Exceptionally Able Learners
Opportunities for Exceptionally Able Learners
There are many opportunities for Exceptionally Able Learners including:
- Fortnightly challenges: Each fortnight, our students receive a stretch and challenge activity from a different subject depending on their key stage. There are rewards for all entries, and exhibitions towards the end of term to showcase best essays, posters and creative responses to challenge questions.
- Debating and Public Speaking: Throughout the Summer Term 2022, Year 9 students have the opportunity to participate in a debating club developing their skills in British Parliamentary Debating. Year 7 Students engage in the Great Debate, Year 8s can participate in a club run by Ms D Bartoli, Year 9s by Ms M Neza and Ms S Thorpe and Year 10s in the Jack Petchey Speak Out Challenge run by Ms M Springer.
- KS3 and 4 Tutor Programme. Years 7-10 refine their goals, review their progress and attend tutorials on extracurricular topics to deepen their thinking.
Curriculum – Our curriculum is designed to give additional opportunities and choices so that our Exceptionally Able Leaners are sufficiently stretched, challenged and prepared for the next phase of their education. These include: GCSE Astronomy, Latin as an additional language, pathways which support EBacc success, completion of the Higher Project Qualification in KS4 and support for Further/Higher education.
Enrichment- All of our extra-curricular activities, trips and clubs provide our Exceptionally Able Learners with further opportunities to progress and to develop their leadership attributes.
Assessment, tracking and targeting – Like all our students, close attention is paid to the progress of our Exceptionally Able Leaners. Frequent assessments are differentiated and a range of intervention measures are put in place when underachievement is identified.
Grouping – students may be put into ability groups in some subjects from as early as Year 7. However, when taught in mixed-ability groups, our teachers adapt their practice to ensure our Exceptionally Able Learners are being challenged. Many of our school leaders prefer mixed ability teaching for the subjects they manage and they evaluate how well mixed-ability group teaching is challenging the Exceptionally Able students. For example, the school was part of the UCL / EEF Best Practice in Grouping Students programme from 2015-17.
Enrichment- All of our extra-curricular activities, trips and clubs provide our Exceptionally Able Learners with further opportunities to progress and to develop their leadership attributes.
Assessment, tracking and targeting – Like all our students, close attention is paid to the progress of our Exceptionally Able Leaners. Frequent assessments are differentiated and a range of intervention measures are put in place when underachievement is identified.
- All learners are entitled to be stretched and challenged. Our ethos is to teach to the top in every class.
- The most effective able student provision is rooted in good classroom teaching and learning.
- Our teachers focus on positive learning behaviours (for all learners) through our Tallis Habits and teaching and learning vision that students learn when they are deep in thought.
Grouping – students may be put into ability groups in some subjects from as early as Year 7. However, when taught in mixed-ability groups, our teachers adapt their practice to ensure our Exceptionally Able Learners are being challenged. Many of our school leaders prefer mixed ability teaching for the subjects they manage and they evaluate how well mixed-ability group teaching is challenging the Exceptionally Able students. For example, the school was part of the UCL / EEF Best Practice in Grouping Students programme from 2015-17.
Independent Home Learning –Exceptionally Able Learners, like all students, are provided with appropriate and challenging work to be completed independently. They should not be allowed to underachieve or to hand in work which is of a mediocre standard. They are encouraged to read widely around their areas of study.
Exceptionally Able Learners from disadvantaged backgrounds
We aim to help students and families to overcome socio-economic and cultural barriers to attending further and higher education. We are aware that some of our students come from homes where no parent or close relative has directly experienced progression to university. Using the PPG (pupil premium grant) Tallis positively discriminates and engages proactively with the parents or carers of these students to tackle this challenge and students are provided with ‘enhanced’ curriculum provision, access to cultural and social activity, and personalised support.
For further details contact our Lead Teachers for Exceptionally Able Learners:
Sophie Thorpe: SThorpe@thomastallis.org.uk
Megi Neza: MNeza@thomastallis.org.uk
For further details contact our Lead Teachers for Exceptionally Able Learners:
Sophie Thorpe: SThorpe@thomastallis.org.uk
Megi Neza: MNeza@thomastallis.org.uk
Exceptionally Able Learner NEWS:
Nyjud's Child Q speech
Today at Tallis we held an act of solidarity for Child Q. This is the speech that a 15-year-old girl wrote and read to our community, at break.
In North-East London, a 15 year old black girl went into her school to take a mock exam. Her parents put their trust in the school to keep her safe but instead... they accused her of being in possession of drugs. They searched her. Called the police and allowed her to be strip searched without her parent’s knowledge or consent.
This happened because black children are often not seen as innocent. And not even seen as children.
No one should EVER have to experience such harmful actions caused by racial bias.
