More Able Students

At the Ellen Wilkinson School, we know that our more able pupils have a variety of skills and a lot to offer. With this in mind we create learning environments to suit all learners.

How do we do this?

Simple… we ask them. Every year, they take part in a questionnaire that tells us what they want more of.

Last year they asked for more:

• Exam questions and practising exam techniques.
• Less lectures.
• Discussions.
• Teaching bits of the lessons!
• Range of learning techniques.
• Powerpoint/handouts, so we can work on them, discuss them and use them as a starting point for our notes.
• ‘Just to keep you busy packs’
• Lessons with high expectations for behaviour and learning.
• More ‘hands on’ learning experiences

We looked at this and added more so we do:

• Motivation through ‘aspirational’ targets
• Use of exam packs.
• Pupils teaching parts of lessons – because they best way to learn is to teach others.
• Project Work with Real life scenarios.
• Group tasks / Peer Marking
• Individual tasks.
•  Notes.
• Consistency.
• Using External Links: Go4set, Imperial, Glaxo, Salters, Olympiads. Bovis
• Thinking outside the box – Trips that stretch and not lecture – Using Adventure weekends to embed thinking skills, teamwork and motivation. Pupils push themselves past their own limits and use these skills in lessons
• Contract Stickers
• Mini Lessons in lessons
• LEARNING ZONES – pupils choose which resources they use in the lesson to achieve the objectives.

Does this work?

Yes it does, our students are strong, independent workers who can use a variety of skills to solve a range of problems.  They can volunteer to support each other and participate in lessons for other year groups. They also present to a range of people who visit the school.

Do they love it?

Below are some of the statements our girls’ have made about the strategies we use here:

• ‘We love the projects’
• ‘I like the discussions and arguments we have’
• ‘I like it when we get the responsibility of preparing and presenting a bit of the lesson’
• ‘We all learn in different ways and we all get stuff to help us learn as individuals.’
• ‘We get to control our learning, its fast pace when we get it and slower when we need it’
• ‘Use loads of different ways to help get good grades’
• ‘Going to Kingswood helped me to gain more confidence. Trying new things and passing my own limits have made me realise that anything is possible!!!’