Challenge for All
At Gamesley 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.
A challenge for all 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
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.