What really works in gifted and talented education

Professor Eyre argues that gifted and talented education is about making exceptional performance a reality for pupils who have the ability to excel. This brief paper offers some basic tips for teachers on how to get the best out of such pupils, advocating a personalised approach.

She suggests that gifted and talented education only works effectively where the opportunities match pupils’ needs, and where each part of the school system plays to its strengths and enables pupils to reach increasingly sophisticated outcomes.

The overall requirements for such cohorts, Eyre explains, include: formal recognition of the cohort; planned learning opportunities offering high levels of challenge on a daily basis; progress in learning in a way that reflects the stage of learning, rather than the age of the pupil; access to enhanced learning opportunities offered outside of normal classroom provision; and the necessity to see the pupil as a child with social and emotional needs, as well as intellectual ones.