Gifted and Talented: Self review
Presented 28 Sept 4.15 – 5.15 2011
Webinar 3 of a series of 4
Carolyn English
LEARNING MEDIA
Kia ora katoa
I am the lead consultant at Learning Media
and have been the project coordinator for
two national literacy projects; Literacy
Professional Development Project and CPL
Literacy. Over the last year I have been
working with a number of school leaders to
develop an online resource to support all
schools to review and improve their policies
and practices around supporting gifted and
talented students. This webinar explores
some of the work so far.
Theme for today’s webinar
To explore what schools and boards think about when
1.monitoring the impact of decisions they make, such as:
• identification of gifted and talented students
• description of the valued outcomes for gifted and
talented students
• the curriculum provided
2.improving policies and practices
Examples of school practices will be shared in this webinar.
Key self review questions
How well does our school leadership support the
achievement of gifted and talented students?
How inclusive and appropriate are our school’s
processes for defining and identifying giftedness and
talent?
How effective is our school’s provision for gifted and
talented students?
To what extent do our gifted and talented
programmes promote positive outcomes for our
gifted and talented students?
How well does our school review the effectiveness of
our provision for gifted and talented students?
Questions from the 2 ERO June 2008 reports on schools’ provision
for gifted and talented students.
ERO (2011) Evaluative
indicators for schools’ self
reviews
3 types of self review (page
9)
How well does our school leadership support the
achievement of gifted and talented students?
Being part of the leadership team makes a difference
“XXX is the DP – two of her areas are gifted and special
needs. Families know we value students who are gifted and/
or have special needs because of this.”
“I am the DP – I see all the student achievement data so know
how well the gifted and talented students are doing and I
report to the Board about the programmes we provide.”
“It’s important that you are part of the management team as
most of the decisions that need to be made have resource
implications e.g. timetabling, people, money.”
How inclusive and appropriate are our school’s
processes for defining and identifying giftedness and
talent?
The vision and the identification are multi categorical processes
“The school’s vision is to focus on talent – in many areas of the school e.g.
academic, arts, sport, culture, leadership.”
The identification process scaffolds/ provides support for teachers’
understandings around defining giftedness and talented
“One of the tools we use is a talent detector as it helps teachers think about
a range of characteristics, to help new teachers think about a wide view of
gifted and talented. It helped us change our school vision.”
“In order to make our provision more inclusive we ensure we understand
such concepts like Manaakitanga as suggested by Jill Bevan Brown.”
Working with whānau/parents and community
“We have a lot of new Indian families in our community so we have to work
out what they view as gifted and talented. We have to work out how to
communicate with this community.”
“We need to have more information that just what we got from the
contributing schools, we need to know the parents so instead of a teacher
interview at the beginning of the year we are trialing parent interviews.”
How effective is our school’s provision for gifted and
talented students?
Ongoing monitoring of impact of programmes
“We review our programme each year and develop a new action plan……”
Monitoring includes talking with students
“Students have told us that they prefer ongoing provisions rather than one
offs.”
“Students tell us they like being with others like them.”
Provision is across a range of possible contexts
“The main focus is the classroom.”
“We provide both extension and enrichment outside of the classroom. We
want these programmes to be as integrated as possible.”
“We design with the community – it depends on what resources are
available.”
“The Board has an innovation fund with $$ that teachers can apply for each
year. It can be used for a range of things including support for gifted and
talented students.”
To what extent do our gifted and talented programmes
promote positive outcomes for our gifted and talented
students?
Knowing through feedback
“The students are keen to come to school and be involved in these
programmes.”
“We seek oral feedback from the students as well as expect some
sort of outcome e.g. a presentation or a performance.”
“We put a lot of effort to establish relationships with parents and
community so that we get feedback.”
“Sometimes what parents say is quite different to what students
say.”
“We get feedback from outside of the school so that helps us know
that what we are doing is working.”
How well does our school review the effectiveness of
our provision for gifted and talented students?
A formal structure is used to review annually
“When ERO come they always ask really good questions. We use their set
of questions for review.”
“Our review is done annually based on the National Template from the
Gifted and Talented advisers. This is really useful for recording areas we
have made progress and which areas need to be developed.”
The review process is ongoing throughout the year
“With a focus on formative assessment and inquiry based teachers are
much more aware of the needs of the students”
“XXX is in all classrooms observing teacher practice and ensuring the needs
of all students are met.”
The review process involves a number of key people and groups
“The Board have an expectation (to be informed) as they are funding these
programmes.”
“We report annually to Māori parents and community about participation in
these programmes to ensure we are meeting their needs.”
From Mangapapa school’s policy
“We must weave gifted programming into the fabric of the total
programme, not stitch it on as if we were patching an old pair
of jeans.”