Challenging and supporting gifted and talented pupils

Northwood College has a very large number of highly gifted and talented pupils, many of whom are members of NAGC (National Association of Gifted Children) or NAGTY (National Association of Gifted and Talented Youth).

We believe that the most important way of supporting these highly intelligent girls is by providing a rich, varied and challenging curriculum. This means that our thinking skills programme plays an important part in ensuring that all our lessons stimulate a greater level of cognitive challenge – and one that is accessible at different levels to different pupils. Learning to reason, to hypothesise and to innovate, our girls are developing skills that will be of enormous value well beyond their years at school.

As well as this, we also provide opportunities for our most able girls to meet together, to form supportive friendships and to experience a wider range of activities that are not usually part of the curriculum. Our very popular Creative and Critical Thinking workshops are run during the October and February half terms – for girls from Year 3 to Year 9. All sorts of team challenges are tackled – from using advanced computer software to design houses of the future to building bridges made of jelly babies and spaghetti!

A Year 5 Maths Club offers girls who show particular mathematical aptitude and potential an opportunity to explore some fascinating problems and mind-boggling puzzles, thereby extending their understanding of skills and concepts.

What is more, our Year 6-9 girls also have the opportunity to participate in T+ - an after-school club designed especially for them. This offers them the chance to develop new skills within a diverse selection of fields. Summer 2007 offered, for instance, sessions in pyrography, orienteering, nomination whist, psychology, experimental sound recording, drama and learning to waltz in three easy steps – to name but a few.

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Find out more by viewing our Prospectus, or come and visit us

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