More able learners
More able learners and enrichment
At Hollycroft Primary School we strive to provide the very best education for pupils of all abilities. With this in mind, we have designed a broad and balanced curriculum which enables all children to achieve to the highest end of their potential. We recognise that a huge number of the children in our academy have subjects or areas where they are either performing, or have the potential to perform, at a higher level than the majority of their peers. We identify these pupils as more able.
Our aims are to:
- Provide an enriched, broad and balanced curriculum to engage and inspire all learners.
- Identify pupils who are striving to work at a greater depth in one or more curriculum or school value area.
- Provide opportunities for mastery level learning through Quality First Teaching in the classroom.
- Set challenging but attainable targets for all children, including those identified as more able.
- Provide enrichment activities outside of the classroom utilising college and university links for all pupils, including directing resources to those identified as more able where appropriate.
- Celebrate a vast range of achievement and attainment by all pupils in the School.
How do we define more able pupils?
Our definition of more able is any pupil who is achieving, or has the capacity to achieve, at a greater depth than the majority of their peers in one or more curriculum area. In amongst this group there may be children who are performing at a significantly higher level relative to their age expectation and peers – at Hollycroft primary we identify these pupils as the most able. As we aim to have the widest possible view of ability, we also include children who show particular skills and talents in our values such as respect, empathy, resilience and reflection.
Provision
We endeavour to meet the needs of higher ability children through careful identification and monitoring strategies and by providing access to a curriculum that will not only support the development of the whole child intellectually, socially and emotionally, but will enable them to show aptitudes and quality of thinking.
We strongly believe that engaging teaching and learning for all is the key to securing achievement for every child. Through creative curriculum activities, more able pupils are given a wide variety of exciting challenges and experiences, developing the ability to question, explain, persevere, communicate their thoughts and take risks in their learning whilst building relationships.
We support our more able pupils by giving them opportunities for open-ended tasks, higher-order thinking challenges and extension activities. In class children work in a range of ways; ability groups, mixed ability, paired work and independent work. We use a variety of teaching styles and a range of higher-level questions to stimulate critical thinking.