NACE CEO Rob Lightfoot shares the thinking behind NACE’s refreshed vision and mission statements.
 
Having worked in state secondary comprehensive schools for nearly 30 years, prior to joining NACE as CEO in 2021, I have worked through and been involved with various strategies throughout my teaching career. It is safe to say some strategies were more successful than others!

In recent years, however, a focus on cognitive challenge had an extremely positive impact on my students. I don’t think any of us will argue that a teacher’s job is to ensure all of their learners are challenged and working to the very best of their ability. This is extremely difficult to achieve unless we start our planning by focusing on the needs of the ‘more able’ learners in any particular class. They have their own distinct needs, like any other group of learners, and – as we can see from our NACE Challenge Award schools – you will see a rise in achievement for a much wider group of learners if the needs of the ‘more able’ are met effectively across a school. 

NACE uses the term ‘cognitive challenge’ (sometimes shortened to ‘challenge’) to describe how learners become able to understand and form complex and abstract ideas and develop the ability to solve problems. Cognitive challenge will prompt and stimulate extended and strategic thinking, analytical and evaluative processes.

Opportunities for cognitive challenge are essential. As summarised by Professor Philip Adey (2008): “What the research shows consistently is that if you face children with intellectual challenges and then help them talk through the problems towards a solution, then you almost literally stretch their minds. They become cleverer, not only in the particular topic, but across the curriculum. It can therefore be argued that teachers cannot afford to allow their pupils to miss out on the opportunities for deep thinking.” 

You can read more about our work on cognitive challenge here.

I look back with some embarrassment at my early teaching career when the focus was on the ‘middle’ and challenge was provided through the setting of additional tasks once the planned work had been completed. These tasks were often more of the same, rather than expecting learners to think hard and develop the skills they need to be successful in the future, both in school and beyond. When enrichment tasks did contain necessary levels of challenge, learners who encountered various forms of disadvantage could be hampered by lack of access to the same support/opportunities as their peers, which created barriers to learning. This is the focus for our current research.

The terminology associated with ‘more able’ learners can be both confusing and controversial. I have encountered many occasions when teaching colleagues come to me with a preconceived view of what NACE stands for as a charity. Many conversations start with us being accused of elitism – championing a group who are already at an advantage – but this couldn’t be further from the truth. 

Whether we refer to learners as more or most able, exceptionally able, gifted and/or talented, or as having higher learning potential, we need to recognise their needs and ‘teach to the top’. A ‘teaching to the top’ approach ensures we meet the needs of our highest-achieving learners (and those with the potential to achieve highly), but this does not affect our ability to break down the objectives to meet the needs of all learners too. As noted above, all learners will benefit from a challenge-focused approach. 

We want to support schools to utilise every second of every lesson to ensure that all young people have the opportunity to develop their abilities without limits. This is at the heart of our refreshed vision and mission statements, which you can read below and on our “About” webpage.

Our vision

That all young people, including the more able, have the opportunity to develop their abilities without limits – no matter what barriers to learning they may face and no matter what school they attend.

Our mission

• To support and work with schools in England, Wales and internationally to enable teachers and senior leaders to understand the needs of their more able learners and to develop high-quality provision and learning cultures which raise expectations and standards for all.
• To develop and disseminate evidence-based approaches to provision for more able learners and to undertake and spearhead research into effective practices for such learners.
• To champion more able learners, including those experiencing disadvantage, and to lobby for their inclusion in school improvement strategies, national education policy and other developments to achieve greater equity in education for all learners.

Our goals

• To support teachers and school leaders in developing high-quality teaching and curriculum design for more able learners and challenge for all through a range of professional development programmes and resources.
• To support schools in self-evaluation and school improvement for more able learners in a culture of challenge for all through the NACE Challenge Development Programme.
• To provide a highly regarded quality mark for school provision for more able learners through the NACE Challenge Award and to support accredited schools in disseminating best practice.
• To provide networking opportunities for schools to drive improvements for more able learners through knowledge sharing and collaboration.
• To undertake research into highly effective provision for more able learners and to disseminate this through publications, partnerships and NACE professional development services.
• To communicate with relevant national bodies and to contribute to policy developments to ensure the inclusion of more able young people, including those experiencing disadvantage, in improving educational outcomes and life chances for all.
• To engage in partnerships which will raise and promote awareness of the needs of more able learners, and how to meet their needs effectively through strategies which will have a positive impact on the aspirations and achievements of a wider group of learners.