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

One of the main day to day operations is this thing about no trips. The importance placedon our extension and acceleration programme and the enrichment programme too. Youhave to be there. It’s important. We value it....So if anyone rings up and says “do you wantto come to this on a Friday?” the whole staff would say, “oh no.” So that has been themost effective in that each week the staff that teach it are there, the children know it’s goingto happen and it happens.Just as the teachers involved in teaching in gifted and talented programmes are committed andinvolved, so too it seems are the children. One teacher said:I’ve never had naughty children in those groups. They’re just not, they’re so interested inwhat they are doing and so loving being there that they actually don’t have that problemwith behaviour at all.Allocation of management units for learning support with a specific focus on gifted and talentedstudents means there is a commitment to giving gifted education a profile within those schools. Theprogramme’s sustainability is ensured, because the position is safe, even if the present co-coordinatorleaves. Schools also perceived a growing awareness and commitment to gifted education within theMinistry of Education:I think it is something that’s developing too. The awareness of gifted and talentededucation, the profile of it probably has risen over the last couple of years and it issomething that as a staff and as a Board of Trustees our school’s been quite aware of too.So while you’ve sort of known for a long time about gifted and talented, specificprogrammes and actually more research, professional reading, that kind of thing hasbecome more apparent and more available. I think that over the last two or three years, it’sbeen a bit of a Ministry push with the professional development contract available so Ithink that the awareness has been raised and it’s something that we recognise that we’vedefinitely got some children who fall into that category…Barriers to Identification and ProvisionsThis section reports on schools’ responses to the questions:What were the barriers in establishing your school’s identification and provisions? Howwere these barriers overcome?The responses centred around two major barriers to identification and provision: those related topeople and those revolving around practice. During the interviews, respondents discussed barrierspresented by teaching staff, parents, and students. Practical barriers included funding, resources, time,curriculum issues, and provisions.Teacher confidence and competence. Half of the case study schools raised issues about teachercompetency. Schools perceived the lack of professional knowledge by staff in the area of giftededucation impacted on their ability, in particular, to identify gifted and talented students. It was feltthat teachers needed support to think beyond the “bright teacher pleasers.” One school queried theiruse of informal indicators, such as teacher nomination and students’ products, because of the potentialfor students not to display indications of giftedness readily recognisable by uninformed teachers. Thefollowing quote voices their concern, “Whether we are giving the children the opportunity to reallycome up trumps I’m still not sure.”Similarly, the issue of students with behavioural difficulties and the identification of giftedunderachievers were also discussed. It was felt that these difficulties may arise because teachers areeither not recognising their abilities or they are failing to recognise misbehaviour and truancy aspossible indicators of boredom. Two schools worried that they may be failing to identify students whohave English as a second language, but described one approach has been to work with the ESOLteacher who can try to provide suitable experiences.257