Compiling your Gifted and Talented Register.
When I asked for a sample layout for a G&T Register, I was surprised by the lack of response. This was one wheel we had to reinvent. As a group of 26 School G&T Coordinators, we started from scratch, discussing the balance between the key information we would find useful on a register and the need to avoid a paperchase.
School coordinators were encouraged to work with their staff to think outside the curriculum box and to consider alternative student strengths such as generic ‘learning for life’ key skills and attitudes – for example problem solving, decision making and creativity. Whilst all the registers refer to curriculum subject areas, many expanded their definition to include strengths such as : imagination; inter/ra personal skills; metacognition; leadership and spatial awareness.
Gifts and talents were not only identified by school staff. Some schools consulted parents – for example using a positive questionnaire. School-wide, parents were asked to share positive comments about their child’s interests, hobbies, strengths and passions from home. This greatly added to the body of knowledge that the school staff had about individual children with the bonus of the children feeling valued and appreciated at school. As a result, new strengths then appeared on the register, such as National Baton Twirling Champion, T’ai Kwondo and Motocross. Other schools have conducted G&T student interviews providing a mechanism for them to make contributions to the identification process.
Updated by the end of December each year, our register format grew organically and still varies from school to school, although all contain basic information. In its simplest form the following information is recorded - name, year group, date of birth, area of strength and date put on the register. With increasing confidence, experience and access to school data, coordinators are expanding the information they record to include, for example – Quantitative evidence (Foundation Stage Profile scores; SATs/NFER/Midyis/Yellis standardised scores, Qualifications point scores and Attitude surveys); Qualitative evidence (School staff professional judgement; Personal Videos and Creative ‘One day I will’ Time Capsules); Provision made; Targets and Comments.
Some schools have opted to compile two registers of G&T students – a ‘DfES’ register for students with clear, unequivocal evidence and ‘Shadow’ registers for students for whom school staff feel more evidence collection is required or for a broader interpretation of what it means to be Gifted and Talented to include a much greater percentage of the school population.
Our next step is for our County Data Team to make use of our school G&T registers to assist school coordinators to access and use all the evidence that is currently available to better inform them about the progress of individual students.