Providing for Children with Special Abilities: Case Study
Written by Shirley Taylor after an interview with the school principal, Fiona Marrett, 2000.
Words in italics are those of the principal.
School profile
Geographic area: North Island rural town
Roll: nearly 200
Population makeup: mainly Pākehā and Māori (40 percent)
Mixed socioeconomic population; some come from outside of the area
Decile: 3
Average class size: 25 due to funding of another teacher by the Board of Trustees.
Getting started
In the past there was a focus in the school on special needs but not necessarily on children with special abilities. The principal wonders whether this was because there was no expectation that children in a low decile school would have any special abilities:
that even our best kids aren't going to be as good as the kids around the corner at the decile 10 school.
This changed recently when the school became much more aware of looking at children's learning styles and looking at different teaching styles and using such strategies as the six thinking hats. This had a spin off in that teachers have become more aware of the different ways that children learn and more aware of their needs.
They suddenly started thinking "Hey, maybe this kid not only is behaving this way because they have got a different learning style but it might be that they actually have a special ability or a particular interest."
The deputy principal had completed a paper on children with special abilities so he was quite keen to start doing something. The principal attended a one-day course with him and also became much more interested.
And... we talk about it more and more then everybody starts becoming more accepting of it.
Also the school started off a year or so ago looking at identifying barriers to learning and special needs. That meant that teachers really focused on children with varying difficulties.
As time has gone on we just gradually started saying a barrier to learning doesn't necessarily mean a learning difficulty... Is the fact that they seem to have a high level of interest in one area, the fact that you're not meeting their needs, is that a barrier to their learning?
In terms of programmes, they began with science because the science fair was an opportunity for those with special abilities but was short term so decided let's do a science extension and some extra funding was applied for. Then they looked at performing arts, looking for children who showed particular aptitude in acting and story-telling and the whole-school production was based around their special abilities.
We looked at dance and we started off quite small with a dance group and then we ended up taking a group down to Artsplash and that was a result of identifying children who actually had ability, not necessarily special ability, but compared to all the other children in the school, they were better and had been auditioned.
Identification
As a result of identifying barriers to learning, names of children with special abilities are starting to appear in the special needs register. Teachers write an action plan for every child who is identified. They have to specify the action that's going to be taken to remove the barriers to that child's learning, trying to meet their needs.
At the beginning of this year they used Shirley Taylor's two-page Starter Identification sheet.
It was quite time consuming but we sat with the whole staff and we discussed every child. Every name that came up, everybody had input because there were teachers who had taught them before.
The fact that everybody had something to say about each child was good because not everybody's perception of a child is the same and so teachers were able to say, "Oh yes, they definitely have shown that right from five" or "I hadn't noticed that before". We created a list and that formed the basis for lots of our programmes – the science kids, the interpersonal, the performing arts, the dancers.
Teachers are always talking now about who is excelling, who is really doing well in written language, or who has shown out on the sports field special skills, whereas you didn't have that kind of conversation before.
One teacher has got a child in her class
who is really bright, obviously head and shoulders above everyone else, thinking with clarity... just his whole awareness and confidence and the way he questions. There are lots of things about him that have made her think that he has special ability and now that she has identified that she feels much more comfortable with him; so the things that he was doing that were irritating to some degree initially, she now understands and thinks, yes, that is because I think that he actually is different from the other children. So we are looking at him very closely.
Next year the school will probably go through the same identification process again (but perhaps not in the same detail)
because obviously there are new children in the school and things change and children are different with different people and there are kindred spirits and there are teachers with special areas of interest and that may highlight a child's special interest. So we can't say "Well once we have done it, that's the end of it, we won't need to do that again" . I think we need to say, "Is this list still relevant?"
Probably about 10 percent of children are being identified as having special abilities. In the school Māori children are performing well in general and when I look at the students with special abilities they are well represented in the groups.
Recognising children with special abilities has not caused a problem in the school because effort is also reognised so most children get recognised in some way.
