Schools and colleges often encourage the gifted and talented to take advantage of learning resources outside the institution, sometimes as part of learners' mainstream programmes and sometimes as extracurricular enrichment or extension.

Gifted and talented learners often attend:

• neighbourhood summer schools;
• LEA-arranged workshops;
• master classes and workshops linked to a beacon school with excellence in a certain area, revision centres, neighbouring schools and colleges, or local industries or businesses.

The partnerships and clusters developed through Excellence in Cities provide models for effective collaboration to support activities like these.

Schools and colleges need to ensure that all such activities are integrated into learners' mainstream programmes. As the Ofsted evaluation observes:

'There is a risk that specially funded work to improve provision for the gifted and talented develops a life of its own and is not sufficiently connected with the main structures, systems and developments in the school. The involvement of heads of departments in secondary schools is crucial to successful work.'

The National Foundation for Educational Research recently completed a study of summer schools for the gifted and talented (Study support summer school pilots, DfEE, 1999). The points below, adapted from that study, apply to many activities established as extensions of institutional provision.

Preparation should include detailed arrangements for monitoring and evaluating learners' progress and attainment when taking part in programmes outside school. Learners and parents and carers should be involved as much as possible in this monitoring and evaluation.

Young people, parents and carers and partner organisations should be involved throughout the planning cycle.

Those within the institution charged with coordinating such initiatives need to play a part in any selection procedures at host and other institutions.

Every attempt should be made to ensure the participation of under-represented groups, for example pupils from minority ethnic groups.

Off-site schemes add value to systems and structures for the gifted and talented that are already in place in schools, colleges and LEAs. Coordinators should make it clear that the schemes complement normal term-time work. Provision should be significantly different from normal school/college activity.

Partnerships created should be maintained to benefit all learners, regardless of ability.

The involvement of adult mentors should be carefully planned before the start of a programme, and summer schools should encourage the use of pupil or student mentors.

Summer-school coordinators should inform host institutions, other institutions and the LEA of good practice.

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Checklist: reviewing activities

The checklist below can help the development and review of activities for the gifted and talented outside the school or college.

• How will the activities complement what is already on offer for the gifted and talented in the local area?
• How are continuity and progression ensured as a matter of priority?
• Which groups will be involved in planning the provision? How will they be involved in the whole process?
• How will any successful partnerships created by the activity be developed for the benefit of all?
• Who is involved in selecting learners for the activity? Have the needs of minority groups been properly considered?
• What is the role of pupil or student and adult mentors in the activity?
• How will their involvement be planned into the programme?
• How will the successes of the activity be communicated in the local area?
• How will the outcomes be built on in the future, so that the experience is not bolt-on or isolated?
• Each subject section of this guidance includes information on activities for that subject beyond the normal learning environment.

The following case study shows how a range of organisations and institutions can come together to provide effective out-of-school activities for learners.

An EBP challenge event

A business education partnership organises an annual challenge event to raise able students' expectations and encourage interest in practical science and design and technology. The challenge is now in its seventh year and involves about 85 students annually. Its success is attributed to the commitment and expertise of the trainers, engineers and test pilots who are involved in making the days intellectually stimulating and exciting.

For more on this, see Case study 12: An EBP challenge event.

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