Good communication and collaboration between teachers is essential. Schools need recording and communication systems to ensure that at the start of each year, as far as possible, each teacher is aware of:

the potential and level of achievement of the pupils they will be teaching;

the topics they have covered;

the resources that have been used.

Revision, review and reflection should be an integral part of the provision made for gifted pupils in any age group. In general, provision should build on prior knowledge and skills and pupils unnecessarily repeating work that they have covered in earlier years should be avoided. Written records should keep a note of:

which pupils have followed a systematic extension course, or have been involved in other supplementary programmes;

the topics covered and the depth in which these topics were covered.

These written records should be filed somewhere that is easily accessible to, and regularly consulted by, all mathematics staff.

If some individuals in an extension or withdrawal group follow individual programmes, it may be necessary to keep individual records in order to keep subsequent teachers informed. To make this manageable when a number of pupils are involved in a school year, it may be best to provide a uniform, rather than an individualised, extension programme.

Formal communication procedures are also needed to exchange information between mathematics teachers when pupils move from one school or college to another. Individual reporting is essential and a clear indication of any extension material covered -- and to what level -- needs to be included on the record card of each pupil who has participated significantly in an extension programme.

In addition, it is helpful if secondary school mathematics departments establish strong links with primary schools. Valuable information about pupils is often best conveyed by talking things through. Strong links and informal contacts can make it possible for primary teachers to draw on the mathematical ideas and experience of their secondary specialist colleagues, and for secondary teachers to learn from teaching practices which may be more common in primary than secondary schools.

At the transition from key stage 4 to A level work, mathematics departments in schools and tertiary colleges need to be aware of the background of students who have taken part in extension programmes at school. Only when they are aware of this can they do their best to build upon students' experiences, either by using the enhanced background of a number of students to extend the whole class, or by putting students together in the same teaching groups and then actively reinforcing and extending their background. Whatever strategy is adopted, gifted students in years 12 and 13 still need to be nurtured. Colleges should expect and encourage students who have benefited from mathematics extension programmes at school to continue their study at the highest level.

There is also scope for schools at primary and secondary levels to cooperate in arranging occasional activities that involve pupils from more than one school. This cooperation may take various forms:

mathematics master classes run annually by many local authorities or regional committees, where one or two pupils are invited from a number of schools;

an 'area mathematics day', where pupils from different schools get together to take part in interesting mathematical activities (like the Maths Roadshow that is operated by Mathematics Education on Merseyside);

teams from different schools competing against each other (as in the Hans Wojda competition in the London area, or the Pop Maths Quiz run by staff at Sheffield Hallam University);

a group of schools booking a mathematics lecture for pupils in years 10 to 13, with one school agreeing to act as host.

Managing provision in the general guidance

Matching teaching to pupils' needs in the general guidance

Transfer and transition in the general guidance

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