Leading Teacher Training

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Leading Teacher Training

• December 4th 2007
• RPDC
• 100 500
• Welcome!

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Agenda

• Session 1 Exploring the role
• of the Leading Teacher
• Session 2 Whole Improvement
• and Self-Evaluation
• Session 3 Accreditation Pathways
• Session 4 Gap Task and Plenary

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Welcome!

• Introduce yourself to the
• other teachers on your table
• Describe something wonderful
• that has happened to you this year
• Revisit the action point you
• identified after Trevor Hawes
• Has anything changed in the meantime?
• One person to feed back

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Session 1

• Exploring the role of the leading teacher for
  gifted and talented education

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Objectives

• To consider and clarify the role of the leading
  teacher for gifted and talented education
• To raise awareness of the issues in teaching of
  gifted and talented learners
• To begin to identify leading teacher actions and
  professional development needs

Slide 1.0
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Key aspects of the gifted and talented leading
teacher role
Gifted and talented leading teachers will have a
key role in developing

• Effective classroom practice for gifted and
  talented pupils
• Whole-school self-evaluation and improvement
  planning for gifted and talented provision and
  outcomes
• Dissemination of information and action planning
  with the cluster of schools

Slide 1.1
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In carrying out this role leading teachers will
be expected to

• act as an advocate for the needs of gifted and
  talented pupils
• promote the various elements of the
  personalisation agenda as they relate to gifted
  and talented pupils
• exemplify and model effective practice for gifted
  and talented pupils
• initiate strategies which support the
  professional development of colleagues
• enable whole-school evaluation, review and
  improvement of gifted and talented provision

Slide 1.2
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Activity exploring the role of a leading teacher
for gifted and talented

• Read the role of the leading teacher for gifted
  and talented on the cards
• Task 1 decide which aspects of the role of a
  leading teacher will be a priority for your role
  in school
• Task 2 using only your priority cards decide
  which aspects you are comfortable with and which
  you will need to develop
• Note the aspects of the role that you want to
  develop in your reflective log

Slide 1.3
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Key message

• It is the responsibility of every classroom
  teacher to provide for the needs of the able,
  gifted and talented pupils in their classroom
• Leading teachers should work with colleagues to
  improve teachers understanding of identification
  issues and teaching strategies that challenge
  gifted and talented pupils
• It will be important for leading teachers to
  identify ways of working with senior colleagues
  to enable the embedding of a whole-school
  approach to gifted and talented provision

Slide 1.4
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It is generally agreed that

• There is no universally accepted definition of
  giftedness
• Estimates of giftedness vary tremendously
• Being gifted and talented is not a one-off and
  fixed state of existence

Slide 1.5
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• Gifted describes students who have the ability
  to excel academically in one or more subjects
  such as English, drama, and technology
• Talented describes students who have the ability
  to excel in practical skills such as sport,
  leadership, artistic performance. These students
  may well follow a vocational training pathway
  to accreditation and employment(?!)

Slide 1.6
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Cons

• The flexibility can exercise some schools they
  might find rigid guidelines easier to implement
• The context-dependency can cause problems what
  about students who move schools? What about the
  different levels of ability between schools
  cohorts?
• Assumes schools can spot ability in students who
  dont attain highly, but there are few guidelines
  for this

Slide 1.7
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Pros

• Makes schools focus on their own most able no
  one can say they dont have a top 10
• Allows schools to focus on students who may need
  most support and encouragement to achieve highly
• Shines a torch on provision and challenge for a
  group whose needs may be overlooked

Slide 1.8
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Ability

• Is multi dimensional only some aspects can be
  measured
• Is a mixture of innate predispositions,
  environment, personality and contextual factors
• Is developmental
• Needs to be nurtured through opportunity, support
  and motivation

Slide 1.9
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Case studies Identification
Working in groups from the same phase (primary or
secondary) share out the case study cards. For
your case study decide

• The strengths of the system that the school is
  using
• Where the school might improve on its
  identification system. Share your ideas in your
  groups
• Reflect on the system that your school currently
  uses to identify gifted and talented pupils and
  to construct a register. Note in your log any
  ideas that you have now that may strengthen that
  system

Slide 1.10
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• Identifying GT Pupils Getting Started
• Page 5 - Chart

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National GT Student Register (NAGTY)

• http//www.ygt.dcsf.gov.uk/
• http//ygt.dcsf.gov.uk/Content.aspx?contentId312
  contentType3
• www.nagcbritain.org.uk

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Key strategies

• A clear focus on effective classroom teaching
  (Quality First, Wave 1 teaching)
• Conditions for learning that promote
  collaboration and openness and that build pupils
  confidence

Slide 1.11
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Some Strategies to Try

• What if?
• Plus, minus, interesting
• Six Thinking Hats
• Diamond ranking