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Extension is about

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Extension is not

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Extension is about

• Providing stimulus

• Providing challenge

• Increased pace

• Progression, pitching teaching and learning at a “higher” level than existing

understanding, skill or knowledge

• Giving gifted and talented pupils risks, where there is an opportunity to experience

difficulty and failure

Extension is not about

• “follow up work”

• “more of the same” eg. The next text book in a scheme

• Showing more of the same evidence of knowledge, skills and understanding

Types of extension

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• Extension by resource – the teacher selects a challenging resource eg. A tool or piece of

equipment that needs more dexterity or technical expertise than another to be used successfully, a

text that allows a pupil to take a different or faster route through learning.

• Extension by work rate or pace – “For at least a reasonable proportion of the week … the able

pupil should be working with urgency, completing the large volume of work (in quality terms) of

which he or she is capable”. Teare (1997)

• tasks can be “telescoped” so they take less time

• individual, independent research or project work can be set (but with sufficient teacher

intervention and guidance)

• Extension by task or input – challenging or difficult tasks can be allocated to groups whose starting

point is “higher”

• Extension from a core

• uses the “All must, most should, some could” planning format

• pupils may be set extension work from a core or be given a choice of extension work.

• Extension by individual negotiation

• pupils negotiate the nature of work undertaken or the ways in which it might

be presented

• under teacher supervision, they part manage their own learning

• Extension by level of support

• teachers provide appropriate intervention, support or “scaffolding” to gifted and

talented pupils when completing a task (this helps prevent “coasting”, confusion

among those with butterfly minds and prioritising for those who get

overwhelmed by thinking in meticulous detail)

• Extension by dialogue

• Teachers use more difficult vocabulary and more complex language with

G & T pupils

• pose differentiated and probing questions

• initiate effective pupil – teacher discussion

• create opportunities for collaborative discussion

• time thoughtful interventions extending the challenge of a task

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Pupil A

This pupil is very keen and enthusiastic. They read widely around the subject and love discussing it with their teacher and any one else who will listen to them. They thrive on attention and enjoy demonstrating their knowledge, skills and understanding. The pupils’ oral maturity is not quite matched by their organisational skills. They will rush at a task and sometimes complete vast quantities of work before lurching to a halt, having lost sight of the original objectives.

Pupil B

This pupil is not actually on the school/departments’ gifted and talented register. They appear to be “average” but can show signs of unexpected ability. They are not motivated by the subject and are rather lazy, “wasting” most of the time.

Pupil C

This pupil is rather quiet but very conscientious. They discuss perceptively in a small group and produce very high quality and beautifully presented work. However they never volunteer and answer in class and can get easily worried and anxious, especially when comparing their work with that of other pupils.

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Pupil D

This pupil is on the gifted and talented register but consistently underachieves. They are lazy and arrogant, sometimes using their intelligence to disrupt lessons, at other times quietly stirring up trouble among their peers. Occasionally there will be a spectacular display of their ability which teachers find especially frustrating.

Action planning on Extension

Action Pupils Targeted Dates for implementation

Staff responsible

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