Meeting the Needs of Your Most Able Pupils in Physical Education & Sport

Dave Morley, Richard Bailey

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781136770425
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Meeting the Needs if Your Most Able Pupils in PE/Sports Studies provides specific guidance on:

• recognizing high ability and multiple intelligences
• planning, differentiation and extension/enrichment
• teacher questioning skills
• support for more able pupils with learning difficulties
• homework
• recording and assessment
• beyond the classroom: visits, residentials, competitions, summer schools, masterclasses, links with other institutions.

The book features comprehensive appendices and downloadable resources with: useful contacts and resources, lesson plans, liaison sheets for teaching assistants, homework activities and monitoring sheets.

For secondary teachers, subject heads of departments, Gifted and Talented co-ordinators, SENCos and LEA advisers.

CHAPTER 1

Our more able pupils — the national scene

The purpose of this first chapter is to place the subject-specific content of all that follows into the more general national and school framework. We know it is easier to understand what needs to be done at departmental level if there is an appreciation of the context in which discussions are held and decisions are made.

The debate about whether to make special provision for the most able pupils in secondary schools ran its course during the last decade of the twentieth century. Explicit provision to meet their learning needs is now considered neither elitist nor a luxury. From an inclusion angle, these pupils must have the same chances as others to develop their potential to the full. We know from international research that focusing on the needs of the most able changes teachers’ perceptions of the needs of all their pupils, and there follows a consequential rise in standards. But for teachers who are not convinced by the inclusion or school improvement arguments, there is a much more pragmatic reason for meeting the needs of able pupils. Of course, it is preferable that colleagues share a common willingness to address the needs of the most able, but if they do not, it can at least be pointed out that, quite simply, it is something that all teachers are now required to do, not an optional extra.

All schools should seek to create an atmosphere in which to excel is not only acceptable but desirable.

(Excellence in Schools — DfEE 1997)

High achievement is determined by the school’s commitment to inclusion and the steps it takes to ensure that every pupil does as well as possible.

(Handbook for Inspecting Secondary Schools— Ofsted 2003)

A few years ago, efforts to raise standards in schools concentrated on getting as many pupils as possible over the Level 5 hurdle at the end of Key Stage 3 and over the five A*–C grades hurdle at GCSE. Resources were pumped into borderline pupils and the most able were not, on the whole, considered a cause for concern. The situation has changed dramatically in the last five years with schools being expected to set targets for A*s and As and to show added value by helping pupils entering the school with high SATs scores to achieve Levels 7 and beyond, if supporting data suggests that that is what is achievable. Early recognition of high potential and the setting of curricular targets are at last addressing the lack of progress demonstrated by many able pupils in Year 7 and more attention is being paid to creating a climate in which learning can flourish. Nevertheless, there is a push for even more support for the most able through the promotion of personalised learning.

The goal is that five years from now: gifted and talented students progress in line with their ability rather than their age; schools inform parents about tailored provision in an annual school profile; curricula include a gifted and talented dimension and at 14–19 there is more stretch and differentiation at the top-end, so no matter what your talent it will be engaged; and the effect of poverty on achievement is reduced, because support for high-ability students from poorer backgrounds enables them to thrive.

(Speech at the National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth — David Miliband, Minister for State for School Standards, May 2004)

It is hoped that this book, with the others in this series, will help to accelerate these changes.

Making good provision for the most able — what’s in it for schools?

Schools and/or subject departments often approach provision for the most able pupils with some reluctance because they imagine a lot of extra work for very little reward. In fact, the rewards of providing for these pupils are substantial:

• It can be very stimulating to the subject specialist to explore ways of developing approaches with enthusiastic and able students.

Taking a serious look at what I should expect from the most able and then at how I should teach them has given my teaching a new lease of life. I feel so sorry for youngsters who were taught by me 10 years ago. They must have been bored beyond belief. But then, to be quite honest, so was I.

(science teacher)

• Offering opportunities to tackle work in a more challenging manner often interests pupils whose abilities have gone unnoticed because they have not been motivated by a bland educational diet.

Some of the others were invited to an after-school maths club. When I heard what they were doing, it sounded so interesting that I asked the maths teacher if I could go too. She was a bit doubtful at first because I have messed about a lot but she agreed to take me on trial. I’m one of her star pupils now and she reckons I’ll easily get an A*. I still find some of the lessons really slow and boring but I don’t mess around — well, not too much.

(Year 10 boy)

• When pupils are engaged by the work they are doing, motivation, attainment and discipline improve.

You don’t need to be gifted to work out that the work we do is much more interesting and exciting. It’s made others want to be like us.

(Comment from a student involved in an extension programme for the most able)

• Schools that are identified as very good schools by Ofsted generally have good provision for their most able students.

If you are willing to deal effectively with the needs of able pupils you will raise the achievement of all pupils.

(Mike Tomlinson, former director of Ofsted)

• The same is true of individual departments in secondary schools. All those considered to be very good have spent time developing a sound working approach that meets the needs of their most able pupils.

The department creates a positive atmosphere by its organisation, display and the way that students are valued. Learning is generally very good and often excellent throughout the school. The teachers’ high expectations permeate the atmosphere and are a significant factor in raising achievement. These expectations are reflected in the curriculum which has depth and students are able and expected to experience difficult problems in all year groups.

(Mathematics department, Hamstead Hall School, Birmingham, Ofsted 2003)

National initiatives since 1997

Since 1997, when the then Department for Education and Employment (DfEE) set up its Gifted and Talented Advisory Group, many initiatives designed to raise aspirations and levels of achievement have been targeted on the most able, especially in secondary schools. Currently, a three-pronged approach is in place, with:

1. special programmes, including Excellence in Cities, Excellence Clusters and Aimhigher, for areas of the country where educational standards in secondary schools are lowest
2. resources for teachers and pupils throughout the country such as the National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth, gifted and talented summer schools, World Class Tests, National Curriculum Online and the G&TWISE website
3. regional support, which is currently confined to GATE A, in London.

1. Special programmes

Excellence in Cities

In an attempt to deal with the chronic underachievement of able pupils in inner city areas, Excellence in Cities (EiC) was launched in 1999. This is a very ambitious, well-funded programme with many different strands. It initially concentrated on secondary age pupils but work has been extended into the primary sector in many areas. ‘Provision for the Gifted and Talented’ is one of the strands.

Strands in the Excellence in Cities initiative

EiC schools are expected to:

• develop a whole-school policy for their most able pupils
• appoint a gifted and talented coordinator with sufficient time to fulfil the role
• send the coordinator on a national training programme run by Oxford Brookes University
• identify 5–10% of pupils in each year group as their gifted and talented cohort, the gifted being the academically able and the talented being those with latent or obvious ability in PE, sport, music, art or the performing arts
• provide an appropriate programme of work both within the school day and beyond
• set ‘aspirational’ targets both for the gifted and talented cohort and for individual pupils
• work with other schools in a ‘cluster’ to provide further support for these pupils
• work with other agencies, such as Aimhigher, universities, businesses and private-sector schools, to enhance provis...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Full Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword — Peter Frost
• Foreword — Ben Tan
• Foreword — Deborah Eyre
• Acknowledgements
• Contributors to the series
• Contents of the CD
• Highlights from the CD
• Introduction
• 1. Our more able pupils — the national scene
• 2. Departmental policy and approach
• 3. Recognising talent and potential
• 4. Provision
• 5. Support for learning
• 6. Beyond the curriculum
• Appendices
• References