More Able and Motivated 2021

The More Able and Motivated children have been working extremely hard on their projects this year. As there are still restrictions in place, we are unable to run our usual fair. Instead their projects can be found below. 

More Able and Motivated

Monkston Primary School has devised a programme to establish a clear and consistent approach to helping more able and highly motivated pupils achieve their full potential. We have added the term ‘motivated’ to the well known 'gifted and talented' title, since we believe that, in order for extra provision to have any significant impact, a pupil must wholeheartedly commit, or ‘buy into’, the programme. We fully appreciate that the role of teachers is to motivate pupils and that is what we seek to do every day in every lesson for every pupil. However, some pupils respond better than others to our attempts and a pupil would need to have developed a strong degree of self-motivation before being considered eligible for the extra provision outlined below.

What is a ‘more able and motivated’ pupil?

By ‘more able and motivated’, we simply mean a pupil who has demonstrated clearly above average ability in a particular area [see below] and is judged by their class teacher to demonstrate a high level of self-motivation in that area. Currently, we have 6 main areas of focus:

English

Maths

Science

Art

Music

P.E.

In future, this list may expand to include other curriculum areas.

Inevitably the self-motivation of a child is a difficult area to judge, so class teachers first produce a provisional list of pupils on the basis of ability and then conduct brief interviews with selected pupils to determine whether or not they have sufficient motivation to benefit from the ‘More Able and Motivated’ programme. Lists will be updated – i.e. with names added or deleted – every July, before the children start their new year group, enabling their current class teachers to use their knowledge of the children's ability to ensure a solid judgement. Parents of identified pupils will be informed in writing in the new academic year.

Please see our policy below for more details on our current provision.

Monkston More Able and Motivated

2020 - 2021

The More Able and Motivated program is running a little differently this year and will be done mostly by video. The launch videos for each subject are below. 

KEY DATES

Monday 7th December - project launch videos available to watch

Week commencing 1st February - tips and development ideas video

Week commencing 8th March - tips and development ideas video

Wednesday 24th March - project photographs/videos due in. Please email them to mandm@monkston.org

Monkston More Able and Motivated 2020!

Due to the school being closed, we were unable to hold our annual More Able and Motivated Fair this year; however, the MA&M groups still worked hard on their individual projects and wanted to share with you what they were able to achieve before the closure.

English 

The children will be reading a range of books in our weekly lunchtime club sessions and at home. We will discuss and evaluate them and then have the chance to complete written tasks based on the books, as well as composing book reviews and recommendation for other pupils. 

Maths

• To develop, plan and create an outdoor maths area for other children.
• To explore how maths can be found in nature by looking at fractals and drawing diagrams.
• To create activities other children around the school can explore and complete.

In the club, the children will do practical activities in the school garden to explore different aspects of maths. The children will then create activities that other children from around the school could try or use. The majority of the project can take place through the lunchtime club and if children wish to think of other ‘weather proof’ activities to add to the area, that is a possibility.

Science

The Fibonacci sequence and pattern is the grounds for your project. You are to research and explain the science behind the sequence, its origins, who Fibonacci is, where the sequence is found/used and how it works. You could also think about evolution and how the sequence and pattern has been affected by this. You need to be looking for the Fibonacci patterns and numbers all around you, all the time.

Art

Children to work collaboratively to create a mural for the school!

Children will be given the theme of the ‘natural world - earth is what we have in common’. They will be involved in generating ideas and going on to designing their own mural. These designs will be used to create an overall design which incorporates at least one part of their design. Miss Sawyer will sketch it onto the wall. Children will then take part in an afterschool session (and potentially another session in the school day) to paint it. Painting will be assisted by local artist, Micheal Hiskins. Children will be given a homework task each week to add to their scrapbook which will be displayed at the more able and motivated fair.

PE

The PE More Able and Motivated project encompasses inspirational people in sport. Children will research and share their favourite sportsmen and women - they can choose one or two. The project will include a fact file on their chosen athlete. They can also choose to produce a poster and a video recreating a famous performance or moment in that person’s career (e.g Greg Rutherford’s Long Jump or Ellen Whyte’s goal and celebration for England).

Zack Wightman

Music

The children will listen to a different musical genre each fortnight during their lunchtime club. During these times, they will be mind-mapping bits they like and don’t like, using musical terminology as a group and looking at what makes a good music review. The children’s ongoing home project will then be writing their own reviews on these pieces of music each fortnight. They could also choose to review another piece of music from the same genre (listening and researching supervised by parents) as an extension. During the second session of the fortnight, the children will bring their reviews in and go through them with Miss Elias to ensure that they are using the correct terminology and that they are ‘presentable’ and ready for the fair.

PREVIOUS MA&M FAIRS...

The Monkston More Able and Motivated Fair

3rd April 2019!

Every year, we hold our annual More Able and Motivated Fair (at the end of the spring term) in order for the More Able and Motivated groups to showcase their work and have an opportunity to share their knowledge and passion for their chosen subject. All children in the school get an opportunity to come along, during the school day, and visit the fair in their classes and see for themselves what the groups have been studying the year. Its always a highlight for all, seeing outstanding examples of writing, maths investigative work, science projects, musical creations and new sports or activities devised by the PE group. 

This year's fair was a roaring success with an amazing selection of projects across each of the subjects! 

Science

It is 50 years since the first moon landing and the first part of the project was to research and present information about the moon landing and the findings. They had to have as much information about the rocket they used, how it worked, gravity, what they discovered and what it meant for science/mankind. They also had a chance to think about what living on the moon in another 50 years might look like!

PE 

Groups created their own test of fitness activities. They had a go at current fitness tests that are out there, like the bleep test (a child friendly version) and other flexibility challenges. They then used some of these ideas to design and develop their own fitness tests. At the end of the project, children tested each other in their group and competed against their peers.

Music 

The children used their own instruments and the iPad app ‘Garageband’ to compose a piece of music. Children recorded this using non-standard or standard notation (depending on understanding) and came up with a piece about a minute long. They then visited Oakgrove School to record their piece and played it for visitors at the fair.

English 

Children wrote their own fantasy story for a specific audience. During their lunchtime sessions, Mrs Wood provided the children with resources to plan their story, create their own fantasy world and was even able to ‘magic’ up some magnificent creatures! The children had to be as creative as possible to make their stories exciting and imaginative. When the stories were finished, they were published and created into a story book for all to read and enjoy in the magical fantasy reading corner at the fair.

Art 

 Children discovered what happened to rubbish once it was been thrown away and then understood what could be recycled and why recycling is so important. The group investigated how everyday items could be reused in order to create pieces of art. By researching various artists (particularly Jane Perkins) and attending a trip to Oakgrove, they gained a further understanding of techniques which helped them create art of a similar style.

Maths

Children worked on two investigations - 

‘Caterpillars’!

An investigation to test their mathematical skills through concepts such as halving and adding and their understanding of odd and even numbers, as well as their reasoning with their final conclusions.

‘Magic Crosses’!
An investigation to explore how to arrange numbers in the cross to make the horizontal and vertical lines the same. By choosing to represent the underlying patterns in different ways, such as with Numicon, digit cards and templates, the children were able to persevere and find convincing arguments and proofs to explain the patterns they notice.