Being on the "Gifted and Talented " register ...What does it actually mean

[bizzey]

Not a boast I promise..Just I am a confused mum who got an e- mail this morning telling me my ds has been put on "this"...

He is year 10 so it is nothing new that he is clever...why go on the register now ?? What happens ?

What is this friggin register !!

Yes I have e -mailed HOD ..

Just wondering if any of you have been in this situation

Thanks Bizzey

It means pretty much nothing I'm afraid!

Or it could mean Oxbridge support - the school's gifted and talented policy should be on its website.

It's not meant a lot to either of mine - if you mean in terms of enhanced provision or experiences.
dd1 was asked to help in a mentoring programme once, and she reckoned "only the geeks" - her words, not mine - were asked, but I don't think dd2 knows she's technically on this list even.

My DS is younger but has been identified as having a "maths brain" and therefore has additional lessons extending his maths lessons and doing lots of problem solving puzzles. He also does extension english lessons with a couple of other children who are ahead of the pack. Independent school though and so they might do things differently.

What it means depends a lot on the school. It could at worst be a box-ticking exercise so the head can pretend they are doing something. Or it could mean that your son is given genuinely useful extension work and set higher targets. It's worth finding out what the school actually does. If the school has helpfully identified a talent it could be a huge help in identifying what ds should lean to. You need to find out what the school actually does itself really, as I suspect mumsnetters have a wide variety of experiences of this. We suffered a primary G&T coordinator whose job it was appeared to be to make sure no parent could ask for extra resources by finding endless reasons not to ID kids as G&T. We moved our ds shortly after that and were more than vindicated. Good luck!

It doesn't mean much at all - sorry. In some schools it is just the top 10% of students based on their ability as a group

DD is in Y8. The school has a 'Most Able' policy which is their former 'Gifted and Talented' policy after a quick MS Word search & replace. According to that DD qualified for all the promises therein within a week of starting Y7, but...

G&T was a nuLabour thing for which there wasn't much funding. It's implementation was a bit random and at a national scale it wasn't that effective. It was swiftly deprecated by the Tories who want schools to stretch and challenge all children to their 'potential'.

Ultimately none of us knows the answer because what does or doesn't happen depends on the individual school. If they add something genuinely useful then you're quite lucky, but if not then welcome to the club!

has been identified as having a "maths brain"

Oh no! Where's the safe space, or better still Jo Boaler to save me from the stress that facist fixed mindset phrase is causing ?!?

Did someone at the school use that exact phrase? If so they're most likely sticking their fingers up at the faddish, fashionable eduStuff i.e. it sounds quite promising.

The school did use that exact phrase yes.

We were quite surprised actually since S has always been very strong in english but whilst at the top for maths he wasn't leaps and bounds ahead of everyone else. They did some testing though.

Precisely nothing here. DD was put on the register for languages in year 7. She's in year 11 now and I've heard nothing since.

Dd was identified as g&t in year 3 state school. We changed to a private school because of bullying and poor teaching although not associated with g&t. The private school identified dd as g&t in year 5 for both maths and English (I must admit I was a bit confused about the maths and tbh I think they may have taken her off the maths list.dd is in year 7 and we have not heard anymore. Dd has never done anything extra as a result.

Means fuck all.

Means he gets an extra club to go to where they discuss topical subjects (I think). Ds quite enjoys it.

Hi belated thanks for your replies ...internet problem.
Tend to agree it is a box ticking exercise as he has move to different area of school and they maybe need to show they have recognised it !

Maybe OFSTED is due soon !!

This is what I found on the website of SGS: "The provision of G&T for the whole school includes:
provision of a wide range of extra-curricular activities and clubs
Challenge Days and other occasional off timetable events
recognition of outstanding achievement via the reporting system
funding for some extra-curricular Gifted and Talented opportunities
reward and celebration of achievement, for example at Junior and Senior Prize Evening, Sports Days, concerts, Jack Petchey Awards
informing parents/carers of their son’s inclusion in the Gifted and Talented Register, of the provision the school makes in general; advising parents/carers and pupils of special Gifted and Talented activities as they arise; offering some advice on parental support". www.suttongrammarschool.co.uk

My DS benefitted a lot from being on the G&T register but the Governors of his school worked really hard to provide the budget for appropriate provision.

Ours involves having a few team building sessions to develop their people skills & the odd extra trip to businesses or special events.

DD y6 was put on the G&T club following her CATS results. She is in an independent girls school. She has an extra club to go to and the geography teacher was scratching his head about what the hell he was suppose to with them to stretch them. They will survey the school grounds with some sort of tools and figure out where things should grow and where they shouldn't
and do a presentation to the whole school afterwards. Sounds fun but pointless.

Last year y7 dd went to a once-a-half-term geography club. This year she's been invited to a history thing. In y10 I'd hope it translated into extra guidance/support for choosing A levels and looking ahead to university choices.

It has very little to do with Ofsted inspections. They look for hard evidence of progress, not the school ticking boxes, and will expect ALL children to be given the best possible opportunities to achieve, gifted or not. In some schools virtually all the children are gifted and talented - grammar schools. Some schools have never had a child go to a Russell group University, let alone Oxbridge, so the G and T threshold is much lower, but it could include sport and music. It does mean that the school is at least looking at progress and ability so that is good. Check the school's policy to see what it might involve.

We've had the letter home inviting year 7 DD to a launch event for the GnT programme, in which she was given a secret mission to complete, is participating in a writers workshop soon snd lots of other nice things but essentially she will be given extension work in lessons, this is the most important aspect to us, the other bits are lovely but fluffy (and not sitting entirely happily) but the extension work in a mixed ability year 7 is what's important here.

Behind the scenes, being G&T should feed into lesson planning in the same way as SEN, to ensure appropriate differentiation.

For the students, they may be in a club or scholars' society, for example, where they discuss current affairs. They may also help out teachers to support weaker students at lunchtime or form time, particularly in languages, mathematics or reading.