At Regents Park Community College we believe that all children, what ever their ability, deserve the chance to lead a happy and satisfying life. Gifted and talented children have a great thirst for knowledge and it is vital that this need is recognised as early as possible so that parents and teachers can give them plenty of opportunities to develop their talents.
At Regents Park Community College we believe in treating all students as individuals and so catering for their individual needs. This includes those 5-10% of pupils of higher ability who we refer to as 'gifted' and 'talented.' This identification of gifted and talented pupils is a process in which all teaching staff have a part, but it is overseen by the Coordinator for gifted and talented students, Ms Clark
Additionally, pupils are offered the support of learning mentors who provide support in order to help pupils achieve. We believe that one of the most effective strategies for helping gifted and talented pupils to reach their full potential is ensuring that they develop as rounded persons, and so their progress in social and interpersonal skills is monitored as well as their progress within curriculum subjects.
Recent and current pupil challenges include
There are three basic ways of meeting the needs of gifted and talented pupils: acceleration, enrichment and extension.
Acceleration consists of enabling a pupil to access work which would typically be for older pupils. This is achieved by pupils being given work which would more typically be given to older pupils. In some subjects, pupils are also accelerated by working in ability sets.
Enrichment consists of broadening a pupil's education. Enrichment can consist of targets set individually or opportunities provided outside of the normal curriculum, either in the college or at external locations.
Extension occurs when pupils are encouraged to develop more sophisticated thinking and reasoning skills. This should take place in all aspects of our gifted and talented provision. All staff are trained in developing thinking skills through their teaching.
Very often parents are the first to recognise that their child is bright for his or her age. There are many checklists of gifted characteristics. In general they contain several common elements.
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No one will show all these sorts of behaviours, but very bright children will fit a significant number of them.
The child of high academic ability may be identified by Intelligence tests. They may, however, be gifted in areas in which intelligence tests are poor predictors.
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We use a range of measures to identify our Gifted and Talented children including test results, and the professional judgement of staff. We have students on our register who are talented across a wide range of academic subjects, to those whose expertise is limited to one area in which they excel out of school.
Parents play an essential role in the development of their gifted and talented children, a role which the school supports but cannot displace. All parents are welcome to make an appointment to come into school and meet Ms Clark to discuss their child's potential.
We welcome any input from parents and carers, please use the link below for any comments you may have:
