Citywide Approaches Towards an Entitlement Agenda for Gifted and Talented Students

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City-wide approaches to tackling the challenges
of gifted urban education Ian Warwick, Senior
Director, LGT
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Personalised Education
We believe that people should be able to rise by
their talents, not by their birth or advantages
of privilege. We understand that people are not
all born into equal circumstances, so one role of
state education is to open up opportunities for
all, regardless of their background. This means
we need to provide high standards of basics for
all, but also recognise the different abilities
of different children, and tailor education to
meet their needs and develop their
potential. Tony Blair (1996)
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The London context

• 33 small, tightly-packed Local Authorities (LAs)
• Ethnic, cultural and linguistic diversity
• Refugee and asylum seeker students
• Extremes of deprivation and wealth
• Rising numbers of students with EAL (50)

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London Gifted Needs (and Hong Kong?)

• Survival kits for teachers in schools
• Effective Cascade models for CPD
• Bilingual and Academic Literacy training
• Models of high classroom challenge that work
• Reducing competition between schools
• Getting the hearts and minds of head teachers
• Moving from rigid structure to more creative
  approaches

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London Challenge Aims

• Raise the aspirations of young people across
  London
• Make London the worlds leading learning and
  creative city
• Embed the best and to transform the worst for
  21st century
• Focus on World Class Skills development

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A citywide partnership between LGT and the
Challenge

• Acting as catalysts to create new partnerships
  and synergies across London
• Challenges of tackling disadvantage to achieve
  equity and increase excellence
• A common analysis of Londons strengths and the
  challenges it faces
• A joint understanding of the most effective ways
  to bring about change across a city

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The Challenge components

• Families of Schools
• London Gifted Talented
• Support and challenge for school leadership
• London Challenge Advisers
• London Student Pledge
• Chartered London Teacher status (38,000)

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What The City Itself Can Offer

• Resources for broadening horizons
• World class cultural, sporting and business
  facilities
• The wider city mosaic of diversity
• Untapped world class expertise

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London Gifted and Talented DVD Introduction

• LGT works with
• All 33 London LAs
• Over 1,500 schools
• 10,000 educators
• 16,000 students
• Over 80,000 people actively use our e resources

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LGT core principles

• We work on the principles
• that all students are entitled to be stretched
  and challenged
• that the most effective gifted and talented
  provision is rooted in good teaching and learning
  within the classroom
• that a focus on more able student groups can be a
  driver for whole school improvement.

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LGT delivery goals

• to improve the attainment, skills and motivation
  of Londons gifted and talented students
• to improve the capacity of Londons educators to
  provide effectively for Londons gifted and
  talented students
• to develop models of effective partnership
  working across all sectors of the city
• to build a portfolio of challenging and effective
  e-learning resources

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Gifted Talented in the urban environment

• Integrating GT models as part of a high
  aspiration and high attaining education system
• Understanding the issues of under representation
  with students backgrounds being taken into
  account
• Reaching out to communities with distinct
  social, economic and cultural pressures

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A GT educational approach that encourages

• flexible and adaptable tools and resources
• active voices of teachers, learners and parents
• the focus on developing skills and behaviours
• students as active and independent learners
• whole-class provision, group and independent
  learning

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London surges ahead of National Averages
We need to prepare ourselves for the
possibility that sometimes big changes follow
from small events, and that sometimes these
changes can happen very quickly! (Malcolm
Gladwell, The Tipping Point) London schools
have improved dramatically in comparison to
schools nationally over the last 4 yearsthere is
much to celebrate. (Ofsted)
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Small fires in the darkness

• Change comes from small initiatives which work,
  initiatives which become the fashion. We cannot
  wait for great visions from great people, for
  they are in short supply at the end of history.
  It is up to us to light our own small fires in
  the darkness.
• (Charles Handy, The Empty Raincoat)

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Learning networks for educators

• blended learning for teachers
• focus on
• training colleagues and
• delivering learning activities for GT students
• Teacher Tools survival kit with downloadable
  resources on practical and effective Gifted
  education

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LGT learning networks - training the trainers

• empowers teachers and puts the learning in their
  hands
• enables teachers to collaborate and share best
  practice
• helps them to learn so that they can be better
  teachers for their students
• offers hard-edged goal-driven focus
• clear effective in raising students attainment

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7 Features of LGT Learning Networks

• purpose and focus
• leadership
• accountability
• relationships
• enquiry
• collaboration
• building capacity and support

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Purpose and Focus

• shared understanding of nature of social justice
  issues
• agreed goals and outcomes and working
  assumptions
• agreed common currency and language
• quality standards locating practice within a
  shared framework

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Enquiry

• virtual spaces for enquiry, discovery and
  exchange
• interrogate research, access experts, explore
  resources
• experiment with new ideas and strategies
• interrogate their own beliefs, practices and
  experiences
• understanding and responding to other contexts
• co-creation of resources which have
  transferability as an intent
• re-casting working assumptions as core ideas and
  new models

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Collaboration through LGT website

• dedicated communication hub
• main tool for sharing and learning
• professional space where colleagues can increase
  their own expertise
• all network members
• bring assets to the network
• test ideas and strategies and share feedback
• share in re-working of effective strategies
• cascade their learning on into new local networks

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Smart tools for smart students

• high challenge
• choice and flexibility
• focus on developing skills
• students as active researchers, independent
  learners
• whole-class provision, group and independent
  learning
• delivery through interactive whiteboards,
  multiple media

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Online resources

• More than 40 examples at www.londongt.org
• focus on science, maths and english
• whole-class provision, group and independent
  learning
• delivery through interactive whiteboards

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e learning resources structure

• Introduction
• How can we think about the core ideas?
• Big questions e.g. how can we think like
  scientists?
• Main learning activity
• Making the connections by
• Interactive engagement with ideas and concepts
• Applying and challenging subject knowledge
• Testing hypotheses
• Plenary
• Learning about the learning that has taken place
• Applying understanding in different contexts
• Setting new challenges
• Breadth, depth and pace is designed into the
  resources at all stages

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e TASC for learners

• takes learners through an 8 step sequenced guide
  to the stages of thinking and problem solving
• allows the learner to research and upload
  content from anywhere on the web and organize and
  evaluate it
• offers learners the facility to generate their
  own content and structure their interrogation of
  it
• promotes learner meta cognition by inviting
  reflection and evaluation of their choices

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E TASC for Teachers

• offers teachers the capacity to formatively
  assess and support student progress
• can be used to plan and deliver lessons tailored
  both by content and questions to learner needs
• is a hugely flexible teaching and learning tool
  that can be used across key stages and curriculum
  areas

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In Between The Lines

• promotes critical and creative thinking
• enables students to improve analytical skills
  independently
• high challenge activities based on real world
  issues
• explores viewpoint, argument and the potential of
  presentational devices through interactive online
  tasks
• also relates to critical thinking, religious
  studies and citizenship

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www.londongt.org

• Thank you for your time
• The DVDs you have seen are available to order
• May I wish you all continuing success and
  particular success to your new Gifted Academy