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Roles and responsibilities: Governors
Governors, in their role as 'critical friends', have a special responsibility (in partnership with the headteacher or principal) for ensuring that all pupil and student needs are met and that no minority needs are overlooked. They set the strategy within which policy is shaped and ensure that its implementation is monitored and evaluated. Schools and colleges can help them to do this by providing data on the progress of gifted and talented learners and involving them fully in policy-making and review.
Points to consider
The type of questions that governors need to consider are:
How effectively does the school or college ethos encourage teachers to meet the needs of gifted and talented learners in the context of high achievement for all?
How effective is policy and practice for gifted and talented learners? What are the key strengths and areas to target?
How are learners involved in receiving and shaping policy and practice?
What training is available -- through the school, college or the local education authority -- for governors, managers and teachers or lecturers? Who has been trained and how has it affected teaching and learning? (See the case studies listed below.)
How is good practice being disseminated?
How are parents or carers included in, and informed about, matters of policy?
What formal reports about monitoring and evaluating the implementation of the gifted and talented policy should governors see regularly?, (without placing an undue burden on reporting staff.)
Does the governing body need more advice and guidance on its role in relation to gifted and talented learners? It might find it useful to nominate one governor to:
- oversee provision for gifted and talented learners;
- liaise with and support the gifted and talented coordinator.
The following case studies provide more information on staff development.
Training on teaching and learning styles
A school ran whole-staff INSET on teaching and learning styles that aimed to develop students' thinking skills in as many subjects as possible. Workshops focused on problem solving, co-operative learning, active listening, researching and fun activities. The strategies have been transferred into lesson plans, resulting in greater emphasis on non-written ways of presenting ideas.
For more on this, see Case study 3: Training on teaching and learning styles.
Sharing training between schools
A local Excellence Challenge used 'in-house' trainers from a school that had pioneered creative teaching ideas to encourage 120 staff working with 16- to 19-year-olds to rethink their approach to learning.
For more on this, see Case study 4: Sharing training between schools.
Involving every department
This study in management illustrates how one 11-16 secondary school involved every department in tightly targeted work for gifted and talented students. For more on this, see Case study 5: Involving every department.
Linking with a university
Within the context of a partnership between a sixth-form centre and a local higher education institution, governors participated in each others' institution through the mutual exchange of governors.
For more on this, see Case study 9: Linking with a university.
The 14 to 19 context
The diversity of the 14 to 19 phase and its link to national qualifications, targets and performance measures raises a new set of questions for gifted and talented provision. For example:
How does the entry policy for national qualifications ensure flexibility of learning, broad experiences and enrichment for gifted and talented students, and the optimum contribution from each student to institutional performance outcomes and targets?
How successful is the institution in providing unbiased guidance on all available progression routes at 16, while still maintaining recruitment targets to sixth-form provision?
How do curriculum planning and the opportunities for students to review progress and make decisions about their next steps enable them to plan their progression through and beyond the 14 to 19 phase? In particular, how are they helped to see 16 as a staging post, rather than an end point?
How are difficult duty of care issues reconciled with the aim of giving students more autonomy and independence in their learning and more individualised programmes in a range of settings?
How does the institution build links with partner institutions to extend and develop opportunities available to 14- to 19-year-olds while maintaining its distinctiveness? In particular, does the institution make the most of local provision for the gifted and talented within its own area of excellence?
The following case study provides information on how governors can support links with partner institutions.