Aims

ASHS is committed to providing an environment that encourages all students to realise their potential and this clearly includes students who display a talent or have a gift.  ASHS aims to offer and provide a programme of learning opportunities for our G&T students that offer challenge, intellectual stimulation and an enriched curriculum where each student is treated as an individual and given the appropriate support socially, emotionally and intellectually. 

ASHS aims to identify G&T students at an early stage with the aim of assessing the students’ specific skills and talents in order to develop an approach that will allow them to function at higher cognitive levels.  ASHS aims to provide opportunities for the students to experience a broad rich curriculum and much of this will be achieved within the school environment but not wholly. 

Definitions 

A student who is gifted and talented is one who achieves or has the ability to achieve, at a level significantly in advance of their year group.  This may be in all areas of the curriculum or in a limited range.

A gifted student is one who is in the top 5% of the ASHS student population who has the capacity for or demonstrates high levels of performance in an academic area. 

A talented student is one who is in the top 5% of the ASHS student population who has the capacity for or demonstrates high levels of performance in a non academic area.

It is possible for a student to be either gifted, talented or both gifted and talented.

The following areas are examples of where ASHS may find a G&T student:

• Physical talent in sports or games where the student is skilled or dexterous
• Visual Arts and Performing Arts abilities, which may mean the student is good at art and design, textiles, dance, movement, music or drama
• Mechanical Ingenuity is evident where the student finds solutions to problems of practical or technical nature
• Curriculum area gifts such as a student able to achieve A* grades in academic subjects

G&T students can be:

• A good all-rounder
• A high achiever in one area
• Of high ability but with low motivation
• Of good verbal ability but poor writing skills
• Very able but with a short attention span
• Very able with poor social skills