The national curriculum statement Inclusion: providing effective learning opportunities for all pupils, in the national curriculum handbook, requires teachers to have due regard to three principles when planning and teaching the national curriculum:

setting suitable learning challenges;

responding to pupils' diverse learning needs;

overcoming potential barriers to learning and assessment.

The national curriculum for each subject includes detailed guidance on inclusion issues as they relate to that subject. These three principles are equally applicable to learning programmes beyond the national curriculum and across all phases of educaton.

Top of page

Setting suitable learning challenges

The national curriculum programmes of study set out what most pupils should be taught at each key stage, but teachers should teach the knowledge, skills and understanding in ways that suit their pupils' abilities. In the case of gifted and talented pupils, this may mean:

• choosing material from later key stages;
• providing opportunities for pupils to take the national curriculum tests when they have completed the relevant key stage, and possibly earlier than their peers.

For example, a junior school could give pupils access to the key stage 3 programme of study. The long-term effectiveness of doing this would depend on the quality of the school's collaboration with local secondary schools.

Similarly, early completion of the programme of study would permit either greater breadth or depth within or beyond the programme of study or early take-up of courses leading to GCSE and other qualifications.

Understanding preferred learning styles can play an important part in helping teachers to set suitable learning challenges:

• Those who understand how they learn best are likely to be effective, well-motivated, independent learners.
• If teachers know preferred learning styles, it can help them to plan effective programmes (including giving learners experience of learning styles with which they are not so comfortable).
• In turn, if teachers understand their own preferred learning styles, this can influence their teaching style.

Useful guides to the identification of learning styles are now widely available.

Top of page

Responding to diverse learning needs

Teachers need to be aware that young people bring to school or college different experiences, interests and strengths which influence the way they learn. Teachers should take specific action to respond to learners' diverse needs by:

• creating effective learning environments, in which stereotypical views are challenged and pupils/students learn to appreciate and view positively differences in others, whether arising from race, gender, ability, disability, age, religion/belief or sexual orientation;
• securing their motivation and concentration;
• providing equality of opportunity through teaching approaches;
• using appropriate assessment approaches;
• setting targets for learning.

For gifted and talented learners, an institutional culture that values high achievement prevents the demotivating isolation (and sometimes bullying) of those seen as more successful than their peers. It can be helpful to have some form of code of achievement.

Identifying and motivating underachieving students

In a secondary school where students are culturally and linguistically diverse and where the expectation to progress to higher and further education is not well established, focused work is taking place to:

• develop an ethos of unity between high attainers and gifted underachievers;
• motivate students through activities they regard as fun and rewarding.

The school is working in partnership with an external charitable organisation and the programmes are strategically planned across years 9 to 11. There is attention to race-gender issues and the young people meet and exchange experiences with black professional adults.

The students selected for the programme in year 9 are under-performing, lack self-confidence or have emotional/behavioural difficulties.

For more on this, see Case study 1: Identifying and motivating underachieving students.

To find out how a school is using target-setting and mentoring to support gifted underachievers, see Case study 2: Tackling underachievement.

Some gifted and talented learners believe that their ability is innate and fixed, and so do not make an effort in studying and developing their learning. Others do not recognise their talents, perhaps because of lack of confidence or low self-esteem. Either way, these young people benefit from being moved out of their comfort zone or their 'can't' zone. Schools and colleges need to consider a variety of ways to challenge and encourage them, including different learning styles, contexts and demands. Teaching assistants, mentors and a range of adults other then teachers can help to do this. Older students and pupils can also be good mentors for younger pupils.

Top of page

Overcoming potential barriers to learning and assessment

Some of the gifted and talented have learning and assessment needs which, if not addressed, create barriers to learning. These are likely to relate to:

• a special educational or assessment need;
• physical disability;
• progress in learning English as an additional language.

Gifted and talented learners will be disempowered if potential barriers to their learning are not acknowledged and tackled as a whole-institution issue.

For example, a gifted signer will succeed if a school gives proper attention to all pupils' knowledge of signing as a medium for learning and communication.

Jamie's story

Jamie was diagnosed at five years old with Asperger's Syndrome, having displayed exceptional abilities in language and number from a very early age and classic social detachment associated with the condition.

At 11, Jamie went to a selective boys' school, accompanied by the learning assistant who had worked with him in primary school. His story is complex, but this consistency of support and his subsequent partnership with a perceptive maths teacher helped him through a potentially difficult period of transition.

For Jamie's mother's perspective, see Case study 26: Jamie's story.

Mary's story

Mary had not attended secondary school for two years. She lived on a local authority (travellers') site with her parents, but travelled extensively with the families of her older siblings. Long-term support from the local authority enabled Mary to overcome the many barriers to achieving her educational potential that were raised by both circumstances and her family.

The LEA traveller education support service remained in contact throughout, constantly offering Mary practical support so that she could maintain easy access to her education. For example, they negotiated a restricted timetable of five GCSEs, helped Mary to organise, execute and submit coursework, and helped her to gain admission to college to study GNVQ in art.

Behavioural problems, disaffection or social and emotional difficulties can all inhibit the identification of high ability. It is worth checking a range of factors, including learners' emotional responses in different classrooms and settings and the way they react to different styles of learning and assesment. It should never be assumed that because young people attend a Pupil Referral Unit or other special provision, including hospital schools, they are not gifted or talented.

Excellence in Cities notes the importance of using learning mentors appropriately to support gifted pupils: 'Mentor support might involve ensuring more challenging work is available. The key challenges will be to champion the learning needs of the child and to overcome any barriers to effective learning.' Learning mentors could include:

• older pupils (in primary schools, mentors could be secondary school pupils who used to go to the school);
• university students, for sixth formers or college students;
• teachers;
• governors;
• people from businesses or community groups;
• teaching assistants.

Such support can be particularly important to distance learning programmes, where it is easy to make over-optimistic assumptions about the capacity of gifted and talented individuals to learn through media packages and email.

Top of page