Policy development

In the past too many of our most able children have not done as well as they should, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds. We want to explore ways of making sure we do better for those pupils. (DfES, 2001a, unpaged)

Formally beginning in 1999, the government has developed a range of closely related initiatives to support the education of the most gifted and talented pupils from 5–19 years. These schemes include intensive area-based programs for the most able in each school, through localized ‘Excellence’ initiatives, such as ‘Excellence in Cities’, ‘Excellence Clusters’, ‘Excellence in Cities Primary Pilot’ and ‘Excellence Challenge’, and national opportunities and resources for the most able across the country, through a National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth (Dracup, 2003).

The Excellence in Cities (EiC) initiative is particularly relevant in this context, as its main principles reflect the wider gifted and talented agenda that is impacting on schools across the country. The scheme was introduced by the UK government in March 1999, and represented a series of strategies aimed at honoring earlier commitments to raising educational standards in urban areas, promoting educational partnerships and disseminating good practice to the wider educational community (DfEE, 1997). In practice, the initiative was made up of seven ‘strands’, including the appointment of learning mentors (specialists who, together with teaching and pastoral staff, assess, identify and work with those pupils who need extra help to overcome barriers to learning), and the establishment of Learning Support Units (providing separate short-term teaching and support programs for pupils at risk of exclusion), City Learning Centres (providing state-of-the-art ICT facilities and technology to a network of partner schools), Beacon Schools (representing models of successful practice that can be shared with others), and specialist schools (such as Technology and Sports Colleges) (DfES, 2002). A further strand focused on the gifted and talented education.

Schools will take a robust and consistent approach to the identification of their gifted and talented cohorts, making use of available test and assessment data alongside a range of other evidence such as subject specific checklists of high ability indicators and analysis of pupils’ work. They will need to take care to identify and include able children who are currently underachieving, as well as those who are already relatively high attainers. (Education and Employment Committee, 1999: v)

It is worth stressing that the new agenda for gifted and talented pupils was explicitly located within the broad content of inclusive schooling, ‘which pro vides a broad, flexible and motivating education that recognizes the different talents of all children and delivers excellence for everyone’ (DfEE, 1997). The inclusive ideal has frequently been interpreted by teachers and policy-makers in terms of special educational needs provision, but the White Paper sought to broaden this interpretation by stressing the needs of very able pupils, too: ‘The idea that all children had the same rights to develop their abilities led too easily to the doctrine that all had the same ability. The pursuit of excellence was too often equated with elitism’ (DfEE, 1997: 11). Through new initiatives like these, the government aimed to bring about ‘the largest culture shift of any part of the program’ (DfES, 2001a: 16), towards an education system in which excellence and outstanding achievement were identified, developed and celebrated.

Discussion

■ Is there a tension between the goal of excellence and the principle of equity? In other words, is the policy of identifying a small group of pupils who may receive additional support fair?

■ Is there a danger that gifted and talented provision simply reproduces inequalities already experienced by many children in schools?

Many teachers and teaching assistants report mixed messages from above, which has led to a wide range of interpretations of department and school responsibilities. ‘Who do we identify?’, ‘How do we identify them?’, ‘How many pupils do we identify?’, ‘Which curriculum areas?’, ‘What do we do with them, once we’ve identified them?’

To begin to address these issues, it may be useful to consider recent policy in terms of four main themes:

■ rarity

■ achievement

■ value

■ excellence (Bailey and Morley, 2002).

These are not terms used in government publications, but they capture the essence of what is required of schools.