Schools and colleges should consider the following questions when evaluating the effectiveness of provision for gifted and talented learners.

• How are the statements of expectations that are described in the institution wide and subject policies for gifted and talented young people used as indicators of effectiveness against which monitoring and evaluation can take place?
• How motivating are systems for celebrating achievement?
• How are parents, carers and learners made aware of the school or college's gifted and talented policy?
• How are teachers and learners supported in setting the highest expectations of achievement?
• How are new staff inducted in policy and practice?
• How are gifted and talented processes integrated into performance management, institutional target-setting, assessment, planning and analysis?
• How is provision for gifted and talented learners monitored and evaluated for its impact on the quality of teaching and on standards of achievement?
• How are gifted and talented practices made integral to the institution's processes of self-evaluation and review?
• How effective is subject leadership in developing the practice of all teachers in this area?
• How effective are systems for tracking achievement?
• How are differences in achievement between groups of learners investigated?

Any monitoring or evaluation -- both in terms of policy implementation and effectiveness of provision -- needs to consider young people's workloads and possible effects on their motivation and self-esteem.

The following student's story highlights the importance of this.

John's story

John is a talented and committed musician. He is also an academically gifted all-rounder who was expected to follow a wide range of examination courses at key stage 4. The demands of both spheres of activity, together with other factors, placed an enormous pressure on John. As a result, tensions developed that affected both his motivation and his relationships with teachers. For more on this, see Case study 25: John's story and Supporting individuals.

Observation

Systematic observation of teachers and young people at work can make a major contribution to evaluating the effectiveness of provision for gifted and talented learners. One local education authority suggests the following approach.

Before a teacher observes another teacher's lessons, he or she checks lesson plans for provision for the gifted and talented.

After observing a lesson, the teachers discuss:

• the level of involvement of gifted and talented learners and what they learn;
• the appropriateness of the level of challenge;
• the range of teaching methods used;
• the quality and range of resources provided;
• whether questioning encouraged thinking and learning, rather than simply recall.

In Providing for gifted and talented pupils, its evaluation of Excellence in Cities and other grant-funded programmes, Ofsted suggests that:

'… Senior managers need to interpret data on attainment and behaviour to find out which groups of pupils are successful and in which departments. Close monitoring helps to explain what works, and why, in a particular school. It helps to highlight when, and in which subjects, pupils fail to thrive. Rigorous evaluation assists senior staff and teachers to plan more precisely for improvement, to target resources more effectively and to increase understanding of what works and the confidence to try it.

'Initiatives such as gifted and talented summer schools and masterclasses involving more than one school place particular demands on coordinators in ensuring that information about pupils' performance, potential and progress is disseminated appropriately. This is often difficult when the participating pupils come from a large number of schools with which the coordinators may have limited links. A simple system is needed to ensure that pupils' achievements in summer schools and masterclasses and similar programmes are transmitted to the pupils' home schools.'

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