Richmond Road, Gillingham, Kent ME7 1LS

01634 334344

Burnt Oak Primary School

Gifted and Talented

 

Some children may be considered Gifted and/or Talented. According to national guidelines these terms are distinguished as follows:

  • ‘Gifted’ refers to a child who has a broad range of achievement at a level well above average, typically in the more academic subjects;
  • ‘Talented’ refers to a child who excels in one or more specific fields, typically those that call for performance skills, such as sport or music, but who does not necessarily perform at a high level across all areas of learning.

Approximately 10% of the children in our school will be considered as gifted and/or talented. Provision will be made for these children within the normal class 'Quality First' teaching, but sometimes we will provide enrichment or extension activities/programmes/clubs to promote their skills and talents still further.

We use a range of strategies to identify gifted and talented children. The identification process is on-going, and begins when a child joins our school. For some children we have pre-school records which give details of achievements and interests in particular areas. Discussions with parents, carers and previous schools enable us to add further details to these records.

 

Gifted and Talented Projects 2019

DT (sewing)

9 children from across the different year groups used their sewing skills to create a ‘Burnt Oak’ banner. They became confident to independently start and finish threads, and use straight and curved lines to stitch the different letters. The children had a lovely time and helped each other when threads tangled or knotted.

 

Computing 

Children in KS1 and KS2 improved their understanding of algorithms and how code works in our world. KS1 were able to code and debug a game. KS2 were able to use Python to write scripts to program a game. 

KS2 children had lots of fun learning about and using a Makey Makey. A makey Makey kit is an Invention Kit for Everyone is an electronic invention tool and toy that allows users to connect everyday objects to computer programs. Using a circuit board, alligator clips, and a USB cable, the toy uses closed loop electrical signals to send the computer either a keyboard stroke or mouse click signal.

 

History

 

As part of our gifted and talented activities, KS2 pupils used secondary sources to explore the question 'What was school like 100 years ago?'  Pupils looked at different photographs and used these to learn about how we were taught.  Below are some examples of pupils' work as well as the pictured used.

 

Foundation Stage (DT)

A group of foundation stage children joined Miss Wise on a challenge to design and create a model of a familiar building. They went on an environmental walk and decided to re-create Burnt Oak Primary School, using their imagination, fine motor skills and building on our “Curiosity Approach”.

 

Gifted and Talented Projects 2018

DT (Robot Wars)

Burnt Oak Primary school is taking part in the Robot Wars competition at the Medway Campus of the University of Greenwich. As part of this project some of our Gifted and Talented children in Design and Technology are developing their ideas for a fully working battle robot. In preparation for the event final they are applying their skills to build scale models and design effective weapons. They are developing their controlling skills by driving the school’s Robot Wars entry from last yea.

Foundation Stage


Children in Foundation stage observing changes in the environment. We noticed how the grass was dying because it had been affected by the hot weather.

We wrote letters to Mrs Barton asking her permission to plant grass seeds and water the grass.

We had a meeting with Mr Spears, who helps to look after the school, we asked him how we could help him improve the school environment.

We picked up litter from the playground and decided we needed to take action and ask the school to help improve the environment.

Other year groups designed posters illustrating the importance of looking after the environment and how we can help. We looked at different ways to recycle.

We drew maps of different outside areas and discussed features of different environments. We learnt about natural and man-made materials.

French


During the Gifted and Talented sessions, the pupils engaged in conversations, using their French vocabulary. They also wrote sentences and played interactive games. To broaden their understanding, the pupils organised the ‘French Day’, which was a huge success
.

 

Gifted and Talented Projects 2017

 

DT

Six children have been selected this year to build a Robot Wars robot. They are using their mechanical and technical knowledge when designing, building and testing the robot. All of this is in close partnership with the University of Greenwich, who offer their expertise and support in order for the children to build the best and most effective robot. We are proud of all the children, as at the Robot Wars Battle competition in September, we became semi finalists.

Music

Eight children from Key Stage 2 were nominated by their teachers to take part in a song writing project. The children worked in small groups to compose lyrics and melodies. After sharing our ideas, we combined them into a group song called “Together” – a song about the best bits of our school. The children decided what style of accompaniment they wanted and made changes to the song’s words and melody until they were all happy with their performance.

The children really enjoyed the experience and Rain in year 3 even described it as “perfect”.​

Gifted and Talented Projects 2016

History

In order to recognise those students who have a particular aptitude for History, we have organised Gifted and Talented workshops to develop enquiry skills for selected Key Stage Two pupils.  These sessions are practical, hands-on experiences and involve handling real artefacts.  This year we focused on Ancient Egypt.  Pupils have experienced what it is like to be an archaeologist and finding ancient artefacts on a dig-site; they have researched canopic jars and designed and made their own; and they have explored mummification by replicating the process using an orange, a bandage, salt and bicarbonate of soda.  The workshops have been designed to enhance the children’s questioning skills, to understand what kind of questions are appropriate in a historical enquiry and how to go about finding the answers, as well as giving them a deeper understanding of Ancient Egyptian times.

Click here for instructions How to Mummify an orange

Design and Technology

This year 10 KS2 children were chosen to represent the school at robotics and coding event at the Invicta Grammar School in Maidstone. There they built LEGO robots and programmed them on the computer using coding. They also manipulated VEX robots and carried out a range of challenges, competing with other Primary School pupils from the Medway and Kent area.

