Crypt School - Educating More Able Children Booklet

THE CRYPT SCHOOL

EDUCATING MORE ABLE CHILDREN GUIDE FOR PARENTS & CARERS

INTRODUCTION In June 2014, the School’s provision for the More Able, Gifted & Talented was acknowledged by the successful achievement of the NACE (National Association for Able Children in Education) Challenge Award..

CONTENT: 

INTRODUCTION

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WHAT DO WE MEAN BY A MORE ABLE , GIFTED and TALENTED LEARNER?

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HOW CAN I SUPPORT MY

WHAT DO WE MEAN BY A MORE ABLE, GIFTED & TALENTED LEARNER”?

Definition of More Able: A “More Able” student is a pupil who has a high potential in any subject that can be developed and nurtured through successful teaching.

CHILD? 

HELP EXTEND YOUR CHILD’S

Definition of Gifted: A “Gifted” student is a pupil who attains beyond expectations in multiple academic subjects.

OUTLOOK 

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT

Definition of Talented: A talented student is a pupil who demonstrates skills beyond the expectations of an applied subject.

INFORMATION LINKS

Definition of Exceptionally Able: Exceptionally able children demonstrate exceptional academic ability. These students have high cognitive abilities and, therefore, relate to the world in unique ways.

At The Crypt School we ensure that every student is challenged to make optimum progress, reaching his/her full capacity in the classroom . In addition to this, a wide range of opportunities beyond the curriculum are offered to students to support and further their skills.

HOW CAN I SUPPORT MY CHILD? 

Encourage your child to see reading as part of everyday life

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Encourage your child to seek extra curricular activities

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Encourage your child to adopt a growth mindset

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Encourage your child to engage in current affairs

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Introduce you child to the School’s Super Curriculum (KS4 & KS5 only)

HELP EXTEND YOUR CHILD’S OUTLOOK English— Encourage your child to read widely i.e. local newspapers. Look at the following websites for reading ideas: www.ukchildrensbooks.co.uk www.booktrust.org.uk www.childrensbooksequels.co.uk www.lovereading4kids.co.uk www.authorhotline.com Visit the Cheltenham Literature Festival which runs every October.

Various authors come to Cheltenham and talk about fiction and non-fiction for children and adults.

Use the internet wisely to help develop spelling, punctuation and grammar, as well as to expand and extend their English work.

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Mathematics—The NRICH website nrich.maths.org has some excellent puzzles and articles on all sections of maths. Spend time looking through these and encourage your child to not give up.

YouTube— search for numberphile and encourage your child to watch these videos.

Maths Apps—kids love computers/phones sodownload apps

Sumaze, Brain it on, Brilliant, Perplex. Twitter ; @GHCQ—they

More able students are encouraged to apply higher order

post some interesting math's problems

Music— encourage your child to listen to as much music as possible!

thinking skills and are expected

Radio 3 and Classic FM are great for familiarising yourself with more

to take a leading role within

classical styles– can you recognize the eras and composers?

their class

Attend concerts i.e. Cheltenham Town Hall, Pittville Pump Room,

Gloucester Cathedral and Stroud Subscription Rooms. Maybe travel to Birmingham and go to Symphony Hall.

Performing— encourage your child to join a choir and/or band or orchestra either at school or one in your area run by Gloucestershire music service. Practise your reading and scales on a daily basis

DT— Read newspapers and magazines and visit exhibition of i.e. the Craftsman’s Guild which is normally held towards end August at Cheltenham College.

Use a digital camera to record ideas and examples of both good and bad design

MFL— Find opportunities to read widely, to listen to the language whenever possible and to find out as much as you can about the history, culture, politics and geography of different countries.

Read regularly—books and magazines are available from the library.

Watch foreign films—borrow from the library or the MFL department. The Guildhall in Gloucester, the Roses in Tewkesbury and Number 8 in Pershore often show foreign language films. You can also watch films with sub-titles using Netflix.

Travel abroad whenever the opportunity arises.

“There are no secrets to success.

It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from

failure”

Listen to songs or watch music videos in the language you are studying.

Geography— Students should be encouraged to increase their awareness of local, national and global geographical issues by:

Colin Powell

Watching/reading the news on a regular basis. A news app (e.g.

BBC, Guardian, Independent). Being aware of local news through local newspapers or local radio stations.

