At the Ellen Wilkinson School, we know that our Gifted and Talented pupils have a variety 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!!!’ 

 

Miss Radha Jaipersad
Science Advanced Skills Teacher
Head of Applied Science

 

 

You can read our Gifted and Talented Policy by clicking on the link to the right of this page.