Summer schools for gifted kids 'highly successful', says Ofsted

The first full programme of summer schools run by the National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth last year were "highly successful" according to the young people who attended them, a new report by the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) has said.

The report published today, 'National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth: Summer schools 2003', found that the quality of learning was "very good", with pupils making substantial gains in knowledge and understanding and gaining confidence and self-esteem.

The National Academy was established at the University of Warwick in February 2002 and ran a pilot summer school in 2002 for 100 pupils. In 2003, 25 programmes at five universities took place with just over 500 pupils taking part. Ofsted visited each summer school to inspect the quality of staffing, teaching, course planning and management and pastoral care.

However, Ofsted said that recruitment was "disappointingly low", with just over 500 pupils attending whereas 900 places were available. Ofsted said that this was a result of limited knowledge of the National Academy's work on the part of schools and parents, and the relatively low membership of the organisation at the time of the 2003 summer schools.

The summer schools used a combination of university academic staff, teachers from local schools and teaching assistants to deliver academic sessions. Most teaching was at least good and some was excellent. Most courses had a good balance of staffing but there were several courses where too many staff were involved and "pupils' experiences were therefore too disparate".

Chief Inspector of Schools, David Bell, urged all local education authorities to ensure that gifted and talented children from their areas are represented at the schools.

He added: "Young people attending the National Academy's summer schools last year felt that the courses offered were very successful, and this view is backed up by the evidence seen by Ofsted. We have recommended that the National Academy should seek to build upon existing strengths in teaching, learning and planning by improving recruitment to the summer schools and assessment and reporting on the pupils who attend."

(gmcg)