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£3.6 million for gifted and talented learning

DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION AND SKILLS News Release (2007/0074) issued by The Government News Network on 11 May 2007

Gifted and talented secondary children will benefit from a wide range of out of school hours learning through leading universities, announced Schools Minister Andrew Adonis today.

Run by higher education institutions, the nine 'excellence hubs' are a partnership of universities, schools and other education providers. Together they are receiving a total of £3.6million of Government funding over the next four years.

From this summer, they will offer up to 3,000 places on residential and non-residential events and online courses. During the next academic year there will be more than 22,000 places available during term time, weekends and holidays.

Andrew Adonis said:

"We need to do steadily more to meet the needs of very able children in the education system. Through the gifted and talented programme, children can already access more stretching lessons and opportunities. These new regional summer schools harness the expertise of our leading universities for the benefit of gifted and talented pupils in state schools.

"Offering gifted and talented pupils a range of exciting out of school opportunities in their area will ensure that eligible children, no matter where they live or what their background, will receive extra support to meet their potential."

Dr Geoff Parks, Director of Admissions for the Cambridge Colleges, said:

"The development of 'excellence hubs' is an exciting opportunity for higher education institutions to build on their work with young people, engage them in high quality learning and give them a sample of University life."

Each hub is developing an exciting menu of opportunities. In Yorkshire and Humberside, York University is piloting an integrated programme of activities for a group of highly disadvantaged pupils.

The Governments wants to ensure that the gifted and talented programme is accessible for all eligible children. Each hub will make 10 per cent of places available free of charge to those from the most disadvantaged backgrounds, as well as some subsidised places.

The tendering process to find the selected universities was undertaken by the CfBT Education Trust as part of their new role as the Government's Managing Contractor for gifted and talented education.

The excellence hubs will work alongside a new Academy for young gifted and talented learners opening in September 2007.

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. Each hub is receiving £100,000 of Government funding annually for up to 4 years and expected to match this with funding from other sources, including contributions from schools, fees and higher education grants.

2. For more information, go to http://www.cfbt.com/teach/giftedtalentededucation/excellencehubs.aspx

3. It was announced that CfBT Education Trust will manage England's National Programme for Gifted and Talented Education (NPGATE) in December 2006.

4. The University of Warwick's contract to run the existing National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth (NAGTY) comes to and end this summer. Organisations are currently being invited to tender to run the new Learner Academy. For more information, go to http://www.cfbt.com/learneracademy/

5. Excellence Hubs providers

REGION              LEAD UNIVERSITIES      CONSORTIUM PARTNERS
      1.East              Cambridge and UEA      Anglia Ruskin and
                          Universities           University of
                                                 Bedfordshire
      2. East Midlands    Nottingham, Leicester
                          and Loughborough
                          Universities
      3. London           Queen Mary, University City University,
                          of London              Goldsmiths, University of
                                                 East London, London
                                                 Metropolitan
      4. North East       Durham University      The Open University
      5. North West       Lancaster, Liverpool
                          and Manchester
                          Universities
      6. South East       Canterbury Christ      Kingston
                          Church University      UniversityBuckinghamshire
                                                 and Chiltern
                                                 UniversityThe University
                                                 of WinchesterReading
                                                 University
      7. South West       Exeter, Bath, Bristol
                          and Plymouth                     Universities
      8. West Midlands    Aston University       Birmingham University;
                                                 UCE; Birmingham College
                                                 of Food, Tourism and
                                                 Creative Studies; Newman
                                                 College of Higher
                                                 Education; Wolverhampton
                                                 University; Warwick
                                                 University; Coventry
                                                 University; Staffordshire
                                                 University; Keele
                                                 University; University
                                                 College Worcester
      9. Yorkshire &      University of York     Universities of Leeds,
      Humberside                                 Hull and Sheffield 

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