Assessment practice that acknowledges the full range of learning styles and learners' competencies will enable a greater range of abilities to be revealed. For example, an oral presentation allows learners with underdeveloped writing skills to show their abilities.

Day-to-day (formative) assessment is a powerful mechanism for providing feedback to learners and helping them to reflect on their learning. All learners benefit from gaining insights into the way in which they learn, and the gifted and talented will normally be quick to apply these insights to further learning, increasing their autonomy and independence.

However, the challenges and assessment opportunities offered to the gifted and talented need to be appropriate for their abilities. Feedback on how work can be improved and the provision of clear learning and assessment objectives provide the gifted and talented with an agenda for progress. Similarly, it enables the teacher to plan future work to meet individual needs more closely and to set appropriate targets. Positive and constructive feedback also have a major part to play in affirming self-esteem and increasing motivation. Like all learners, without praise and a positive response, the gifted and talented become discouraged and demotivated. For more on the role of formative assessment, see QCA's report on teachers' perception of formative assessment.

Teachers across a year group in primary schools, colleagues from different schools, and subject teachers and departments in secondary schools and colleges should meet up regularly to share assessment information.

Gifted and talented learners benefit from a mixture of teacher and peer assessment. Peer assessment has played an important part in many formative assessment initiatives:

articulating and analysing learned outcomes strengthens the understanding of both individuals and groups;

identifying criteria in the work of others helps to enhance learners' understanding of the learning process and the subject.

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Why is formative assessment useful?

Formative assessment can be used to inform and develop learners' understanding of the nature of a subject.

Assessment can be used as a diagnostic tool for future planning and to highlight underachievement.

Formative assessment can support target-setting and/or monitoring.

Focusing on assessment for learning helps teachers to clarify objectives and anticipate hurdles. The resulting outcomes support improved achievement for all learners.

Well-organised and demanding coursework at GCSE, supported by rigorous assessment (where principles are made explicit), presents an appropriate challenge to gifted and talented learners in a given subject or subjects.

Rigorous and well-planned assessment provides a strong support to teachers' own knowledge and understanding of a subject area.

Modelling with learners through the assessment process can raise expectations by demystifying the process. If this is coupled with opportunities for learners to use criteria to assess both their own and their peers' work, the possibility of enhanced understanding and high achievement is significantly increased.

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