More Able Children

At Bushmead, we believe that children can be Academically More Able or Talented at subjects we cover in school or indeed activities that children take part in out of school. In line with our school ethos, we recognise and value children’s individual development in all areas and work with them and their parents to help them reach their potential. We have developed the following 2 simple definitions for our work with talented and academically more able children.

Academically More Able children: At Bushmead, academically more able children are those who perform consistently in a range of, subjects above national expectations. They will regularly show an ability to master the skills being taught and show an understanding to a greater depth than would typically be expected from a child of their age.
 

Talented children: Talented children are those with one or more non academic abilities developed to a level which is significantly ahead of that which would normally be expected of their peer group nationally.

At the beginning of every academic year, we review all children in school to identify those who are Academically More Able and separately those we would identify as Talented. We, as a staff team, use the above definitions to identify children for the more academic subjects and let parents and children know how we will support them through the year.

We do not have a set list of the activities that support Academically More able and Talented children as we aim to be creative in meeting their individual needs, however below are some typical ways in which children’s needs can be met.

• Quality first teaching, ensuring that teaching and activities in lessons is matched  to children’s needs.
• Small group work in lesson time with a teach
• Individual pupil challenge work in lesson time
• Invitation to Maths master classes
• Small focused groups with staff, focused on higher order thinking skills