The safety of children and education are basic rights. Fairness shouldn’t have to be fought for. No matter the race, gender, class, abilities, or beliefs of anyone. Dignity is for all. It isn’t fair that we aren’t the first generation to fight for our human rights. But we can strive to ensure that we will be the last.
So what are we doing to change this? If we are being persecuted in our youth and we do nothing about it, then are we any better than the persecutors? What happened to integrity?
Martin Luther King's dream is still only a dream but we can make that OUR reality. We stand for equity, for it is a necessity no matter identity. I want to live in a world where everyone feels safe around the police and not fear an abuse of their power. Where adults advocate for children. Where anyone can excel. For that to stop happening we have to remove these stereotypes from the media, from our curriculum, from what we say, the way we treat certain groups or certain people and even the jokes we make. Small things can make such a big difference once we apply them to everyday life.
We can all make a change now. It doesn’t matter if it’s not a major change. We can be an ally. We can demonstrate solidarity with Child Q. Napoleon Hill once said...“If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way”.
Stand in solidarity with Child Q and respond to our call of ‘we deserve better: we can do better’.
-- Nyjud Ronjo, Year 10
Year 9 Geography Conference
Year 9 MAL geographers spent x6 Tuesday lunchtimes during the Spring Term engaging in a Geography Discussion group and, in the final session, gave phenomenal presentations on the four threshold concepts we have studied in previous sessions: 'The world is shrinking', 'People shape the world and the world shapes us', 'People can belong to different and similar groups at the same time' and 'A place is only understood in time'. A huge well done to all involved: Beatrice Marston 9FA, Arjun Obitz 9RA, Peter Williams 9FB, Eli Powell 9KB, Alexander Ashcroft 9OA, Oscar Smith 9OA, Polly Ward 9HA, Shade Earl 9HA, Misha Rolander 9OA, Brannoc Toogood-Pugh 9KA, Patryk Peitrin 9OA, Vinayak Obitz 9RA, Frederick Keating 9KA and Mateusz Bazan 9KB. A particular well done to our winning group: Esme Nouama-Graham 9RA, Poppi Iles-Perez 9FB, Leni Davies 9HA, Janis Hamm 9KB and Alexander Page 9FB.
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Climate Emergency Interactive Film Screening for Y8 MAL students, written up by Ryan Kingswell 8KBOn Wednesday 2nd February watched a geographical film about the climate, how we are harming it and what we can do to stop climate change. During the film there were moments of interaction where we could answer questions that appeared on the screen. We saw a lot of the impacts of climate change and the effects they are having on people around the world and we saw many ways to prevent adding to climate change.
For example, instead of using leather and having to farm lots of cows that releases methane into the atmosphere, people have figured out how to grow bacteria into the shape of a shoe that could eventually be strong enough to work as actual shoes and people have discovered that instead of wasting the skin of a fish when it is cut off during the process of turning it into food, you can use the skin/scales as a sort of fish scale leather which is more sustainable than normal leather. At the end of the film we had some volunteers who went to the front of the hall and discussed their views on the film. It was very interesting learning about all the different ways to help the planet and really inspired me to do more to help. |
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Emilia Bazan and Ella Toogood-Pugh produced amazing work (Emilia's is the calligraphy; Ella's is the collage) on indigenous perspectives on rivers - students had to make a poster on the Whanganuri River in New Zealand which has been given legal personhood and is represented by two indigenous people. This is really tied into decolonising Geography by exploring indigenous non-Western perspectives to natural or physical features.
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MAL LOCKDOWN CHALLENGE (Part 2) |
MAL Learning Lockdown Challenge |
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Here is some more of the lockdown challenge work that has been submitted by our wonderful MAL students. The PARS points have already been uploaded. A great exhibition of our Tallis Habits and Character traits. Well done and keep the working coming through. Miss Lymer elymer@thomastallis.org.uk
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Please see your child’s voluntary MAL learning lockdown challenge. Email your completed challenges to Miss Lymer elymer@thomastallis.org.uk
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Photographs are stranger than you think |
Why did Chartism fail? |
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Year 7 students explored the strangeness of photographs in a seminar on Wednesday 4 December with Director of Arts & Creativity (and teacher of photography) Jon Nicholls. The students considered their relationship to photography, the status of photographs as special types of signs, why une pipe might not be a pipe and how taking a photograph is just the beginning of what a photographer does. The students were brilliant in discussion, sharing their already considerable interest in and understanding of visual literacy and they collaborated successfully in the editing and sequencing of a (pretend) photobook. Well done Year 7!
