Gifted and Talented Children

This planning guide has been written for primary school teachers, principals and support staff who have gifted and talented children in their school communities and who require specific practical strategies to work effectively with these children… the questionnaires in this guide will help focus on and analyse practice collectively and also in setting targets for action.’ – ACE Bulletin This teacher handbook provides professional developmental support, direction and practical wisdom to those teachers who have children with special abilities in their classrooms. It is the result of the author’s extensive experience in working with children who are gifted and talented. Strongly underpinned by current thinking in the area of gifted and talented education, the resource also takes an accessible and practical ‘inclusive’ approach to ways of working with highly able children in regular classrooms. The guide is divided into these four sections: Who are gifted and talented children? – An overview of the wide range of different abilities that the term ‘gifted and talented’ can cover. What are we doing? What do we need to do? – Contains strategies and focus questions which allow schools to focus on provisions they could make for children with special abilities. It also features information on policy development, programming for all children and manageable ways to differentiate programmes for the highly able. Getting into school-wide action: How do we do it? – Provides strategies for identifying children with special abilities across the school – including indicators for general ability, multiple intelligences, specific abilities and under-achievers. What can we do in the classroom? – Topics in this section include: setting up a responsive environment, learning and teaching strategies, unit analysis and adaptation, social and emotional development, and relating to parents. This resource has been written for all those primary teachers who want a clear, accessible and practical guide for providing a learning environment in which highly able students will flourish and grow.