NAGC is a voluntary, membership organisation that provides help and support for gifted children, their families and their professionals. We have different types of benefits, including Family Membership and School Membership.
The School Area contains information, resources and links of interest to professionals, including governors, working with young people.
Through membership of NAGC, education, health and social care professionals will have access to a wide range of materials designed to make providing for gifted children easier and more effective. Schools and other child-focused organisations will benefit from practical information and resources and will have access to the comprehensive member’s area of this site for professionals and gifted children. We will also be setting up be a Teachers Forum for member schools.
We are now launching a new initiative for a Gold Schools Membership, which will help schools to meet the Parent and Pupil Guarantees in the White Paper. Go to Gold Schools for more information on this.
See below for membership benefits to your school.
Our services include an Information and Advice Service (0845 450 0295) run by Education Consultants. Non-members are able to use our Information and Advice Service as well.
Current guidelines from the DCSF (Department for Children and Families) suggest that schools should be identifying their most able children in each year group as "gifted and talented" (G&T) and place them on a register. DCSF also gives recommendations for the identification of these pupils.
NAGC receives many calls from parents whose children have been identified as G&T. These parents want to know what this means and how they can best support their children.
Identifying gifted and talented learners DCSF Guidelines – getting started (Revised May 2008)
These say:
“We encourage schools in identifying gifted and talented learners to focus on:
• learners aged 11 – 19 who meet the published eligibility criteria for the top 5% nationally (available at http://ygt.dcsf.gov.uk/Content.aspx?contentId=312&contentType=3) including those who were members of the former National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth (NAGTY), and others who meet the criteria;
• in addition, learners aged 4 – 19 who are gifted and talented relative to their peers in their own year group and school/college;
• a range of abilities including talent in the arts and sport; and
• ability rather than achievement, so that underachievers are amongst those identified.
There are gifted and talented learners in every year group in every school/college. All institutions are free to determine the size of their gifted and talented populations, but should be able to justify this in terms of improved standards for all learners identified. Every school/college should have some gifted and talented learners and should keep a register of those learners. Since relative ability changes over time, learners should move on and off the register when appropriate, though such movement might be expected to reduce with age. Since ability is evenly distributed throughout the population, a school’s or college’s gifted and talented population should be broadly representative of the whole learner population in terms of gender, ethnic and socio-economic background.”
The White Paper
New regulations are coming into place from September 2009, since The White Paper 'Your child, your school, our future: building a 21st century schools system' has now been published.
The White Paper contains detail of new entitlements or guarantees for every pupil and parent - and both of these include specific provisions for gifted and talented.
The parents' guarantee provides that:
“Parents receive written confirmation of the extra challenge and support their child will receive if they are identified as gifted and talented - and a clear understanding of what they should do to help them”
The pupil guarantee provides:
“For every identified gifted and talented learner to have confirmed by their school the personalised development and support they will receive in the classroom and outside school hours”
It is intended that these entitlements will be voluntary in academic year 2009/10 but will become binding from September 2010. Taken together, they provide the lynchpin for a stronger, clearer accountability framework for schools in respect of gifted and talented education.
They will ensure that:
• All parents/carers are informed when their children have been identified as G&T- it will no longer be possible for schools to withhold this information
• There is clarity about the challenge and support the school will provide as a consequence - covering normal classroom activity as well as out-of hours provision
• The parent/carer and the school establish together how the parent/carer can support this.
The White Paper also says that:
“..if parents feel their children are not receiving the guarantee, they must be able to act to address this in ways which do not involve recourse to the courts or complex legal processes. As currently provided by statute, in the first instance, parents will be able to raise their concerns with their child's teachers, the head, the school's governing body or their local authority. Normally, this should see their concerns being met, but if there are difficulties with this, in the future they will be able to ask the Local Government Ombudsman to investigate.”
It also confirms that there will be further consultation about the Pupil Guarantee and its delivery.
NAGC School Membership
General benefits of NAGC Standard School Membership:
• School Membership logo for use on letter headed paper, website and marketing materials
• School certificate to certify membership of NAGC
• Member rates for training, consultancy and workshops
• Access to the Schools Discussion Forum
• Termly magazine full of information and advice on current G&T issues
• FUSE: our termly children’s magazine
• Access to Special Interest Groups
• Opportunity to take part in Best Practice Sharing
• Access to teacher resources
• Subsidised rates for conferences & selected events
• Subscription rate for additional FUSE magazines
• Termly e-newsletter with current G&T developments
• Access to the Information and Advice Service
• Free consultancy with Select Education, soon to be Randstad Education
• Special offers on our partners’ products
• Directory of NAGC Member Schools online with a link to your website
• Presentation pack for Gifted & Talented Lead Teacher to deliver to parents/carers, including downloadable leaflet to hand out to parents/carers
• Reduced membership for parents of member school
Benefits of NAGC Gold School Membership:
NAGC’s additional commitment to those schools that reach the eligibility criteria (outlined in the NAGC Gold School Membership Pack) include:
• Gold School Membership logo (PDF/JPG/TIF) for use on letter headed paper, website and marketing materials
• Gold certificate to certify membership of NAGC
• Reduction in membership fees
• Publicity via NAGC’s Directory of Member Schools and website as a Gold School Member including:
o Opportunities to buy advertising space to promote your G&T programme
o Feature about your G&T programme online
• Opportunities for teachers and pupils to get involved in product reviews
• Opportunities to enter the NAGC’s Annual Gold School Award
For details on the different types of membership and ways of joining, press the "membership" key on the menu bar.
