Jonathan Savage

I’ve noted today that the National Association for Gifted and Talented Youth is to be scrapped. You can read more about it here, together with a range of views from various people about whether or not this is a welcome move.

My view is that supporting gifted and talented pupils is, firstly, an essential part of an individual teacher’s role. Their pedagogy needs to be broad enough to ensure that all children are challenged at all stages of their education. This is not a simple task when you are faced with large classes containing mixed abilities, but it is possible (and my book will show you how!).

But organisations like the NAGTY had a part to play in providing a service to schools in helping them support their gifted and talented pupils. However, in the current financial climate it is no surprise that cuts like this are being made. Within the field of music education, I am going to bet a significant sum that the current (one might say extravagant) funding that certain initiatives have received is going to be slashed, if not cut completely, over the next 12 months or so, whichever party comes to power in the May election.

This article in the Guardian describes how ministers are overestimating the number of exceptionally bright pupils in Britain’s schools. Research, to be presented at the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children, shows that teachers charged with picking out the top pupils feel that far too many are labelled as ‘gifted and talented’ and that the government was wrong to recommend that 10 per cent were picked out in each school, a total of 800,000 across the country. Instead, between 2 and 5 per cent of children should be classed as ‘gifted learners’, cutting hundreds of thousands of pupils already placed in the top group.