Last week Sylvia Hawken and David Gimson did a learning walk to help us learn more about our provision for gifted and talented students. They visited seven lessons in History (2), Geography (2), Maths (1), Art (1) and MFL (1), in Years Seven and Ten. The Classroom Quality Standards for G&T were used as a framework for observation. David has posted their findings below.
Positive Feedback
In all classes observed behaviour and uniform were good or very good. There were no barriers to learning because of bad behaviour by other students: there was a positive learning ethos and the great majority of learners, including G&T learners, were fully engaged in the work and often inspired or challenged. We recorded a very large number of positive student comments. G&T students were reflective about their own learning and sometimes aware of what they could be doing to challenge themselves further beyond the classroom (e.g. by further reading). G&T students were aware of how their learning linked to real world issues. In most cases they seemed in charge of their own learning. Quite detailed subject specific vocabulary, skills and knowledge were being developed. We saw skilful teacher questioning (including some very well thought-through questions) and dynamic interactive teaching. There was some detailed summative assessment, and staff who we questioned were clearly aware of where their students were at. It was very inspiring to see teachers at work.
Points for Reflection
Several of the classes we saw had large numbers in quite small rooms; a couple in particular also had very wide ranges of ability. This is bound to have some impact on the student experience.
Some students felt they wanted a bit more ongoing feedback about where they were at – not necessarily in the form of marking. We saw slightly less evidence, overall, of formative than of summative assessment. While most students felt they had clearly moved up a gear from primary school or Year Nine, a couple said that they were repeating things they had already done before and were asking for more challenge. In one case a student had attended special classes at a previous school and now felt that he was treading water (while the other seven students questioned in the class all felt they were being appropriately challenged). In Year Ten we identified three male students who are underperforming (for reasons unrelated to individual subjects) and we plan to follow up separately with actions to support/engage them.
Thank you very much indeed to colleagues who welcomed us to their classes.
