1. Challenging Higher Attaining Pupils NQT Conference October 2017
Tamsin Austoni
Primary Phase Inspector (PPI)
“Making Hampshire a better place for children and young people where all of them, including those who are vulnerable and or disadvantaged, have the best possible start in life and are supported by the whole community to reach their potential.”
Welcome and introductions
Domestic arrangements: toilets, fire escape, coffee break, lunch, end time
General feel for where NQTs are from – KS1/KS2/special
Set protocols for the day – phones, leaving early etc.

2. Aims
To understand how high quality inclusive teaching can support challenge for higher attaining pupils, particularly through questioning
Look at ways to provide challenge every day, in every lesson
Design tasks and activities which challenge pupils
Consider how planned questioning is used to challenge higher attaining pupils
As practical as possible.
Hope to leave with ideas to take back to have a go at in class.

3. I would like to share …… Things that are concerning me …..
Things they already know or have tried.
Post it notes - individually.
Share ideas on table and choose two to share with whole group.
Post-its up around room for general sharing.
Concerns – use for pass the problem during the afternoon.

4. Glossary Any others? Mastery Variation Age related expectation
Differentiation
Quality first teaching
Greater depth
High quality inclusive teaching
More able
Higher attainers
Intervention
Most able
Gifted and talented
Any others?
Mastery – confusion due to tracking system language. Mastering everything – brick wall analogy
ARE – every child unless SEN cognitive delay (might need some discussion)
Greater depth – what it says!
More able/most able/higher attainers – no clear definition. Schools will have their own.
Do all schools have higher attaining pupils?
G&T – terminology not used these days. Did refer to ‘academically gifted’ and talents beyond academic curriculum – dance, music, sport etc
Variation v differentiation – discuss and explain
Quality first teaching – getting it right in the classroom – your job! Does not involve lots of additional interventions beyond what is happening in class
HQIT – takes QFT one step further – about every child. Links to variation
Intervention – very many interpretations – discuss.

5. Mastery Learning
Children will deepen their grasp of key ideas, over time, rather than move on and leave gaps behind.
Through being well taught and given curriculum opportunities they will develop and demonstrate their resourcefulness and versatility, in an age appropriate way.
This will be evident in their capacity to applying their knowledge, skills and understanding with sufficient:
Fluency over time
Independence
Resilience to deal with complexity and new contexts
Maths: fluency, reasoning, problem solving
English: fluency, clarity, accuracy, coherence
How do we ask questions to support this?

6. Precise learning objectives are used to ensure focus is clear
Teacher instructs
Learners are dependent
Level of Support
Teacher guides
Learners are responsible
Teacher facilitates
Learners are resourceful
Precise learning objectives are used to ensure focus is clear
Teacher consults
Learners are creative
Apprentice
Competent
Expert

7. It is definitely not….
Giving all the pupils exactly the same task with the same expectations
Restricting the cognitive challenge for higher attaining pupils
Holding back their progress by re-teaching them things they can already do, confidently and securely
Give example of Year 1 curriculum – write a simple sentence, work with numbers to 20. Not holding back more able but finding ways to help them become more fluent – deeper learning.

8. Who are we talking about?
Higher Attainers? More Able? Gifted?
Who are they in your class?
What about the children with specific learning difficulties but specific abilities?

9. The Flea Analogy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlpjA-QgmQM
Reminder that the reason we are here is the children – they only get one chance and we can’t make any excuses.
Lots of barriers – we have to find ways round them and make no excuses.

10. What switches high attaining pupils off?
More practice of the same
Next page/next book/ next task
Unrewarded additional work even if chosen
Unplanned, open ended tasks
Work that is the same and is completed easily
Waiting for their peers
Work that is not challenging
Chn very quickly learn to slow down!
When pupil conferencing, HA pupils ask for more teacher time, things that challenged them and tasks that were not boring because they could already do them.
OfSTED/HMI find just under half of pupils find lessons boring and easy.

11. For higher attaining pupils
We should be aiming to show that our higher attaining pupils are making good progress (from their starting points) through:
Tasks that challenge their thinking and skills, expecting greater fluency, independence and resilience in less familiar contexts
These expectations should be reflected in the task design and the specific success criteria even if the class are working from a common overall curriculum statement
Their books should demonstrate that they are being given tasks and feedback that stretch their application of knowledge, skills and understanding
Overtime, all those pupils who started the key stage ‘beyond’ their peer group, should be showing secure evidence of achievement that is ‘deeper within’ e.g. still beyond. The % beyond should remain % beyond.
However, individual higher attaining pupils who demonstrate gaps in their understanding should have these addressed before they move on with the challenges planned for their peers

12. How do you know where the gaps in learning are for each pupil?

13. And so to questions …… Why questions?
Purposeful feedback in lesson is about asking the right questions to challenge children to improve.
Who is good at asking the right questions in school?
What do the right questions look like?

14. Purpose of questions in the classroom
Provide information to the teacher about what to do next.
Closed questions?
To cause children to think.
Dialogic questions
Ref: Professor Dylan William

16. Lots of different ways of thinking about questions – following four slides give different frameworks/models
Talk through each one and how this might be used for higher attaining children.

17. Planning for Questions
Imagine that you are teaching either Y2 or Y4. Y2 – Science topic on materials Which footwear will be best to wear on our class hike? Y4 – History topic on Romans Will you complete our Roman march dressed as a Roman or in your 21st century clothes?

18. Or…plan an enquiry related to your current or next topic.
Remember to plan questions for children to answer, but most importantly, opportunities for children to ask questions
How will you ensure that they ask the higher order questions?

19. Concept Cartoons Look at snowman example online
How could you set up opportunities for this kind of talk in your classroom?

20. Questions