More Able Students

The Vyne aims to provide a stimulating environment where students’ needs are recognised irrespective of background, culture or ability.

We aim to:

•  Support an ethos where it is right to be bright

•  Encourage all students to be independent learners

•  Recognise achievement

•  Be aware of the effects of ethnicity, bilingualism, gender and social circumstances on learning and high achievement

•  Provide a wide range of extra-curricular activities and clubs

•  Always provide work at an appropriate level

•  Provide opportunities for pupils to work with like-minded peers

We wish to respond to the needs of students who are recognised as having exceptional abilities for their age by providing a suitably challenging environment, both curricular and extra-curricular, that supports the development of these abilities and skills.

The Vyne offers a broad and balanced curriculum to support the needs of all students through which it:

•  Provides access to a suitably differentiated and challenging curriculum

•  Provides opportunities for students to identify and develop unique profiles of learning dispositions, skills and abilities

•  Develops effective thinking skills

•  Develops the ability to work independently

•  Develops the ability to work in a team

•  Provides extra opportunities for disadvantaged students

•  Encourages commitment to life-long learning

Definition and Identification High attaining students are those who:

• have an average KS2 points equivalent of a National Curriculum Level 5 (Years 9-11)

• have an average KS2 standardised score of 110 or greater (Years 7 and 8)

Identifying high attaining students:

A high attaining student is identified by way of their Key Stage 2 scores and is measured as such for the purposes of DfE published progress performance measures at the end of KS4. CAT scores and reading/spelling tests are used to triangulate this data and identify anomalous results. Equally, CAT scores and reading tests are used to identify students of high cognitive ability but who, for whatever reason, have not performed well in their SATs.

Some students with high prior attainment are easily identifiable. They might be motivated, inquisitive, well-behaved and well-organised. They will often present work well and complete tasks, including homework, on time and to a good standard. However, it is important that good behaviour, good presentation and the swift completion of work does not disguise a lack of stretch in the individual student’s work. Individual student data should always be used, in conjunction with effective classroom management, to ensure that high attaining students are challenged at all times.

It is also worth remembering that high attaining students may be:

•  Good all-rounders, or

•  High achievers in only one area, plus

•  Of high ability but with low motivation

•  Of good verbal ability but poor writing skills

•  Very able but with a short attention span

•  Very able but with poor social skills

•  Keen to disguise their abilities

Able and Talented students are those who:

• demonstrate exceptional abilities in individual subjects within the curriculum.
  
  

Identifying able and talented students

An able and talented student is one who ‘has the capacity for, or demonstrates, high levels of performance in one or more areas of the curriculum’.

•  Departments are invited to identify individual students who they feel are able and talented in their subject. Subject-specific criteria need to be made available and regularly updated for this purpose.

•  Any individual member of staff can nominate a student though they must clearly demonstrate their reasons for doing so.

•  Parents may nominate their own children and the school will ensure that information received from home is acted upon when planning lessons for individuals. An example of this may be when a child has lived abroad and is proficient in a modern foreign language.

•  Referrals from organisations outside school may be accepted, for example from sports clubs, theatre/drama groups. Again the school will ensure that such information is used when planning learning for individual students.

Curriculum areas that are deemed to be ‘practical’ in nature should identify students who demonstrate exceptional ability in Art, Drama, Music, the Performing Arts, or Physical Education. Included within this area are:

•  Technical skills and abilities

•  Visual / performing skills and abilities

•  Mechanical ingenuity

•  Outstanding leadership and social awareness

•  Outstanding creativity and problem-solving abilities

Provision for high attaining, able and talented students The Vyne provides high attaining, able and talented students with their full entitlement to the National Curriculum and provides access to curriculum enhancement and, where appropriate, beyond the curriculum.

Examples of the types of provision available at The Vyne School are:

Classroom differentiation

•  Teachers have high expectations

•  Tasks are designed to take account of levels of existing knowledge, skills and understanding

•  There are planned opportunities to extend knowledge, skills and understanding through a variety of challenges and tasks

•  Students regularly see and can access higher standard student work

•  There is access to higher-tier assessment papers and exemplar materials

•  Questioning is used effectively

•  Students are grouped by ability when appropriate

•  Homework is differentiated

•  Teaching styles are varied to support all types of learning

•  AfL is used to increase students participation in planning and evaluation

•  Opportunities for extension and enrichment are built into Schemes of Work.

Other types of provision:

•  Musical and Sporting activities

•  Opportunities for performance

•  School clubs

•  School societies/councils

•  In-house enrichment opportunities

•  Visits by experts and artists-in-residence

•  Careers advice

•  Course advice (KS4 / KS5 and beyond)

•  Specialist teaching

•  Partnerships with other secondary schools

•  Visits to colleges / universities

•  Opportunities to build cultural capital through trips and visits (UK)

•  Opportunities to build cultural capital through overseas trips

Out of school provision

•  Acceleration classes

•  Enrichment classes

•  National schemes/competitions/festivals

•  Trips and visits

Enrichment

The programme for high attaining, able and talented students includes sessions held in school and led by school staff or external speakers, as well as visits to universities, etc. The aim of the programme will be to offer different experiences to broaden the perspectives of the high attaining, able and talented cohort. In addition, the opportunity to meet with other high attaining, able and talented students, sometimes across year groups, should be supported.

A wide range of extra curricular activities is currently available to students, which provides all students with the opportunity to discover and/or develop their skills and abilities. These opportunities are constantly being expanded and developed. Those students identified as high attaining, able and talented are encouraged to take part in appropriate activities, which extend and challenge their thinking as well as encouraging them to take responsibility for their own development. Staff and tutors are aware of those high attaining, able and talented students in their care and encourage them towards appropriate activities.