Primary Phase
Key Stage 1 and into Key Stage 2
As well as sharing information when children transfer between infant and junior schools, some schools support gifted and talented children by organising the curriculum across year groups. This may involve children in year 2 attending lessons with year 3 children. For example:
- A linked infant and junior school arranged for a small group of children who were particularly gifted in mathematics to join lessons in a year 3 class in the last half-term of the year. The children worked with a middle set, and as the teachers of both classes felt that this arrangement worked well and matched the needs of the younger children, the children continued to attend mathematics lessons with the higher-year group once they entered junior school.
- A primary school that ran an after-school computer club for key stage 2 pupils opened this up to year 2 children after teachers recognised that some children had particularly specialised knowledge that they were eager to use in their own projects. At the club, children were encouraged to work in collaborative groups and to share their skills. They focused on using graphics packages to design materials for school events, with some older children taking up informal mentoring roles for the year 2 children.
Within key stage 2, some schools plan for acceleration by grouping children flexibly across year groups. For example, in ‘linear’ subjects, such as science and mathematics, gifted and talented children may be grouped with children from a higher year group. In some cases, this supports the early entry of year 5 children for the key stage 2 tests.
Some schools organise target groups for particular projects, allowing teachers to group together children from different years for a defined period of time. They might also organise children flexibly to make the best use of specialist teaching support. For example, in a junior school where children learn a range of musical instruments from peripatetic music teachers, a musician with specific keyboard expertise was employed for a week. As well as supporting activities throughout the school, she focused on a small group of talented pianists. The children, who spanned years 4, 5 and 6, took part in a range of ‘master classes’.
Transferring from a small primary school to a large secondary school can be a highly stressful experience for gifted and talented pupils concerned about the learning culture of the school to which they are going. Sometimes they are as vulnerable as those experiencing emotional or social difficulties. One school employed a transition mentor who worked with year six pupils. The pupils were taken to visit the secondary school three or four times in the year.
Secondary Phase
Transition to Secondary School
Many primary schools enhance their curriculum provision through planned links with secondary schools, including collaborative learning activities for pupils and staff development opportunities. Gifted and talented pupils will benefit from these links, which can enrich their learning in the primary phase and ensure appropriate challenge and demand from the start of the secondary phase.
In years 5 and 6, some pupils will benefit from enriched learning in particular subjects. For example:
- Science teachers from neighbouring primary and secondary schools worked together to plan a science challenge for pupils who showed particular aptitude for the subject. The challenge was launched during an afternoon at the secondary school and was then undertaken during pupils’ usual science time in the primary school.
- As part of a history club, a group of gifted and motivated historians in years 7 and 8 planned a local history project centred on the community of a long-established neighbouring primary school. Their planning involved year 6 teachers at the school and the year 6 pupils’ history work during the summer term focused on the project.
Many pupils with gifts in particular subjects benefit from opportunities to work with older pupils in unfamiliar settings and contexts. If year 6 gifted and talented pupils are allocated an older pupil as a mentor or buddy before, or on arrival at, secondary school, this helps the transfer process. Often this type of mentoring scheme can be planned to benefit both primary and secondary pupils. Some secondary schools run after-school clubs and master classes, in which primary pupils participate alongside secondary students.
- The summer school programme for gifted and talented 10- to 14-year-olds includes a focus on the transition to secondary learning and setting learning challenges in a range of subjects.
Many secondary schools run after-school clubs and master classes, in which primary pupils participate alongside secondary pupils.
The impact of school transitions and transfers on pupil progress and attainment (DfEE, 1999) offers useful suggestions on curriculum continuity between the primary and secondary phases.
Into key stage 3
Transferring to secondary school is a critical point in a young person’s school career. It can represent both continuity and a fresh start and it will be important for the receiving teachers to recognise this duality for both those pupils previously identified as gifted and/or talented and for those yet to be. Clearly, it is of prime importance that the receiving school gains as much knowledge of the individual pupil’s previous experience and attainments in order to build on, and extend, the learner’s achievements and strengths, as well as address gaps in experience or weaknesses. However, an open mind is of equal importance, so that those pupils with, as yet, untapped or latent potential are enabled to demonstrate their capabilities in the context of rich learning opportunities.
Pupils arrive in secondary school with national curriculum test scores in English, mathematics and science, often accompanied by reading age and other data. There may be assessment information for some or all of the foundation subjects or indeed a portfolio of work.
Meetings with parents, and pupils themselves and links with feeder schools all provide a rich resource for building a profile of the individual child. Where information is sketchy or variable, the pupils may be invited to bring examples of work from primary school or to talk about what they have particularly enjoyed or succeeded at. Their extra-curricular activities will be of particular interest, especially where these lie outside the usual range of teachers’ own collective experience.
Activity associated with the early months of key stage 3 and the school’s concern with analysing its new cohort provides an early opportunity to undertake the interrogation of all the available data, particularly from the point of view of ethnicity and gender, in order to monitor the relative representation of individual pupil groups within the gifted and talented cohort. Vigilance in picking up on pupils whose past histories have involved multiple changes of schools, spells of time in public care, or experienced disruption for any of a wide range of reasons must be a prime aim in identifying some pupils for whom under-achievement may have been masking potential. Similarly, time spent now assessing pupils at an early stage of learning English as an additional language will improve the overall identification process.