Gifted and Talented: Self review

1. Gifted and Talented: Self review Presented 28 Sept 4.15 – 5.15 2011 Webinar 3 of a series of 4 Carolyn English LEARNING MEDIA

2. 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.

3. Theme for today’s webinar • To explore what schools and boards think about when • 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 • improving policies and practices • Examples of school practices will be shared in this webinar.

4. Key self review questions • 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? 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.

5. 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.”

6. 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.”

7. 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.”

8. 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.”

9. 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.”

10. 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.”