Gifted & Talented

There has been a plethora of activities and resources provided by the Gifted & Talented and Aim Higher Initiatives this year.
The funding and support provided by the initiative at Abbeydale Grange aims to develop systems and practices that ensure that our most able students receive an education that genuinely meets their needs. For many students this will be about providing an education that engages their minds, extends and deepens their learning. For others it will be about nurturing and developing specific sporting, musical, artistic or other talents.

The funding provided by the Gifted and Talented Initiative at Abbeydale Grange School has, and continues to enable our most able to achieve their potential by:

• Providing opportunities for extension work-encouraging students to push beyond the national curriculum programme of study which promotes deeper subject knowledge.

• Promote depth- by encouraging students to develop more sophisticated, complex or abstract thinking.

• Enrichment activities.

• Purchasing additional books and classroom resources.

• Opportunities for fast tracking and accelerated learning- faster pace enabling students to engage with material that is not normally encountered at their key stage or year group.

• Potential membership at the National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth (We currently have 6 students who are members)

• Combine in-school learning with complimentary opportunities out of school hours.

• Promote high achievement amongst our most able ethnic minority students.

• Challenge a culture that focuses on the average and where students are uncomfortable about excelling in relation to their peer group.

The Aim Higher initiative is one of the sister strands to Gifted & Talented in the governments flagship Excellence in Cities. The initiative is part of the Governments’ strategy to widen participation in post 16 education for which it has set itself a target of 50% increase in participation in Higher Education alone by 2010.

Emphasis is placed on encouraging more students to aim for university especially those students whose backgrounds reflect no tradition of Higher education. The key focus for the Aim Higher Initiative this year has been to raise aspirations, knowledge & awareness of pathways into Further and Higher Education.

The aim of this webpage is to give you an overview of the activities and opportunities that have been provided thanks to the two initiatives.

Furniture Design and manufacture - Extra curriculuar Y10 & Y11

Aim to provide 3 hours extra tuition per week which will enable more time for 1 to 1 teaching in specialist design & manufacturing in order to develop skills in Resistant Materials GCSE.

Games box by Iftikhar	Media unit by Mingjie
	“This after school club has helped students gain a deeper insight into the world of furniture design. The extra time gained and modern materials used has greatly assisted students. Some students because of this extra provision have had their estimated grades improve by 1 and in some cases 2 grades. The sessions have allowed students to produce much higher quality products than could have been achieved in lessons alone.” Steve Owen - Technology Technician & Furniture Design Expert
Display table by Rebecca
Computer desk by Abiola	Coffee table by Ahssad	Coffee table by Ehssan

P.E.

The Junior Sports Leaders Award (JSLA) is a nationally recognised qualification and is designed to provide a starting point for young people aged 14 - 16  who want to develop their sports leadership skills. The aim of the award is to develop generic skills that can be applied to a variety of sporting activities, as well as contributing to the candidate's personal and social education.

Cheuk Kwong Li coaching Y1's	Cheuk,Joe & Max

Higher Education Summer School - Making the move to Higher Education

Y11 students had the opportunity to attend a weeks residential at a range of Yorkshire Universities during June and July. Students were able to learn new skills, go on campus trails, find out about different courses, attend lectures and tutorials, take part in team games, quizzes, socialize, relax and have fun. Teams of University staff were on hand to support and encourage students as well as undergraduates being present to answer any questions. “We learnt a lot out of going to the higher education summer school residential at Bradford University. We did many different activities such as making a robot, building a skeleton etc. Between 6pm—10pm we went for walks, ice skating, bowling and to the cinema. We experienced how life is at university, being responsible for yourself and it was a good experience of making new friends and socializing with multi-cultured people. The best part was meeting new people. Thanks to Mr. Anderson for sorting it out for us” Minaz & Saira Y11

Vicky Morris - Digital Photography

Katherine – This is an image from her fairies series	Joe wanted to look at the process involved in shooting a hoop. He took a series of photos and put them together in image editing software. From this work he produced a logo style version of his image, which he printed on a t-shirt.	Gavin illustrated the word ‘loose’

Talent Camp

Year 7 - 10 Gifted and Talented Talent Camp. Congratulations to the following pupils from Abbeydale who were selected to attend this year's 'Network Talent Camp'. The camp which took place during June involved over 100 pupils from , Abbeydale Grange, Tapton and Westfield School. Each camp involved a day of intensive coaching at top sporting venues in Sheffield, led by highly qualified coaches. The pupils who were selected have done extremely well as were chosen from over 2000 students to take part.

Final Comments

I would like to thank to all members of staff who have supported the Gifted & Talented and Aim Higher Initiatives this year. As a school we have been able to offer students a wide variety of resources, activities and learning opportunities thanks the additional funding provided.

To bring this page to a close I would like to leave you with some art work courtesy of our students.

Adrian Anderson
Gifted & Talented / Aim Higher Co-ordinator