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Depth and breadth
Gifted and talented learners require opportunities that offer stretch and challenge. They like to understand 'the big picture'; to know the context and purpose of their learning. Investigative tasks where outcomes are not fixed or limited provide valuable and stimulating learning experiences.
These opportunities can be provided by offering experiences that provide breadth of learning and go beyond the prescribed curriculum.
Providing gifted and talented learners with these types of enrichment activities increases their experience outside of the school curriculum. Enrichment activities may include school provision or access to experts and classes outside of the school day. However, to make them worthwhile they must include content and experiences that sufficiently stretch learners.
Extension activities offer depth of learning. These encourage the student to work with either more complex tasks (i.e. which combine or apply learning objectives in less familiar contexts) or to provide them with a greater degree of complexity or abstraction.
Gifted and talented learners can also be presented with opportunities that accelerate their learning through content.
Gifted and talented learners should also be encouraged to work independently; to set their own tasks and to have a range of material and routes to work through. However, they must also be 'taught' and should not be left alone to work through set activities.
It is also important to encourage learners to reflect on their work, to clarify their understanding and to consider what they have achieved and their next steps.
Relevant documents and links
- Provision for the most able students: acceleration or enrichment? – Will acceleration or enrichment benefit able children the most? The benefits and drawbacks of each strategy are presented here.
- Depth of study – Depth of study refers to approaching or studying something from the concrete to the abstract, from the familiar to the unfamiliar, and from the known to the unknown.
- Creative Generation – Introduction to guidance around art, dance, drama and music.
- KS3 guidance - The Standards site, DfES – KS3 National Strategy.
- KS3 English Guidance - The Standards site, DfES – KS3 Strategy for English.
- KS3 Maths Guidance - Standards site, DfES – KS3 Strategy for maths.
- KS3 Science Guidance - Standards site, DfES – KS3 Strategy for science.
- Foundation subjects - Standards site, DfES – KS3 Strategy for foundation subjects e.g. art.
- Teaching thinking and creativity – Teaching thinking and creativity.
- G&TWISE - Support for Gifted and Talented Education – Reviews and recommendations of good resources for gifted and talented.
- Gabbitas, Truman and Thring Educational Trust - tomorrow"s achievers initiative. – Masterclasses and provision for gifted and talented pupils.
- Primary lessons for challenge - Oxford Brookes – Lesson activities from Oxford Brookes teacher training.
- Excellence and Enjoyment: Learning and teaching in the primary years – The Primary Strategy.