Watching documentaries with geographical focus e.g. natural hazards, exploration, investigations into lives in other countries, life in cities, poverty/aid/development

When travelling as a family/visiting new places, students can be encouraged to talk about the ‘geography’ in front of them e.g. can they describe/explain the current weather? Can they see particular features in the landscape such as river landforms?

Students can assist with planning, journeys e.g. road maps for a car journey, OS maps for country walks.

For students in KS3, reading to expand their knowledge of

geographical topics. The Horrible Geography series is a good

“Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.”

Abigail Adams

start and there are lots of other geographical non-fiction books in room 39 which can be borrowed.

For students in KS4, reading geographical publications such as The National Geographic (lots in room 38) and Geography Review (lots in room 39 and the library).

Business and Finance —Media sources (TV/radio programmes, newspapers/journals/magazines) Dragon’s Den, The Apprentice, Inside a Factory, The Times/Financial Times/The Guardian/The Independent/BBC News, The Economist, Business Review, Business books from the library in Miss Gardner’s office, Tutor2u blog (https://www.tutor2u.net/busness/blog)

RE— Encourage your child to discuss and formulate opinion on relevant ethical and philosophical topics that appear in the news; this can range from the advantages and disadvantages of cultured meat, to environmental responsibility, to whether it is morally right that footballers receive such high wages.

Look online for ‘Thunk’ statements and discuss/debate these unanswerable statements—encourage your child to think about the method by which they formed their opinion; an example is “if you paint over a window, is it still a window?”.

“A mind once stretched by new ideas never regains its original dimensions” Julie Arliss (2018)

Make visits to places of worship, either local or further afield and reflect on how these buildings become sacred spaces and how they utilize symbolism to reflect their beliefs and values in their holy places.

Science— Science is vitally important for understanding the world around us and your studies can be complemented by: KS3—Visit a Science Centre, such as We The Curious, Think Tank, Techniquest or the Science Museum KS4—Watch Science documentaries (BBC Four) and read Catalyst magazine

KS5—Read Biology, Chemistry and Physics Review magazines, and New Scientist (available in the library). Look at other suggestions on the “super-curricular” information sheet for each Science.

History Encourage students to explore history in their local environment, which might include trips to heritage sites, National Trust properties, or museums. You could ask them to act as your tour guide for the day, so they need to do some research before going. Whenever you travel abroad, encourage students to explore the history sites in that area Watching history films and documentaries can help open up whole new areas of learning, including on platforms such as BBC iplayer, 4 on demand, or even Netflix.

“Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think”

Age-appropriate books & articles can be another way to approach new topics, maybe starting with a “Horrible Histories” book or BBC Bitesize website then developing research from there.

Albert Einstein Art —Visit exhibitions such as: Montpellier Gallery, Cheltenham Art Gallery, Arnolfini and RWA, Bristol. Visit London and go to the Tate Modern, Tate Britain, The Royal Academy and The Saatchi Gallery.

Watch television programmes i.e. The Culture Show, Channel 4 documentaries, Sky Arts.

PE —The most effective way of improving across all aspects of PE is for students to be encouraged to attend as many extra-curricular clubs as possible, challenging their own physical development and movement literacy. Students need to fulfil at least two of the following criteria to be identified for the Sports Academy Programme which stretches and challenges our most able sportsmen and women: 

Performs at county level or above in chosen sport.

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Makes an outstanding contribution to various sport teams within the school, demonstrating all-round ability and a commitment to extra-curricular provision.

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Consistently shows a higher level ability and ability and attainment in core PE lessons in comparison to the rest of their year group.

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Sets an example for other students to follow in terms of behaviour, effort and endeavor when representing school.

“It is better to know how to learn than to know.” – Dr Seuss

Computer Science - Computer Science is always growing and one of the few subjects you need to keep up to date with in order not to be left behind. There are a range of good websites out there, however for theoretical content we advise BBC Bitesize and if you want

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT LINKS FOR PARENTS to start programming early you can complete the intuitive python coding challenges at: www.codecademy.com Nace Blog Learning Pit: Potential Plus website Educating Gifted children Is my child gifted?

The Crypt More Able Lead’s e-mail: pkirkpatrick@crypt.gloucs.sch.uk

The Crypt School Podsmead Road Gloucester, GL2 5AE Tel: +44 1452 530291 Fax: +44 1452 530292

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