and resources. For this reason it was considered importantto keep the Board of Trustees informed and get their support for the allocation of funds. This isachieved through meetings and reports, putting the provisions and outcomes in writing in one of theprimary schools.Having principals involved in their school’s gifted and talented programmes meant that decisionscould be made and programmes actioned more quickly and simply because “when a principal asks ateacher to change their programmes, it is more likely to happen than if a Scale A teacher was asking.”Teachers described their principals in positive terms, an indicative comment being: “supportiveprincipal with a real passion about children with special abilities.”One primary school attributed much of its programme’s success to the previous principal, whoseunconditional support played a significant role in the initiation of staff to the concept of catering forgifted and talented students in their classrooms. Not only did he encourage the coordinator’s ownprofessional development, he also co-presented at staff meetings. For example, he taught enrichmentto the staff. He supported the present coordinator to try new ideas, as well as to re-try ideas that hadfailed in the past. His motto was to “try and try again before you get it right.”To gauge staff support in one of the secondary schools, the gifted coordinator initially conducted asurvey of staff attitudes which showed that teachers were keen to recognise and provide for gifted andtalented students. This provided a positive basis from which to build identification and provision,policy and procedures.Another coordinator described her school as having “supportive staff who were convinced about theworth of the programme and prepared to take extra children in the class to create the position.” Asmall primary school believed shared Christian values to be the key to their supportive staffrelationships.Outside school professional support. Seven out of the ten schools highly rated this form of support.Working in partnership with other local schools was advantageous for three of these seven case studyschools. Two schools partnered up with neighbouring schools, one to learn from the “mentor” school(who was further along their journey in gifted education), and the other to gain community contactsand to broaden their base of expertise by working with other teachers from both schools. For the253