Policies

 

 

More Able and Talented

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Brilliant Rutherford Scholars “graduate” at Cambridge…

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Students from Mark Rutherford School were at Newnham College, Cambridge to receive their graduation certificates following their participation in the Brilliant Club’s Scholars Programme.
The scheme which is operated by the educational charity, The Brilliant Club, is aimed at encouraging able state school students to consider applying to some of the UK’s most prestigious universities.
The 12 students from Year 9 and Year 10 at Mark Rutherford have completed a four month study programme which involved researching the implications of cell development and growth for youth recruitment by professional football clubs. Their studies were “rounded off” with a 2000 word dissertation which was awarded university style classifications. Two of the students involved gained first class passes and over 80% of the group achieved at least a 2:1 pass.
Their tutor, Rick Patel who is currently completing a Phd focussed on youth recruitment by professional football clubs praised the students commenting: “ They were all very dedicated and hardworking. Their final assignments were truly impressive especially considering that they were all working at a standard well above their chronological age.” One of the Year 9 students,Zoe Buttice delivered the Spokes Scholar speech at the event.
The project was run as part of the school’s ongoing programme to support academically able students.

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Students from Mark Rutherford School’s Sixth form competed in the Prestigious English Speaking Union’s Sixth form public speaking competition regional final at the Perse School, Cambridge and collected one of the top awards.
Team member Amy Stott was awarded the “Outstanding Performance Award” for her five minute speech on the challenges facing education in England. She was supported by team members and fellow Year 13 students Dylan Gordillo and Charli Marshall. They were one of six teams taking part in the event including The Perse School, Aldenham School and the Colchester Royal Grammar School. The English Speaking Union is internationally recognised as one of the leading organisations promoting public speaking and debating in schools and universities.

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Public speakers

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Mark Rutherford School’s public speaking team followed up their triumph as District Champions in the Rotary Club’s prestigious Youth Speaks competition by being the only state school competing in the Regional final in north London. To win the District title they competed against six other schools from Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire.  The team was comprised of Chair, Amy Buttice, Speaker, Suzie Baker and Vote of Thanks, Elena Coles. In addition to the team’s triumph Suzie Baker was awarded the prize for the best speech of the evening and Amy Buttice secured the award for the best chairperson of the evening. The girls, who are all studying for their GCSEs at Mark Rutherford, spoke on the subject: “Body donation, the ultimate act of charity?” focussing on the importance of medical research and organ donation. It is the second time in three years that Mark Rutherford has won the District crown. Although they narrowly missed out on securing a place in the national final the team were awarded the prize for best chairperson following the Regional final where they competed against independent schools from north London, Cambridgeshire and East Anglia.

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Silence in Court

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Silence in Court... a combined Year 11 and sixth form team were runners up in the prestigious Sir Gavyn Arthur Mock trial competition organised by the Magistrates Association. The south eastern regional mock hearing competition was staged at Bedford Court and in addition to finishing as runners up team member Year 13 Amy Stott was "commended" by High Court Judge Peter Perusko for the quality of her advocacy in one of the cases which are all based on the kind of hearings dealt with by the Family Court.

Other team members were: Amy Buttice, Stanley Hunter-Howett, James Rowntree, Gatleen Chaggar, Laurissa Grant and Dylan Gordillo. The team was supported by Mr Smith and Mr Nicholls and was organised as part of the school's provision for the More Able and Talented.

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The Russell Group

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Former Mark Rutherford student Molly Simpson visited the school  to speak to Year 12 students about applying to some of the most competitive universities in the UK. Molly is currently studying Geography at Oxford University and was meeting with Year 12 students as part of the school’s provision for the More Able and Talented. The workshop included advice on application procedures, UCAS, interviews and personal statements.

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More Able and Talented

With the promotion of ‘inclusion’ and ‘Every child matters’ being at the heart of the Mark Rutherford ethos, we value excellence and achievement in all our students and are committed to providing a stimulating and challenging curriculum which caters for their individual needs. The more able students are no exception and we actively promote and encourage all students to surpass their expectations.

Our More Able and Talented cohort have a range of activities and extra curricular opportunities for them to access and these will only increase in coming months, so watch this space!

Definitions
  
The More Able are those students who have abilities above the expected norm for their age group in one or more subject areas other than art, music, the performance arts and physical education.
Talented students are more able artistically/creatively and in performance and have abilities outside normal performance standards for their age group in art, music, the performing arts and PE. A student could be both More Able and Talented.

Identification 5-10%

The national figure defined by the government states that the MAAT cohort should be between 5-10% of the school population. However, students would never be denied a place on the MAAT group list if they met the academic and performance related criteria!

At MRUS we keep a list of our MAAT students, which covers all year groups and all subjects and is regularly up-dated.  Due to the changing nature of students’ abilities (students can have academic or performance related spurts, peaks and plateaus) they are placed on the list initially for one year and this is then evaluated and updated annually. We also keep a ‘more able’ list so that we can track the progress of not only our MAAT cohort but all of our more academic and/or talented students. Under-achievement can then be highlighted and strategies put in place to improve the situation.


   'Everyone is gifted-but some people never open their package' – we aim to provide the tools to do this.

 

During the past year a number of events have been organised in order to help support the school’s More Able and Talented cohort of students. These have included:

  • Year 10 students visited the University of Oxford Open Day.
  • Oxbridge application information evening at Bedford Modern School attended by year 11 and year 12 students.
  • Mock interviews for Year 13 Oxbridge applicants and students applying for Medicine/Veterinary Medicine.
  • Year 12 students involved with the Nuffield Science programme.
  • Regular Debating Society meetings.
  • Additional support for Sixth Form students considering applying to Russell Group Universities.
  • Public Speaking team  competing in the Rotary Club’s Youth Speaks programme.
  • Students competing in the National Maths Challenge.
  • Brilliant Club Scholars Programme for students in Year 9 and Year 10.
  • Information and Guidance Workshop for Year 12 students at Kings College, University of London.

 

Mr D Smith
More Able and Talented Co-ordinator

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Mark Rutherford School
Wentworth Drive, Bedford, Bedfordshire Mk41 8PX
Telephone 01234 290200 : Fax 01234 290236 : Email: mark.rutherford@mrus.co.uk
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