National Register Launched To Help Gifted Pupils From All Backgrounds Reach Their Potential

11 July 2006, A pioneering national initiative to help ensure talented pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds reach their full potential was launched by Schools Minister Andrew Adonis today.

For the first time a national register is being established to help teachers to identify and stretch some of the brightest children whose true potential may in the past have gone unrealised or have been masked by social disadvantage. There will also be an onus on schools to ensure that the background of their gifted and talented children should be broadly representative of the whole school population.

The new register will cover all children identified as gifted and talented by their schools and provide data to encourage schools to consider children they have not so far identified. It will mean that these children are identified earlier and given the right opportunities for their talents to be nurtured.

Schools are also being encouraged to identify the top 5% of 11-19 year-olds nationally, for registration at the National Academy for Gifted and Talented (NAGTY). There are some 200,000 of these - part of the wider gifted and talented population - and 100,000 have been registered with NAGTY to date.

The Government wants to ensure that all eligible students who wish to register with NAGTY can benefit from the range of opportunities available. NAGTY is piloting ’Goal’ - a programme designed to provide an entitlement to outreach opportunities and support for members from the most disadvantaged backgrounds. The Government is supporting this with £1 million per year over each of the next two years and NAGTY is seeking matching sponsorship support.

Andrew Adonis said:

“We must stop the terrible waste of talent when children don’t reach their full potential. This register will ensure they are identified early and don’t lose out because they come from a deprived background. Our brightest children should be helped to reach the top and use their gifts. The pursuit of excellence which benefits the whole country should be open to children of all backgrounds, not just a privileged minority.

“The national register will enable thousands more gifted and talented children to be identified, especially late developers and those underachieving because of social disadvantage. Our education reforms set out very clearly that learning must be personalised and support the individual needs of pupils by securing access to appropriate learning opportunities inside and outside school.”

This week letters will be sent to every secondary school outlining the purpose of the national register and encouraging those that have not done so to register eligible students with NAGTY. The Department is revising and updating its guidance on identification of gifted and talented learners for release early in the new academic year. There is no single test that identifies gifted and talented learners reliably and the new guidance will encourage schools to draw on a wide range of evidence, for example: pupil’s work; teachers’ assessments; and classroom observation - alongside data from the national register.

Editor’s Notes
This press notice relates to ’England’
1. The National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth was established by the Government at the University of Warwick to improve provision for gifted and talented children and young people up to the age of 19 years, and to provide guidance, advice and development for teachers. For further information on NAGTY please contact Alison Rowan, Press Officer, NAGTY on 02476 574905 or 07876 218130 or by email at a.rowan@warwick.ac.uk

2. The letters sent to schools by Andrew Adonis are published at www.teachernet.gov.uk/educationoverview/briefing/news/
registerofgiftedandtalentedlearners

3. The national register was first outlined in Chapter 4 of the Schools White Paper as part of a wider support programme for gifted and talented education. Other elements included ’Goal’ (see above); provision for trained expert teachers in every secondary school and for every group of primary schools; and a pilot of non-residential ’extended day’ summer schools.
http://www.dfes.gov.uk/publications/schoolswhitepaper

Press Notice 2006/0102

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