"Welcome to the Gifted & Talented Debate" ~ July 2008

The debate was offered to our secondary schools who were invited to bring a team of 6-8 students accompanied by a teacher and was held on Wednesday 2nd July 2008 at Causton Street and led by Stefani Shedden who is the Hounslow Strand co-ordinator and input from Matt Dickensen who is Project Manager of the REAL Project from London Gifted & Talented.

We had students from : Bishop Ramsey; Burlington Danes Academy; Greig City Academy; Lady Margaret; St Mary Magdalene Academy; St Marylebone and Twyford High. The day ended with the students being presented with a certicficate for their participation.

This hugely successful debate was a first for the LDBS and took a year of planning starting with meetings of the Gifted and Talented project led by Penelope Penney (LDBS Secondary Schools Adviser):

Purpose of the group
To establish a Diocesan wide network for Gifted and Talented provision, establishing trust across the schools involved so that ideas and best practice could be developed and shared.

Content
The first meeting looked at e-learning resources, especially at KS3, produced by the London Challenge Gifted and Talented team. The designer babies material seemed to have made a significant impression on all at the heads’ meeting - and there was much more.
They looked at the themes of the A* material and engaging in activities looking at some of the issues surrounding A*, learning behaviours and strategies for developing star performance.
Between the first and second meetings there was a tailored project for each school to develop.

Once this group got going, we moved onto the next academic year with a group working on material for RE resources.

On the day
When the students arrived they joined mixed teams - so each team of three was made up of students from diffrerent schools.  The students had been prepared for the debates within their own schools, and on arrival had to agree amongst themselves who would take which role in the debate.  The purpose was to encourage independent working amongst those students who had been nominated as gifted and talented in RE, and all the debates had a theological theme.

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