It is vital that a school or college's provision for the gifted and talented is coherent and consistent:

• across subjects and programme types;
• across year groups and phases;
• for each gifted and talented learner..
• This coherence needs to be clear to staff, parents and pupils/students.

At the whole-institution level:

• The various threads of provision for the gifted and talented (including teaching and learning, extracurricular enrichment, pastoral support and community links) should operate coherently and relate to each other.
• The components of teaching and learning, including classroom provision, study support, workplace learning and enrichment opportunities -- need to make sense as a coherent package, rather than being a disparate collection of initiatives.
• Study support must complement classroom provision effectively -- it should not simply be a bolt-on extra that bears no relationship to the curriculum that the gifted and talented follow.
• Acceleration, extension and enrichment should be planned coherently across the institution and within subject areas.

At the subject level, secondary schools in particular should ensure that different departments are consistent in their provision for the gifted and talented. Some subjects lend themselves more easily to approaches such as acceleration, and some allowances may need to be made for local needs and circumstances. However, there is no reason in principle why a school's policy on, for example, the balance between acceleration, extension and enrichment, should not be followed by all subject departments.

The government's view is that acceleration (pace), extension (depth) and enrichment (breadth) all have their part to play in gifted and talented provision, but that learners are likely to access them in different combinations, according to their abilities and needs. It is important that the approach to acceleration, extension and enrichment is coherent for each individual, and that other dimensions of provision (such as curricular flexibility) are taken into account so that the overall teaching and learning package makes sense.

All of this needs to be done with an eye to short- and longer-term progress. For example, if acceleration is part of the package in year 10, the consequences for year 11 and beyond need to be planned as part of an individual's broader teaching and learning provision.

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