Reviewing, writing and monitoring your G&T policy

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Expert updates from NACE: National Association for Able Children in Education

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G&T Now! Issue 3 article
MONITORING THE PRACTICE YOUR G&T POLICY DESCRIBES by Ann Bridgland

So, if you have been following the processes detailed in Issues 1 and 2 (below) you should now have your final policy, which has been discussed, written and agreed with all staff.

The Governors, too, have been involved. Everyone’s happy! Because your policy describes existing practice and/or will help to drive forward the practice that you aim to develop across the whole school.

How, though, are you going to use your policy, both to celebrate that practice and to check out that it is actually happening ... and how effectively it’s happening? After all, your policy will only ever be as good as the practice it describes!

If your policy is succinct (and not written like War and Peace!), you should have short statements that can easily be turned into questions. Then, all you and your 'orchestra' of colleagues have to do is find the answers to them!

That task is much easier when planned strategically across the school and linked in to all the other on-going teaching, learning, leadership and management processes that pervade your school’s daily work.

How can this be done manageably?

Here’s an example of an activity that you can undertake with your colleagues. It works well on a closure day, in staff meetings, in team or cluster meetings. The overall 'killer question' is this: How effectively do you use your G&T policy statements to monitor and evaluate practice in action?

THINK POINT 1
Your G&T policy states your expectations of practice in the unique context of your school.

For example, here’s an extract from a policy, which states the school’s expectations of an aspect of classroom provision :

Classroom Provision
Learning intentions and outcomes are differentiated to ensure that the range of abilities are taken into account and extension opportunities provided to challenge actual and potential A,G&T pupils still further.

Open-ended, higher order questions are used verbally and visually to challenge all pupils’ thinking. Key questions are included in planning to help structure the activities.

What questions will you need to ask to help you recognise whether those expectations stated above in the policy are happening in practice?

ACTIVITY 1
With your colleagues, highlight the key words in the policy statement. Rather like when you teach your pupils to highlight keywords in a text, for instance, to focus the mind and guide the thinking! So, for example:

 ... Open-ended, higher order questions are used verbally and visually to challenge all pupils’ thinking. Key questions are included in planning to help structure the activities.

ACTIVITY 2
From those highlights, you can easily compose questions to structure your monitoring processes (the questions are the indicators you will be looking out for). So, for example:

• Are key questions, both lower AND higher order, clear in planning?
• How effectively are higher order questions used verbally by all staff and pupils in the everyday classroom?
• How effectively are higher order questions used visually in displays by all staff and pupils in the everyday classroom and through the school? Etc.

What 'evidence' might you look out for to support answers to your questions, so that they become evaluations, not simply assertions?

ACTIVITY 3
Discuss together what documentation and talk might be available. So, for example: planning documents, classroom displays, learning walks, discussions with staff, discussions with pupils.

THINK POINT 2
If you are clear about the expectations and the 'evidence' you will look/listen out for, you will be able to monitor, evaluate and review practice against policy more effectively.

You could lay it out like this school did, who, in one half term, focused on part of the classroom provision aspect of their policy ...

Suggested Evidence:

• Planning documentation
• Classroom observations
• Learning walks
• Assessment and achievement data
• School Improvement Plans
• Discussions with staff
• Discussions with pupils
• Quality Standards Analyses

In conclusion,

This is a great approach to take in staff/subject team/year group/ cluster meetings, because it is strategic, pragmatic, practical, do-able ... and SMART!

• It’s Specific (you’re focusing on a particular aspect)
• Measurable (you know what you’re looking/listening out for)
• definitely Achievable (well, I know it works!)
• Realistic (because you are dealing with one bite of the elephant at a time)
• and Time-bound (it’s linked into your SDP and action plan priorities)

And you can get it sorted because you have mapped it out across the year or whatever your school’s timescale is.

G&T Now! Issue 2 article
WRITING YOUR SCHOOL'S G&T POLICY by Ann Bridgland

In Issue 1 of this eNewsletter, you saw a suggested skeleton framework for a G&T policy. Having the bones is one thing; putting the flesh on them is the exciting part!

There’s no single ‘right’ way of getting your policy written, of course. But the more you involve your colleagues (teaching and support staff), the more likely it is that the policy will reflect practice and not just be a neat document lovingly placed in a cupboard or stored on your computer.

Here’s a practical approach that may prove useful:

- Check whether or not your school already has a G&T policy. It’s surprising how many murkily lurk somewhere in school!

- Lead a staff/team meeting, if possible. It will depend where your school is on the G&T journey as to where you pitch this. But at least provide your colleagues with the skeleton framework offered in Issue 1 of this eNewsletter as a thinking point a few days before your meeting.

- At the meeting, explain the overall context and how it all fits into your School Development Plan: Learning and Teaching focus, self-evaluation processes, stretch, challenge and opportunity for all pupils, etc.

- Lead colleagues through the skeleton framework, section by section (about five minutes maximum for each is pacy and works well), encouraging everyone, through discussion, to highlight the key words that they feel are important.

