Challenge for All
At Gamesley Primary School, our aim is to raise the achievement and outcomes for all our children through our ‘Challenge for All’ approach. This approach recognises the importance of providing every child with cognitive challenge and encourages an ethos of high aspirations, resilience and achievement.
This approach ensures that the most able pupils are challenged – teachers plan lessons based initially on the needs of the more able learners and on pedagogy which has challenge at its core; strategies and interventions are put into place to support those who need it, allowing every child to succeed.
Our Challenge for All approach allows all our children to develop resilience and shows learners that there are no limits on what is possible for them in terms of their education. We do not group children according to perceived ability but instead give every child the opportunity to demonstrate their capabilities. Through providing every child with the appropriate levels of cognitive challenge, our children have increased levels of engagement, resilience and higher aspirations.
Identification of the More Able and Transition
Identifying the needs of all our children, including those who are more able, helps teachers to plan the appropriate level of challenge within each lesson.
To identify children who are more able, we encompass a range of methods which include:
- Nomination by self, staff, parents and peers
- Teacher observation and assessment
- Data and pupil tracking processes
- School intake and context, including social and economic factors
- Checklists of characteristics (general and subject-specific)
- Identification through classroom and extracurricular provision
As well as identifying children who are more able, we also identify children who demonstrate the potential to be more able but who are not currently achieving their full potential. This could be for a variety of reasons; as a school, we identify the barriers that are preventing them achieving as well as they could and put strategies into place to overcome these barriers so that they can achieve what they are capable of.
If your child is on the more able register, you will be informed by your child’s class teacher; you will also be provided with additional information and guidance on how best to support your child at home and as they go through school.
Tracking and Progress
For every child who has been identified as more able or potentially more able, their progress is tracked by the more able lead to ensure that they are making good progress. In addition to this, each child has an individual provision map which outlines the provision and strategies used within the classroom; this ensures that every child is challenged within the classroom and they remain motivated and engaged with their learning.
The Brilliant Club
At Gamesley School, we work alongside ‘The Brilliant Club’, an award-winning university charity whose aim it is to inspire young people and help pupils access the most competitive universities and succeed when they get there.
Children who have been identified as more able in Years 5 & 6 are selected to take part in the scholars programme which is run by The Brilliant Club. The scholars programme aims to give children an experience of university learning and helps our children to develop the knowledge, skills and confidence to progress to the most competitive universities.
What is The Scholars Programme?
• Students work with a university researcher in small groups to give them an experience of what it’s like to study at university. We call the researcher the students’ PhD Tutor.
• Students learn beyond the curriculum; PhD tutors will share their subject knowledge and passion for learning. This will stretch and challenge students as they develop their academic skills.
• At the end of the programme, students complete a final assignment of between 1000 and 1500 words. This is marked using the university grading system and allows students to show the progress they’ve made.
NACE – National Association for Able Children in Education
We are very proud to announce that the National Association for Able Children in Education (NACE) has named Gamesley Primary School the 494th school to be accredited with the NACE Challenge Award.
This award is given in recognition of a school-wide commitment to high-quality provision for more able learners, within the context of challenge for all.
Two assessors spent a full day in school talking to pupils, parents, staff and governors, observed lessons and looked at children’s work. The assessors reported: “Challenge and more able provision are at the heart of the school. Staff are actively engaged in, and see themselves as leaders of, this important aspect of the school’s work. Leaders are solutions-focused and creative in their approaches to maximising learning time and ensuring that children experience their full curriculum entitlement.”