G&T Narrowing the Gap Kevin Burrell: Operations Manager – Inclusion, Partnership and Innovation

The Gap Twenty-one Oxbridge colleges took no black students last year Bleak portrait of racial and social exclusion at Oxbridge institutions revealed by Labour MP David Lammy's FoI request The Guardian, Monday 6 December 2010

One Oxford college has not admitted a single black student in five years. Data released under the Freedom of Information Act also shows that more than 20 Oxbridge colleges made no offers to black undergraduates last year. The information, uncovered by Labour MP David Lammy, revealed that Oxford's xxxxxx College has admitted no black students in five years and only three in the last decade.

Here’s some rope…. A spokeswoman for Oxford said: “Black students apply disproportionately for the most oversubscribed subjects, contributing to a lower than average success rate for the group as a whole.” “44% of all black applicants apply for Oxford's three most oversubscribed subjects, compared with just 17% of all white applicants. Those subjects are economics and management, medicine and maths. “This goes a very long way to explaining the group's overall lower success rate.”

But maybe…… School attainment is the single biggest barrier to getting more black students to Oxford. The same is true for certain socioeconomic groups and certain regions. If Mr Lammy thinks Oxford and Cambridge's data makes "shocking reading", he should try the national figures. In 2009, 29,000 white students got the requisite grades for Oxford (AAA excluding general studies), compared to just 452 black students. (Sally Mapstone: St Hilda’s College) )

Ethnicity We need to create an educational system that sees race equality as an essential requirement of effective gifted and talented education provision; where all educators hold high expectations towards their bilingual and culturally diverse students; where schools celebrate the diversity which is their strength; where there is a requirement to be completely committed to breaking down the barriers that prevent individuals from realising their potential; where high levels of challenge are the right of all students. London Gifted and Talented :Releasing Equality & Achievement for Learning Project (2008)

FSM Secondary age students eligible for free schools meals are 50% less likely to be identified as G&T than those who are not. The gap across the 5-19 range amounts to some 56,000 pupils who are effectively missing from registers across the country. (2009 data)

In Bucks: % FSM Achieving Level 4 or above 2009/10 EngMaEn/MaEn/MA National All pupils Non FSM FSM

In Bucks: % FSM Achieving Level 5 or above 2009/10 EngMaEn/MaEn/MA National All pupils Non FSM FSM16 89

In Bucks: % GCSE 2009/10 3A*-A5A*-C inc Ma/En 5 A*-C inc L2 All pupils Non FSM FSM

In Bucks: % A Level 2009/10 3A*-AAny A*-A3 or more A*-E All pupils Non FSM FSM

Ethnicity % of ethnic cohorts 3+A-A* GCSE3A*-A A Level All pupils White British Pakistani Black Caribbean8.54.8

Ability is evenly spread, achievement is not G&T – ‘approximately 10%’? 10% of whom? What does an inclusive G&T population look like? –Who are our G&T? –Who are our underachieving groups? –What factors matter to us in deciding?

Know Your Groups: What are the characteristics of each of your underachieving groups? What is distinctive about G&T provision for each of your underachieving groups? Are there significant sub groups within this cohort? What have been the historical trends? How do you compare with LA or National trends?

Track and Act Are xxxx pupils attaining in line with the average for high attainers? If not, which groups are affected? What might account for this differential? Are G&T xxxx pupils making at least two levels of progress across key stages? What are the links to other pupil characteristics (e.g. gender, socio-economic background)? What areas for development does your analysis highlight?

The Challenge Within the national programme for gifted and talented education is a wider strategy to ensure that disadvantaged gifted and talented learners are identified and receive the challenge and support they need to overcome the obstacles they face and so reach the same level of achievement as their more advantaged peers…[this means combining] direct support for learners with action to improve the quality of personalised teaching and learning in all schools. Tim Dracup (2007)

Personalisation: “Personalising learning means, in practical terms, focusing in a more structured way on each child’s learning in order to enhance progress, achievement and participation. All children and young people have the right to receive support and challenge, tailored to their needs, interests and abilities.” And we should add that “needs” includes factors related to ethnicity and family circumstances Vision (DfES, 2006)

John Hattie, Visible Learning: pathologising disadvantage “ The teacher provides supportive feedback and helps students to learn by acknowledging and using the students’ prior knowledge and experiences, and monitoring to check if students know what is being taught, what is to be learnt, or what is to be produced. It involves the teacher teaching the students something, instructing them how to produce something and giving them instructions as to the process of learning” (Referring to Bishop et al 2002)