Talented Students in Creative Arts

The following criteria are those that we use to identify talented students in the creative
subjects of Art, Drama and Music at xxx.

Talented students are those that:

1. Have an ability that is significantly above their peers.

2. Can perform or create more challenging material accurately / with skill / flair.
3. Normally learn more quickly than their peers or self-teach. They will also be able to work
things out more quickly than their peers. They seem to have an innate ability in the subject.
4. Have a depth of knowledge in the subject or their appreciation of more subtle elements of that
subject are beyond their peers. They also pick up and retain information about the subject
beyond what is expected by the teacher / school / curriculum.
5. Have been identified as talented by a previous school / organisation, with supporting evidence
or testimony that supports this view.
6. Students are judged on ability rather than achievement: underachievement is possible for
talented students. However, the student needs to have shown the ability to achieving above
other students at some stage.
7. Can be identified as being in the top 5% nationally for that subject.
8. Engage with the subject at every opportunity and make exceptional progress whilst working in
that subject. They may be seen as having a need to create work in that subject.
9. Create new or different work, or work in ways that are different to other students. This may
not lead to an outstanding outcome, but the method of working may in itself be outstanding.
10. An experienced member of staff considers to have a talent.

We also note that students may grow out of a talent, particularly if identified as being talented when young that
whilst they may maintain an underlying ability, they may choose not to use or develop it further and may therefore
be taken off our own register of talented students.
However, underachievement is also possible for talented students and simply achieving lower grades or
producing lesser work than expected does not automatically mean that child should be re-considered.
We consider the register of students we keep to be a living document that can and will be reviewed regularly
and will have names added to and taken off during each review.
We are aware that bright or able students may show some of the same traits as talented pupils, but are not
talented. Hard work, additional study or a desire to achieve a top grade (or create a perfect piece of work) are
not in themselves signs of talent.