1. The Future of Able and Talented Provision at Westhead Lathom St. James C.E. Primary School

2. Our Situation Small village school- 72 pupils Semi-rural Hard-working staff who aim to develop each child’s full potential Planning based on a two ( reception, year 1) and four year( years 2,3,4,5 and 6) rolling programme around the QCA units resulting in an overloaded curriculum with little time for reflection, inspiration and in-depth problem solving. Teachers constantly under pressure to move on through stodgy knowledge

3. Many topics running at same time- fragmented learning Children being passive more often than being active learners who make decisions about their learning methods and paths Previously identified able and talented children across the curriculum using PIPS data and teacher assessment resulting in withdrawal of small groups of children for maths (Stretch Your Head Maths) Previously able and talented children challenged academically by differentiation of work set within mixed age classes

4. Australia TIPD 2009 A wonderful opportunity to work with nine like- minded professionals (teachers, head-teachers and study group leader) from all over England to work towards our objectives:-  To develop a greater understanding of learning and teaching strategies that motivate, challenge and extend gifted and talented learners.  To identify good practice that could be used to improve the attainment and engagement of gifted and talented learners in rural schools.

5. Australian Approaches to Gifted, Able and Talented Provision The IGNITE programme - acceleration o pupils in separate class groups in secondary sector The Gloss programme - once a week withdrawal of 11 year olds off-site to specialists for high interest programmes Curriculum differentiation - work set matched to ability within a mixed ability class

6. Student centred learning - children make choices about what, when and how they learn Special focus secondary schools - narrowed curriculum in order to accelerate learners attainment Distance learning - e-learning with on-line tutors supported by posted materials for children in inaccessible places

7. Reflection  Chance to reflect upon practice in Adelaide compared to that at our school  Realised that we need to maintain withdrawal but not in one narrow field (maths) but rather as a means of developing higher order thinking skills ( e.g. Blooms Taxonomy) to inspire rather than push GAT children.  Need to widen our identification strategies to include views of other stakeholders  Need to raise learners’ levels of inspiration  Need to increase relevance of the curriculum to all learners’ interests and levels of understanding

8.  Need to give learners more choices in their learning to bring about ownership and a sense of responsibility for learning. Children to have greater control over the direction and manner of their learning. We want active rather than passive learners.  Raising inspiration, relevance and choice will be like raising the tide. The boats afloat are named self-esteem, behaviour, motivation, effort, interest and of course achievement. They will all be lifted by this tide  Need to change our planning from a knowledge-based over-loaded curriculum to find space and time to include Blooms Taxonomy Higher Order Thinking Skills within a skills –based curriculum  Maintain differentiation in all lessons - a common feature in mixed age class lessons already  Re-design timetable to allow further blocking of themed work

9. Impact at Westhead- a new approach to planning  Reducing knowledge content. Pruned and composted QCA units  Taking on a new way of planning- Chris Quigley model addressing new curriculum which encourages a more creative, themed, skills- based approach to learning  Planning shorter units of 2-6 weeks  Children are using mind-mapping more often as a tool to decide what they know, connections within and what they’d like to find out about chosen subjects/skills. Improved pupil voice

10. Impact- re-organising learning spaces for independent personalised learning  We have swapped classrooms and have given the children our staff- room which is now a creative room linking our early years to outdoor continuous provision. (This means we don’t even have a staffroom now but the staff prefer the situation as it is bringing their teaching alive again).

11. Busy Bees R and Y1 outdoor learning now accessible for continuous provision daily

12. Impact- enrichment programme to widen horizons and use higher order thinking skills.  We are liaising with other agencies to bring about enrichment programme on a smaller scale to GLOSS programme. We are starting with a day’s conference and hopefully leading to a 6 week programme.  Working with Edge Hill University and Ormskirk Secondary School plus the expertise and good will of contacts accumulated over the years  The children will have the opportunity to meet other GAT children ( very important in the small rural school) and experience non-curricular, real- world tasks and problems.  They will work alongside specialists who will be briefed in the purpose. We will work with them beforehand to agree where Blooms Taxonomy higher order thinking skills can be used. Westhead Lathom St James Lathom Park Bickerstaffe Primary School Ormskirk C of E Primary School Ormskirk School Edge Hill University

13.  Programmes:-How does a submarine work? ;How many ways can we propagate plants?; Hip Hop scratching; web design; digital animation; finance/enterprise; rocketry; basketball; sculpture; water colour painting; philosophy for children; book illustration; bird adaptation; salsa; first aid; and forensic science.  The children will see that pure subjects such as maths can be applied in the form of design and engineering for example

14.  All improvements to the curriculum are aimed at the inspiration of GAT children but will benefit all children - including staff interest and morale.

15. We are feeling inspired!