Transcript City-wide Approaches Towards an Entitlement Agenda for

City-wide approaches to tackling the
challenges of gifted urban education
Ian Warwick, Senior Director, LGT
Personalised Education
‘We believe that people should be able to rise by their
talents, not by their birth or advantages of privilege. We
understand that people are not all born into equal
circumstances, so one role of state education is to open
up opportunities for all, regardless of their background.
This means we need to provide high standards of basics
for all, but also recognise the different abilities of different
children, and tailor education to meet their needs and
develop their potential.’
Tony Blair (1996)
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The London context
 33 small, tightly-packed Local Authorities (LAs)
 Ethnic, cultural and linguistic diversity
 Refugee and asylum seeker students
 Extremes of deprivation and wealth
 Rising numbers of students with EAL (50%)
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London Gifted Needs (and Hong Kong?)
1. Survival kits for teachers in schools
2. Effective ‘Cascade’ models for CPD
3. Bilingual and Academic Literacy training
4. Models of high classroom challenge that work
5. Reducing competition between schools
6. Getting the ‘hearts and minds’ of head teachers
7. Moving from rigid structure to more creative approaches
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London Challenge Aims
• Raise the aspirations of young people
across London
• Make London the world’s leading
learning and creative city
• ‘Embed the best and to transform the
worst’ for 21st century
• Focus on World Class Skills
development
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A citywide partnership between LGT and the ‘Challenge’
• Acting as catalysts to create new partnerships and synergies
across London
• Challenges of tackling disadvantage to achieve equity and
increase excellence
• A common analysis of London’s strengths and the challenges it
faces
• A joint understanding of the most effective ways to bring about
change across a city
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The ‘Challenge’ components
• Families of Schools
• London Gifted & Talented
• Support and challenge for school leadership
• London Challenge Advisers
• London Student Pledge
• Chartered London Teacher status (38,000)
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What The City Itself Can Offer
• Resources for broadening horizons
• World class cultural, sporting and business facilities
• The ‘wider city mosaic’ of diversity
• Untapped world class expertise
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London Gifted and Talented DVD Introduction
 LGT works with:
– All 33 London LAs
– Over 1,500 schools
– 10,000 educators
– 16,000 students
 Over 80,000 people actively
use our e resources
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LGT core principles
 We work on the principles
– that all students are entitled to be stretched and challenged
– that the most effective gifted and talented provision is
rooted in good teaching and learning within the classroom
– that a focus on more able student groups can be a driver
for whole school improvement.
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LGT delivery goals
 to improve the attainment, skills and motivation of London’s gifted
and talented students
 to improve the capacity of London’s educators to provide
effectively for London’s gifted and talented students
 to develop models of effective partnership working across all
sectors of the city
 to build a portfolio of challenging and effective e-learning
resources
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Gifted & Talented in the urban environment
• Integrating GT models as part of a ‘high aspiration and high
attaining’ education system
• Understanding the issues of under representation with
students’ backgrounds being taken into account
• Reaching out to communities with distinct social, economic
and cultural pressures
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A G&T educational approach that encourages…
• flexible and adaptable tools and resources
• active voices of teachers, learners and parents
• the focus on developing skills and behaviours
• students as active and independent learners
• whole-class provision, group and independent learning
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London surges ahead of National Averages
“We need to prepare ourselves for the possibility
that sometimes big changes follow from small
events, and that sometimes these changes can
happen very quickly!”
(Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point)
“London schools have improved dramatically in
comparison to schools nationally over the last 4
years…there is much to celebrate.’ (Ofsted)
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Small fires in the darkness
“Change comes from small initiatives which work,
initiatives which become the fashion. We cannot wait for
great visions from great people, for they are in short
supply at the end of history. It is up to us to light our own
small fires in the darkness.”
•(Charles Handy, The Empty Raincoat)
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Learning networks for educators
 blended learning for
teachers
 focus on:
– training colleagues; and
– delivering learning
activities for G&T
students
– ‘Teacher Tools’ survival
kit with downloadable
resources on practical
and effective Gifted
education
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LGT learning networks - ’training the trainers’
 empowers teachers and puts the learning in their hands
 enables teachers to collaborate and share best practice
 helps them to learn so that they can be better teachers for
their students
 offers hard-edged goal-driven focus
 clear effective in raising students’ attainment
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7 Features of LGT Learning Networks
• purpose and focus
• leadership
• accountability
• relationships
• enquiry
• collaboration
• building capacity and support
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Purpose and Focus
• shared understanding of nature of social
justice issues
• agreed goals and outcomes and working
assumptions
• agreed common currency and language
• quality standards – locating practice within a
shared framework
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Enquiry
• virtual spaces for enquiry, discovery and exchange
• interrogate research, access experts, explore
resources
• experiment with new ideas and strategies
• interrogate their own beliefs, practices and experiences
• understanding and responding to other contexts
• co-creation of resources which have transferability as
an intent
• re-casting working assumptions as core ideas and new
models
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Collaboration through LGT website
•
•
•
•
dedicated communication hub
main tool for sharing and learning
professional space where colleagues can increase their
own expertise
all network members:
1.
2.
3.
4.
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bring assets to the network
test ideas and strategies and share feedback
share in re-working of effective strategies
cascade their learning on into new local networks
Smart tools for smart students
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high challenge
choice and flexibility
focus on developing skills
students as active
researchers, independent
learners
 whole-class provision,
group and independent
learning
 delivery through interactive
whiteboards, multiple
media
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Online resources
 More than 40 examples at
www.londongt.org
 focus on science, maths and
english
 whole-class provision, group
and independent learning
 delivery through interactive
whiteboards
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e learning resources structure
 Introduction
– How can we think about the core ideas?
– Big questions – e.g. how can we think like scientists?
 Main learning activity
– Making the connections by:
▪ Interactive engagement with ideas and concepts
▪ Applying and challenging subject knowledge
▪ Testing hypotheses
 Plenary
– Learning about the learning that has taken place
– Applying understanding in different contexts
– Setting new challenges
Breadth, depth and pace is designed into the resources at all stages
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e TASC for learners
• takes learners through an 8 step sequenced guide to the
stages of thinking and problem solving
• allows the learner to research and upload content from
anywhere on the web and organize and evaluate it
• offers learners the facility to generate their own content
and structure their interrogation of it
• promotes learner meta cognition by inviting reflection and
evaluation of their choices
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E TASC for Teachers
• offers teachers the capacity to formatively assess
and support student progress
• can be used to plan and deliver lessons tailored both
by content and questions to learner needs
• is a hugely flexible teaching and learning tool that
can be used across key stages and curriculum areas
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In Between The Lines
 promotes critical and creative
thinking
 enables students to improve
analytical skills independently
 high challenge activities based
on real world issues
 explores viewpoint, argument
and the potential of
presentational devices through
interactive online tasks
 also relates to critical thinking,
religious studies and citizenship
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www.londongt.org
 Thank you for your time
 The DVDs you have seen are available to order
 May I wish you all continuing success and particular success
to your new Gifted Academy
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