Gifted Children

(asked on 16th March 2015) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the call by the Sutton Trust for a national support programme for able pupils to replace the "gifted and talented" programme which ended in 2011.


Answered by
 Portrait
Lord Nash
This question was answered on 23rd March 2015

The Department for Education has not made any assessment on the findings in the Sutton Trust report on gifted and talented pupils. In my response to this issue raised in question HL3435 last December, I stated that the department has no plans to replace the gifted and talented programme.

The government’s plan for education will mean that any child, regardless of ability, can reach their full potential and schools have a responsibility to make sure that highly able pupils are stretched.

From 2016, our new headline secondary accountability measure, Progress 8, will ensure schools are held to account for the progress made by all pupils, including the most able. In addition, from 2017, the introduction of the new top ‘grade 9’ for GCSE set at a level above the current grade A*, will ensure that the achievements of the very highest performers are recognised.

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