Has any other primary school had a gifted and talented definition survey done? I was quite taken aback to learn that there was a G&T survey but that not the whole school would receive one.
It turns out that they excluded the junior school to avoid surveying the parents of gifted children. They wanted broader and wider definitions of gifted and talented.
The school told me that they were required to survey the school community to get the community's defintion of gifted and talented. The survey made it clear that the starting point was that giftedness was traditionally related to the top 5% of intelligence but that a broader definition was considered more appropriate these days. The suggestions of broader definitions included students with cultural, sporting or leadership talents. It had statements in there for agreeing or disagreeing with including "All children are gifted or talented" etc. To me the survey sent the strong message that if someone calls their child gifted (in terms of learning) it is because it is important to that family that they use that label (and wouldn't be important to another)
I was really upset by the survey. There is a lot of stigma around giftedness and getting all the other parents in the school to decide what giftedness is infuriates me. I think it is very appropriate for the school to work out how to support the special abilities of all children. But when the newly formed school GATE team puts out a survey like this it makes me want to weep. I actually did in front of the teacher. I think she appreciated my point when I suggested that they do a similiar survey regarding learning disabilities that invited the school community to define disability (and exclude the families that may traditionally think that the survey was relevant to them). I also sent in an email.
It was my first experience of tricky advocacy. Has any other school done a similiar survey? I was surprised to hear that the school said that they had to do it. I got the impression it was an area for more research, but the poorly designed, exclusionary survey distributed by the school will not be suitable for research in any form.
Re: Intra school survey: definitions of gifted and talented
Author: country girl
Date: 19-06-12 11:29
All schools should have surveyed their school community about this as they have to write their own definition of what is gifted and talented according to the "beliefs, values, attitudes and customs of their school community" (in speech marks from MOE website).
I have been on a Board of Trustees when this was done and would expect it would be done every 3 or 4 years (to reflect a possibly changing community). According to ERO the consultation has to be done across the wider school community (ie, not just the parents of gifted children).
That said, if they EXCLUDED the parents of gifted and talented children from taking part in the survey then I would be doing some serious jumping up and down.
Our school is tiny so we called a meeting to write our definition rather than do a written survey. In a big school a well-written survey would probably be the way to go though.
I would definately follow up on why some parents have been excluded - I am not sure why the junior school would be the only gifted ones but I may have misunderstood that.
Interesting. I can't remember ever being surveyed and in fact have only in the past term received written correspondence from the SENCO about G & T child who is number 3. REAP ran a Junior thinkers programme for 3 sessions in the school this term. They used to run One Day School but canned it as it only catered for the top 5 %, so now they are including more children. I am a bit astounded at the lack of understanding about G & T children - we've had years of tantrums, lack of sleep, children wanting to do experiments at 9 pm! These classes are a bit of a life line for parents - not a feel good PC inclusive club.
On another note, i read our schools latest ERO report and there was no mention of catering for G & T children - i contacted ERO, and they said that they only mention if a school is particularly strong or weak in this area - so i assume our school was average; however i have never been surveyed by ERO so i don't think they are getting the whole picture. I think parents should contact ERO direct about their concerns about their G & T children.
Re: Intra school survey: definitions of gifted and talented
Author: country girl
Date: 19-06-12 19:48
@Jane - the consultation may have been done at the same time as the school charter consultation so it may not have stood out as a G&T thing.
ERO seems to look at specifc things each year. I think it was in 2008 that they looked closely at each school being reviewed's Gifted and Talented policies and programmes.
Re: Intra school survey: definitions of gifted and talented
Author: country girl
Date: 19-06-12 20:01
Its 4 years old now but ERO produced an article called Schools Provision for Gifted and Talented Students Good Practice after they reviewed 300 or so schools. It makes interesting reading
http://www.ero.govt.nz/National-Reports/Schools-Provision-for-Gifted-and-Talented-Students-Good-Practice-June-2008