- Next, divide colleagues into pairs or groups and allocate a section or two of the framework to each pair/group. Ask them to jot down some starter sentences for that aspect of the policy which, in due course, will be knitted together to form a first draft. You could tackle this as follows:
Pair/group 1: the WHY? and WHAT? sections;
Pair/group 2: the WHO? section;
Pair/group 3: HOW? section 1;
Pair/group 4: HOW? sections 2 and 3;
Pair/group 5 (e.g. the Head, Deputy, G&T Lead): the HOW WELL? section.

- Then, collect all your colleagues’ contributions and plan some time, with your favourite tipple to hand, to analyse and collate them before producing a first draft of your school’s G&T policy for further perusal with everyone.

- When you send out your draft policy, use your G&T school army to help you. What really works is asking your subject/year/phase team leaders to ensure that the discussion is on the agenda of one of their meetings. Give a deadline for them to return their suggestions, enabling you to take the next step of bringing it all together and producing the final or near-final draft.

It does work! The leadership role of the meeting(s) is vital. So the part played by you as the G&T Lead is important, working with and through your school’s phase, key stage, year and subject/aspect teams to ensure that ‘G&T’ runs through everything like ‘Brighton Rock’. Your colleagues are all players in the G&T orchestra that you conduct.

To whet your appetite, here’s a short extract from the beginning of a school’s G&T policy, which was approached and written in the way described above.

XXXX School
Policy for Gifted and Talented (very able) Pupils

Rationale
At XXXX School we are committed to providing high quality education for all our pupils. We believe a rich, challenging and stimulating curriculum will benefit all learners. The recognition and meeting of the needs of able pupils will raise expectations, create a culture where success is valued and therefore raise standards throughout the school community.

Aims

• To recognise that more able pupils have particular needs that must be met
• To foster a love of learning and the pursuit of excellence
• To enable all children to reach their full potential by providing a rich, stimulating and challenging curriculum
• To work in partnership with parents/carers
• To develop and maintain an inclusive approach to education

Definition
Our definition of able (gifted and talented) pupils seeks to recognise that those who are gifted and talented are those pupils with marked aptitude in one or more areas. Pupils who are identified as being ‘able’ may possess exceptional skill in one or more of the following areas:

• Academic ability
• Sporting ability
• Musical talent
• Dramatic talent
• Innovative design ability
• Creativity
• Leadership
• Organisational ability
• Mechanical or technological ability
• Interpersonal skills

G&T Now! Issue 1 article
REVIEWING YOUR SCHOOL’S G&T POLICY by Ann Bridgland

Perhaps one of your key tasks at the beginning of this new academic year is to draft or revise your whole-school G&T Policy, whether as part of, or linked to, your school’s Teaching and Learning Policy? Here’s a 'skeleton' that might help you to structure your thinking and onto which you can flesh out your school’s existing and to-be-developed practice.

General rationale: (WHY?)

• What is our introductory statement, setting the importance of providing for the needs of the able/G&T in the context of challenge for all pupils, within the context of the aims of our school?

Definition: (WHAT?)

• How do we define the term able, G&T, pupils with talent and aptitude, or whichever terminology we are adopting?

Identification: (WHO?)

• How do we use checklists of characteristics sensibly, to help us with a common language and to help our planning?
• How do we check on Learning Styles with particular pupils?
• How do our data and pupil tracking processes support identification?
• How are our pupils provided with appropriate classroom provision in order to help identification?

General overall approach in the classroom: (HOW?)

• How does our planning differentiate effectively, including how our APP processes support able/G&T?
• How are our pupil groupings working? How effectively are we using our support staff to challenge the able/G&T?
• How are we using higher order questions (verbally and visually), including in our AfL work?
• How are our Challenge Corners catering for the able/G&T?
• Have we got a good range of activities involving research/study skills, problem-solving, decision-making, analysis, synthesis (creative thinking), speculation, evaluation?
• How are we using our classroom/library resources to challenge the able/G&T?

Out of class approaches: (HOW?)

• How are we planning and monitoring our Enrichment/Challenge groups (in our cluster, in our Locality and in the LA/regional Programmes)?
• What whole school activities are we engaged in?
• How are we involving our pupils in able/G&T Summer Schools locally and/or regionally, even nationally?
• How effectively do the activities involve problem-solving, decision-making, analysis, synthesis (creative thinking), speculation, evaluation, research opportunities?
• How effectively are governors/outside organisations/community/partner school(s) involved in offering engagement with "real life" scenarios?

Personal & social: (HOW?)

• How effectively are we using coaches and mentors (pupil and/or adult ones!)?
• Do we have a “sponsor" governor for G&T? How effective is their support?

Responsibility for implementing, coordinating and monitoring: (HOW WELL?)

• What are the roles/responsibilities of our school’s able/G&T Leading Teacher?
• What are the roles/responsibilities of our Headteacher/Senior Leadership Team?
• What are the roles/responsibilities of the Class Teacher?
• What are the roles/responsibilities of the Classroom Assistant?
• What are the roles/responsibilities of Subject/Year/Key Stage/Phase/Aspect Leaders?

Review of policy: (SO WHAT?)

• When do we review our school’s able/G&T Policy? How?
• How effectively are we monitoring the impact of policy on teaching and learning practice, using indicators of effectiveness?
• How is it all tying in to School Self-Evaluation and Review processes and the National Quality Standards for G&T?
• How are we celebrating and disseminating our school’s practice that works well?