Eight KS1 children were selected to participate in a Gifted and Talented group based at Burnt Oak. During the 4 weeks they further developed their understanding of moving mechanisms. The children investigated a range of mechanisms such as levers, springs and hinges. They put their skills to use in creating a picture book about space. This book had moving pictures to help tell the story the children had created.

PSHE

"The PSHE group created a bilingual display to welcome children with English as an additional language".

"We also created an anti-bullying film to present to the school. We used a range of popular children's toy characters and they made their own script to go with the film".

Gifted & Talented Projects 2015

PE

This year at Burnt Oak we ran our first gifted and talented PE course and the chosen sport was American football.

Over the 4 weeks children learnt the key aspects of starting the game, how to score a touch down, throwing and catching skills, running techniques and the basic rules of American football.

On the final lesson we played mini non contact games which allowed children to throw, catch and score points as teams. Throwing and catching is a major part of PE and links to many different modules in the national curriculum.

Sensory Garden

At Burnt Oak Primary we are lucky to have a large outside area which we are continually developing to enhance pupil’s learning across the curriculum.

This year we were able to run a project to develop the quiet area into a sensory garden. Two children from each class worked to design and create the garden. They had great ideas and worked very hard along with the gardening club to achieve this. We also had help from our Medway Master Gardener, parents and members of FOBO.

The touch area has totem poles with tiles created by the pupils, plants with a variety of textures and a pebble pool.

The smell area has been planted with herbs and fragrant flowers.  As well as experiencing the different smells, the herbs can be used in cooking lessons.

The taste area is a large fruit and vegetable garden with all sorts of vegetables planted by the children including potatoes, onions, runner beans, courgettes, tomatoes, lettuce and much more!  The school cook gave us some seeds to grow and in the summer term the children picked lettuce to be used in school lunches.  When the children return to school there will be lots to harvest and use in cooking lessons.  This part of the garden is particularly good for learning aspects of science such as conditions needed for seeds to grow, parts of a plant, pollination and finding seeds in fruit. The pupils also collect vegetable peelings from the kitchen for the compost heap and learn about decomposition.

The pupils made great wind chimes which are hanging up and one of their favourite areas is the sight area which they decided to leave in order to encourage wildlife into the garden. They dug a winding path which is great for exploring and have an investigation table with magnifying glasses to look more closely.

 

Before and after

 

Italian

During our gifted and talented lessons a group of children from KS1 and KS2 were studying Italian language and learning all about Italian culture. They learnt the colours in Italian, body parts, numbers and simple greetings. All of the children enjoyed learning a new language and being able to communicate with Italian people and their friends in Italian.

The children did so well that even Monica, a teaching assistant who is Italian, was very impressed by the children’s quick learning and their pronunciation.  In addition, our very own pupil Salvatore in Year 3, was a great help in teaching the other children how to say new words in Italian.

There were two groups - KS1 and KS2. They learned through songs, writing, reading and speaking. The children were fantastic at singing in Italian, especially the number song. They enjoyed learning about Italian food and tasting some Italian biscuits. I am sure that all of the children would do well if they were to interact with an Italian native speaker.

 

Philosophy4Children

Philosophy4Children (P4C) is a child-initiated exploration of values and ideas and is being introduced at Burnt Oak throughout the academic year 2015 – 2016. We have already trialled sessions with KS1 and KS2 gifted and talented groups and discussed topics such as:

  • Does difference matter?
  • Should you ever give up?
  • Why is imagination important?

Each P4C session begins with a quick warm up, which can focus on discussion, making choices or memory games. A stimulus, designed to generate interesting conversation, is then introduced to the children. This can be anything at all – a book, an object, a video or an image to name a few examples. The children then have an initial discussion about the stimulus and in small groups, form an open ended question – like for example ‘Does difference matter?’ The children then vote for their preferred question and then a discussion is held based on the chosen question. This is entirely child-led and the teacher takes on the role as ‘facilitator’, ensuring the debate runs smoothly and all children have the opportunity to contribute should they want to.

The trial P4C sessions at Burnt Oak opened up some interesting and at times deep topics. They encouraged children to think independently, listen carefully and formulate considered responses to their peers. As the sessions progressed, it was interesting to observe how the children’s listening skills developed; they became more considerate of one another and responded sensitively to each other’s point of view. The positive results of this trial mean that over the course of the next year, P4C will be taught on a weekly basis in all classes. Taught over time, P4C is designed to develop reasoning, listening and co-operative skills. It is accessible for all children and even though there is no writing during the sessions, the programme has been proven to boost children’s writing levels and reading comprehension. Some further benefits of the programme include: increased engagement with learning, a boost in self esteem, better relationships with peers and adults and improvements in behaviour.

Gifted & Talented Projects 2014

Art

We studied the flower paintings of the famous artist Georgia O'Keefe, looking at form, colour and texture. Then we looked at real flowers to get a more accurate idea.

ICT

In our weekly sessions we explored a newly acquired animation programme we had in school - 'Scratch'

 

Science

Over our four weekly sessions we looked at different challenging science activities.