Growth in gifted schools programme
A new report from the school inspectorate Ofsted has found that the take-up of places on the Government’s gifted pupils summer school programme more than doubled in the last year.
In 2003 only 500 out of the 900 available places were taken up, whereas in 2004 all 1,050 places were filled.
Ofsted concluded that the all of the summer schools were ‘good’ and the majority were ‘excellent’ and most pupils have high satisfaction levels.
But there were some important caveats to the report.
Inspectors found that there were no clear criteria for identifying suitable pupils for the schemes and too many centres said they did not receive sufficient data on pupils’ prior attainment.
Also, with the scheme costing £1,900 a place (most of which is paid for by the Department for Education) the scheme is urged to demonstrate how it represents good value for money.
The gifted children summer schools aim to give exceptional pupils in the state sector experience of more challenging courses than can be taught in a school environment. These include higher level English or robotics.
David Bell, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Schools, said: “I am delighted to report that twice as many gifted and talented youngsters attended summer schools last year compared to the year before.
“The majority of summer schools were excellent last year and pupils made very good progress thanks to improvements made by the National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth and the centres running the courses.”