This year's programmes
This year there was a choir and that was only for children who have singing abilities. It was challenging as they had to learn an extensive number of songs and harmonies.
We actually had two 5-year-olds in that choir who had what we perceived to be an ability in music; they were able to hold a tune, they were able to learn harmonies; it was quite challenging but they all succeeded in it.
The whole-school focus next term is on communication. In conjunction with this there will be a group who are going to be working on Access radio, a dance group programme again, the editorial group, and the senior school production. That will be another extension opportunity for children who have got experience and ability in singing, dancing, and drama.
In the editorial group there are children who are perceived to have special abilities in writing and who are highly motivated. They are going to be producing the newsletter for the next term. That means they will be involved in the actual writing, the production of it, the interviews, creating the format, taking photos, doing the whole thing.
The science group will be going ahead with the science fair. There are also plans for another group who have got ability in reading and writing. They will be looking at different ways of writing including poetry and narrative. In the junior school we are looking at children who have got particular skill and interest in information communication technology.
A whole-school development focus this year, as part of a contract, is curriculum integration. As a result of that, teachers have to note extension and enrichment activities in their planning formats. This keeps these needs to the forefront in classroom programmes. Also, integrated units such as communication give interested children more time to explore interests in depth.
Funding
We've got a willingness to say, "Here is a group of kids who have got a special ability, can we do it ourselves, can we handle it, do we have the expertise on our site?" If we do we're going with it and if we don't then we apply for REAP funding to provide a resource person who would be coming to the school, either as a reliever or doing it themselves.
Of the last two applications that have been accepted, one was for enrichment for science, the other one was a result of identifying children with particular ability in interpersonal skills.
We realised there wasn't a boy in the list, so we thought "Hang on a minute, that is a problem: obviously the boys' interpersonal skills are leaving something to be desired," so we are running an interpersonal skills programme for boys. It is not an extension programme, it is actually a remedial programme but it has come out of our extension programme.
Policy
The school has had a written policy since 1998 so that children with special abilities would get recognised. Changes to that policy were made this year as part of the school's involvement in a Ministry of Education funded contract on educating gifted students.
Staff development
The principal definitely sees staff development as important. All the senior management have been involved. The deputy principal has completed a university paper, two of the senior management have attended a day course, and the principal and acting principal have attended the contract workshops. They have also had staff meetings, which included teacher aides. In 1999 there was an evening meeting where a consultant spoke to parents and teachers.
The next thing I think is that a lot of people are now getting the idea of the theory but they need practical ideas about what to do. If I've got this kid who is great at maths, or I've got this kid who is really into IT or I've got a brilliant sportsperson, or something like that, we need practical ideas, what we can do in classrooms. What is the difference between the classroom enrichment programme and an outside extension? What are the benefits? Weighing things up so people are making full decisions about should we put more funding into providing facilitators who can come and take children out or should we be doing it within the school, or should we do it from the classroom? I think we need to have a philosophy in the school on acceleration of children through the years. There is some disagreement amongst the staff about the benefits and the disadvantages of doing that. That is the kind of thing we need to be looking at next.
The principal sees that it is important that they have professional development so that children with special abilities are provided for in classrooms, especially if there is not much funding. It is not one of those areas that will go by the wayside; it is becoming part of the school culture and the Board of Trustees is supportive.
In summary
The school's provisions began largely through principal and deputy principal interest, leading to involvement of other staff. They began by picking an area (science) and running with it but later moved to programming based on identification of abilities and needs.
Contributing to the process has been:
- a responsive environment in the school,
- an identification process followed by extensive staff discussion,
- some professional development,
- leadership from the principal and deputy principal,
- REAP funding,
- a written policy,
- smaller class sizes which means less pressure on teachers and more time to identify abilities, and
- the use of curriculum integration.
There are still some difficulties such as never having as much funding as might be desired and finding people to provide for groups such as Kapa Haka. Overall, though, there is an increased awareness of individual children's needs, much discussion about special abilities, and positive attitudes towards children with special abilities in the school.