ST THOMAS AQUINAS CATHOLIC SCHOOL

PARENTS FORUM

MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD ON

MONDAY 26 NOVEMBER 2007

Apologies:

Dee McCann

Presentation - Gifted and Talented Provision

JFO welcomed everyone to the presentation evening and briefly described the

background to the Parents Forum and the format of the meetings. He then set out the

programme for the evening as follows:

There are three principles related to gifted and talented:

1 All children should be challenged to achieve their potential. That includes

those with special educational needs, those who are average and those who are

gifted and talented.

2 If your child is gifted or talented it should not be a secret. Teachers must

know and plan accordingly. Parents must know and work in partnership with

school as a result.

2 Children should not be embarrassed if they are gifted or talented. They should

not be arrogant either. They should be encouraged to celebrate and share their

gifts.

JFO referred to Mr Weekes' recent concert and the children who supported him. He

said it was an absolutely stunning evening and pupils should celebrate the gifts they

are born with.

The purpose of the evening - JFO said the school is very pleased to be the first school

in Birmingham to lead on gifted and talented. STACS have recently received the

NACE award and want to share that work with parents and show them what the

school does for their child every day.

Mr Baker (JBA) spoke about gifted and talented provision in the classroom. He gave

examples of lessons that have taken place this term, a Year 11 Geography lesson,

Year 8 PE lesson and Year 7 Maths lesson.

Year 11 Geography lesson

The Year 11 class was deemed to be outstanding by NACE. JBA showed a slide

presentation and described the lesson and how ideas were shared. The topic was

Resources Management and the aims were to look at analytical skills. Objectives

were split into two and tasks clearly defined for gifted and talented pupils and then for

other pupils. Students shared ideas and JBA showed the results on screen of pupils'

work. The information is monitored and you can see how pupils are responding to

learning and improving their understanding. JBA then showed a trailer for the film

Mission Impossible which pupils had watched and then brainstormed their ideas i.e.

lighting, bullying, guns, weapons. Carbon footprints was the homework set, an

opportunity for lots of different ways for students to extend their thoughts and ideas.

Katie Kiely presented her work on graphic design. She had designed a logo and

packaging for toothpaste called Princess Paste, (Prince Paste for boys). She described

her research, use of the internet, looking at other packaging and also the printing

techniques she used. She worked independently and at her own pace.

Jennie McNamee then presented her work on resistant materials. She designed a toy

storage unit to appeal to younger children. Cad cam designing was part of the course

and she compared and contrasted her work regularly. She had 15 - 20 A3 sheets

showing the process and will make a model in the last two lessons, hoping to have the

project completed by the end of the academic year.

Year 8 badminton lesson Monday

19 November 2007

JBA showed a video clip demonstrating how talented students helped others in the

group by coaching them and showing them what to do. He described the progress the

girl's made and how the second clip showed them becoming more independent.

There were also feedback sessions with the girls and discussion on how to improve

further. JBA said he attended the lesson again a week later and could see the

improvements made.

Enigma Project - Math lesson Friday 23 November 2007

Katie Boot and Kynan Yandle were both involved looking at code breaking. They

discussed the lesson, the activity sheets they used and the questions they had to

answer to break the codes. Mr Hindley (CHI) explained the nature of the day and the

reason for running the Enigma Project which he has run for the last 3 years. He

described the relevance from the history of the Spartans to modern day and internet

shopping. The project shows the links to mathematics (working out combinations)

and is also cross curricular with history and literacy while giving examples of the

codes that are used in everyday life. The class were able to use the Enigma machine

and really enjoyed the project, the use of the machine and the activities. Pupils shared

ideas and tried to break the codes using a huge mathematical calculator. CHI showed

pictures on screen and said that Year 6 parents also attempted the code breaking. CHI

then described the National Cipher Challenge that Southampton University offer. It's

a challenging extension to the code breaking exercise.

Mrs Barclay (IBA) had distributed handouts entitled Gifted and Talented provision

and the details appeared as slides on screen. Beginning with rationale she discussed

each slide in turn. Gifted and talented is a government initiative and STACS has a

whole school policy. Faculties also have their own policies on how they are going to

support pupils. IBA said that gifted pupils show ability across the curriculum and

talented pupils have ability beyond their peers in music, drama, technology or PE.

IBA said that the information collected from primary schools is invaluable and

described how the school look at national curriculum test results. Year 7 complete

CATs test and the scores give good indications of strengths and weaknesses. Reading

and spelling is also looked at so too are the recommendations of teachers. Lists of the

pupils are distributed to teachers before the list is finalised and distributed to all staff.

Parents are then informed of the details.

Pupils are encouraged to improve on their best and be aware of their potential. Half

termly meetings take place with heads of year for pupils to discuss any worries they

may have. There is a supplement to allow them to have appropriate resources and

schemes of work are reviewed. JBA is leading on teaching and learning and helping

to look at ways of challenging pupils. Pupil Voice attempts to seek pupils' views and

so too do questionnaires. Parents are also encouraged to contact the school and pupils

have the opportunity to attend lectures and master classes. A new venture for Year 10

is pupils being offered the chance to do AS qualifications in classical civilisation.

IBA added that STAGO and a mentor in Year are available to support pupils who are

underachieving. The school also likes to work closely with parents and would like to

strengthen this relationship.

JBA led the final part of the evening using voting pad technology. The interactive

session involved distributing 95 Quizdom's to the audience. Questions appeared on

screen and people answered each one using the numbers on the keypad. Immediately

JBA can see the percentage of answers received and produce a chart to show the

percentage of correct or incorrect answers. A member of the audience was then

chosen to answer further questions and with the option of ‘asking the audience' had a

chance to win £300.00 (or two STACS raffle tickets, if winning tickets, then the

opportunity to win £300.00!).

There were pink evaluation sheets left on each chair and people who had remote

controls could answer the questions remotely if they wished. JBA explained how the

data received is analysed and that it is an exceptionally useful tool which will also

create broadsheets in Excel. Learning can be personalised and you can see instantly

where extra explanation may be needed. This is the way that STACS is moving

forward with technology.

JFO thanked all those who had participated, especially the pupils in Years 7 and 11,

CHI and IBA and JBA. A fun and fascinating evening. JFO asked everyone to

complete the evaluation sheets and referred people to the blue sheet which advertise

the next Parents Forum presentation on 10 March 2008 entitled Tackling Difficult

Issues. JFO then introduced Joanie Barber and Gerald Joy as chair and vice chair of

the forum.

Meeting closed with refreshments.

Date and time of next meeting

Monday 4 February 2007 at 7.00 pm in Lab 1