KEY QUESTIONS

1. How has the Challenge Award changed the way you approach your role as co-ordinator/manager of able pupil provision?

• It has in effect provided me with a job description and I therefore now have a structure to follow.
• The Framework reassures me that I am doing the "right" things. Previously my role was scarily undefined and I was never sure what to do next. This was particularly important to me as Ofsted loomed.
• It also gives SLT a clearer idea of what I should be doing within my role and guarantees I get their support on all the issues which are in the Framework.
• Even though the school has now been awarded the Challenge Award, our action plan for able students continues as we strive to meet 100% of the award's criteria.
• The award helps me to see clearly the exact steps I now need to take.

2. Has your provision for Able, Gifted and Talented improved since undertaking the Challenge Award. If so, how?

• Definitely. The school received a cameo from Ofsted for its provision for more able students, and this was a direct result of working towards the Challenge Award Framework.
• Everybody at school now takes More Able issues seriously rather than putting them on the back burner. It has forced staff to give More Able a higher priority. This is important as within a secondary, you can't do the job alone. You have to have ALL staff doing their bit.
• Pre Challenge Award I constantly had to chase departments to do things such as update more able registers, but post Challenge Award, departments do such tasks efficiently and promptly, understanding their importance.
• It has also made staff and myself realise that More Able issues are part of a bigger picture and overlap with so many other initiatives going on e.g. teaching and learning, formative assessment, KS3 strategy etc
• A lot of ideas we were piloting such as More Able newsletters, portfolios for more able students, mentoring and the enrichment programme have become permanent features.
• Our provision has significantly improved in the following areas: parental involvement, emotional welfare of more able students, enrichment, transition of more able students, whole school target setting, mentoring of more able students, departmental awareness of how to challenge students within their subject area.
• The profile of the school's provision within the community has also improved dramatically, as demonstrated at September's Open Evening for parents of Year 6 students. Parents attending had already heard about our provision and were keen to find out more.

3. What activities have you undertaken specifically to support the development of the award? Has it made an impact on whole school CPD?

• We started by concentrating on our school register. We consulted ALL teaching staff and developed a whole school register as well as individual departmental registers. ALL staff were given a copy. This increased awareness amongst staff. We then worked on our parental involvement. This involved writing to all parents of more able students and setting up regular More Able Newsletters to KEEP parents involved.
• Once all of this had been set up, we then developed our provision, involving staff and parents wherever appropriate. We created a programme of enrichment activities to encourage a "group identity" amongst more able students. I also met with each year group to do some group mentoring and to find out from the students themselves what they would like to see in terms of provision. Questionnaires were developed and completed.
• The next thing to be set up was processes to monitor the students. More Able portfolios were set up and a mentoring system using Teaching Assistants.
• The above formed the basis of our provision and the policy was developed as provision evolved.
• As we got closer to assessment, we also undertook the following activities: development of whole school targets for SATs level 6 and GCSE grades A/A*, development of subject policies, development of student tracking systems

4. What aspects of the Award have been most useful to you?

• All of it, but particularly the way that it encompasses so many different initiatives and links everything together. It makes you realise that anything you do for the More Able benefits ALL students and not just them.
• The other main use of the award has actually been the way in which it increases awareness of issues amongst staff, students and parents.

5. What have been the challenges of trying to promote the Award in a secondary school and how have you tried to overcome them?

• The first challenge was of course that the Award is quite daunting at first glance. Breaking it down and working on one section at a time does however help.
• The Award involves a lot of people and as More Able Co-ordinator I was not aware of some of the things going on at school that could actually provide evidence for the Award. Once I had had preliminary meetings with key figures at school and discussed their involvement, most members of staff were fully supportive. Approaching members of staff as individuals rather than as a whole was definitely most effective.
• Getting departments to provide evidence for the folder was difficult. It was not that they did not have evidence, just that it was not a priority for them. As the assessment day got closer they were keener to provide documentation, but it did involve a lot of one-to-one work with heads of departments which was time consuming and I would encourage other schools to insist on documentation like this way in advance. Showing off the portfolio folder and what was already in it is one thing which I wish I had done earlier. Staff would then have had a better understanding of what was involved.
• Many staff were of the opinion that it was "yet another" initiative which would come and then disappear, but the speed of the Award soon converted them. I think that momentum could have been lost if we hadn't have gone for assessment before the summer however. I would definitely recommend that schools go for assessment as soon as they are ready, no matter how daunting it may seem.
• Some staff feel that it will distract from other work going on within the school, e.g. literacy strategy, but one-to-one work with these staff can soon persuade them that the award encompasses everything rather than distracting from anything.
• Funding is also a problem but we're managed to get NOF funding for the enrichment programme and this has helped a lot. We've even managed to pay staff an hourly rate for enrichment activities.
• The Assessment day caused a few problems amongst staff, not wanting to be observed, but overall we were lucky that having just been through an Ofsted inspection we were geared up for it, and by comparison, the Challenge Award assessment was far less intimidating

6. What advice would you give to secondary schools setting out on the Award?

• Do not be put off…it's not as daunting as you think. Go through the Framework with your Head teacher right at the beginning so that you are immediately aware of what is already going on. Tick off everything that you are already doing as a school, and then write a realistic Action Plan based on the remaining criteria.
• As a more able co-ordinator, do not try to do everything by yourself as it is an impossible task and only becomes manageable as more and more people become involved. This is particularly true when the assessment day is looming as there is a lot to organise in terms of timetable planning, collection of work samples, making finishing touches to the portfolio file, arranging interviews. I was lucky that Yr 11 and Yr 13 had left and so had extra time, but normally this would not be the case.
• Make sure students and parents are involved in your provision from the beginning. They are a big part of the assessment day and require a good understanding of what your school has done.
• I would not recommend going for assessment in the latter part of the summer term when year groups are missing. It really limits the work samples and lesson observation possibilities.

7. Where appropriate, give examples of how your school has achieved particular Elements or criteria.

Element 1: Whole school and departmental policies, celebration assemblies, school newsletter celebrating success

Element 2: Evidence from Ofsted report, school and department registers, student questionnaires

Element 3: Extensive enrichment programmes, Target setting days, Learning 2 Learn Programme

Element 4: Extension activities, Transition Summer School

Element 5: Mentoring programme, More Able portfolios

Element 7: Contact with external agencies E.g. Kilve Court, NAGTY, Beacon School projects, Oxford University

Element 8: Resource Audit of departments

Element 9: More Able Newsletters for parents, Social Evening for parents of more able students

8. How are you managing the monitoring of your action plan?

• I had to re-write the Action Plan a few times as we worked towards the Award as I kept finding I had overlooked things.
• I had regular meetings with key people at school, e.g. Head, Deputy, Key Stage managers, to update the action plan as many of the things on it were not things that I could work on myself.
• Now that we have obtained the award, we are still continuing to monitor the action plan to strive towards achieving 100% of the criteria.
• It's important to see the Action Plan as being never ending