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Our lovely Year 8 MAL and Talented History Students have been working with Royal Holloway University to explain why Chartism failed. Please watch the below link. Well done Emilia Bazan, Samuel Brooks, Aniqa Haque, Noor Haysamaamed, Anna Horrell, Tom Lewis, Frank Overton-Martin, Shola Salan, Zion Tereece Ella Toogood-Pugh and Mrs Leigh Turner and Dr Claire Kennan, Historian at the Royal Holloway University.
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GCSE Science STEM aviation experience
Our year 10 MAL and Talented Science students had the opportunity to get inquisitive about the latest in STEM Aviation. Thank you Ms Onumonu!
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Year 8 and 9 visit to St. Paul's Cathedral |
Up For Debate |
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Year 8 and Year 9 RE MAL students such as Frank, Theo, Rosa and Jack visited St. Paul's Cathedral in London and collaborated together to discuss religious themes of poverty, punishment and our faith in history.
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Year 9 English students Kyle Lindsey, Taslima Khanom and Callie Moore all did really well in the Pixl Up For Debate competition. They won 2 out of their 3 debates (2 prepared and 1 impromptu), and narrowly lost in the third. Our students did brilliantly and competed in the grand final. And a massive congrats to Taslima, who won individual recognition for being one of the top ten speakers of the day. Well done Tallis! Great collaboration, imagination and persistence.
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University Conference |
Medics in the making |
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Our year 11 and 12 MAL students met with leading universities to discuss requirements for degree courses, their contents and all things UCAS. Our students were fortunate to discuss with a range of experts from the universities of Oxford, LSE, UCL, Birkbeck, Queen Mary and Goldsmiths.
Thank you to all of those who participated and the Sixth-Form team for organising it! It was a very informative and motivational afternoon. |
12 of our Year 10 MAL and Talented Scientists participated in a Medical Day trip at Shooters Hill College on Wednesday 21st February. The afternoon saw them participate in a number of activities which included CPR, medical ethics and anatomy which were ran by medical students. The event also gave students the opportunity to have discussions with medical students and junior doctors in order to gain an insight into the application process, qualities needed for a doctor and what it is like studying medicine and life as a junior doctor. Great work year 10!
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Taslima KhanomTaslima Khanom in Year 9 has engaged in brilliant Tallis imaginative behaviours and written a poem from the point of view a Gay Christian being persecuted. Taslima will also be entering this into the Young Writers Competition. Good Luck!
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Year 10 Astronomy tripOn Tuesday 6th February we took our Year 10 GCSE astronomers to the Royal Observatory for a lecture on ‘Galaxy Formation and Supermassive black holes’ by Joanna Ramasawry from the University of Hertfordshire. We learned how the merger of two or more spiral galaxies probably forms elliptical galaxies. Will that be the Milky Way’s fate when it merges with Andromeda?
Secondly we learned about the role that supermassive black holes play in active galaxies. There are black holes the size of a trillion suns lurking in the centres of many galaxies. The gas and dust that circles the black hole is heated to millions of degrees and these galaxies become incredibly luminous. It was fascinating to hear that physicists have no idea how these black holes form! Joanna suggested that the new technique at Ligo of studying gravitational waves might give clues about their origin eventually! Fascinating and a PHd or Nobel prize waiting for someone… After the lecture we went up to the roof of the observatory and saw the Great Equatorial Telescope in action. We heard interesting stories about how a flying V2 bomb ‘took out’ the observatory in 1945, but how the lenses to the telescope were stored in Chislehurst Caves at the time! We all had a wonderful time and hope to go back soon. |
Tasmiah Amin in Year 8 History showed excellent Tallis persistence and dared to be different and turned her History Civil Rights Lesson featuring Ruby Bridges into a creative and imaginative art work. Well done Tasmiah (especially as this home learning was optional!).
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Cole Pemberton
Cole Pemberton in Year 10 has completed some fantastic analysis in his GCSE Media. Great exploring and investigating (Tallis Inquisitiveness) Cole!
Geography Lecture at Dulwich CollegeYear 11 Geography MAL and Talented students attended a brilliant evening lecture at Dulwich College on Climate Change. It was extremely beneficial for year 11 students, ahead of their exams, to focus on biodiversity, migration and the historical events impacting upon climate change.
Luke Duong, Mio Knights, Luca Knights, Win Let, Lin Let, Sophie Naylor, Jane Lee and May Su also engaged in one to one discussions about proxy data with PHD students from Royal Holloway University. |
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KS4 Spanish Syntax ChallengeMFL MAL and Talented students once again engaged in our belief in teaching to the top this week through learning about Spanish syntax in their Spanish Lessons with Ms Carter-Elliott. During the lessons students analysed the syntactic functions of words and focused on how they give meaning to sentences and/or phrases which also help to express concepts. They used the "tree analysis" method which has its roots in traditional grammar. This type of analysis increases our students' knowledge of grammar and it contributes to a broader metalinguistic understanding of the language. Well done year 11!
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