The GSA Pilot

The GSA pilot ran in 2009/10 at Alexandra High School, Tipton. From conversations with the Deputy Head and the G&T coordinators it was clear that their priority, as we have found with many schools, was raising aspirations, confidence and self-esteem amongst their gifted students from disadvantaged backgrounds, especially those in Year 9 on the cusp of their GCSEs.

With this in mind the GSA developed a 3 day programme for 25 gifted students; 2 consecutive days and a 1 day follow-up 6 weeks later. The focus of the first event included:

• Introducing the concept of personal brand and identity
• Creating an awareness of how they are perceived and interact with their environment and community
• Developing an understanding of their learning styles and personality types
• Introducing participants to visualisation technique
• Touching on effective communication and team work skills
• Explore possible goals, as well as the hurdles that they will likely face in achieving those goals

We completed the first two days with each student creating a personal development plan (PDP) to support them in their journey towards achieving their set goals. Part of this process was to support participants to articulate their learning, as well as what and how they will synthesis from the workshop into their lives. Teachers were provided with a copy of everyone’s PDP with a view to meeting with and providing ongoing support for each student in achieving their short-term goals prior to the follow-up day.

The feedback from the students was very encouraging and they requested some presentation skills work to be incorporated into the follow-up. Workshop 2’s aims included; reviewing the participants learning and application from the first workshop, building on and broadening aspirations and introducing participants to time-line therapy. During the workshop each young person created their own ‘anchor’ to support their growth in confidence and for use in presentations. We explored the perception of gifted and talented education and put our learning into practice through group presentations.

Throughout the 3 days a clear movement could be perceived amongst the participants, with the most impactful work coming from the exercises which supported them to explore goals and pathways to success. These included the ‘postcards from the future’ exercise, in which they wrote themselves a postcard from 10 years ahead, explaining to their present self all that they had achieved, what they had to do to get there and the hurdles they had to surmount.

We received some great feedback with over 95% of participants stating that they thought the workshops were 'very good' or 'good' and over 89% saying they now have a clearer idea of their goals and how to achieve them.

“Our students loved your workshops and our staff are inspired. We recommend wholeheartedly. Inspirational stories still unfold” Deputy Head, Alexandra High School.