Mr. John Irwin:

We have to accept that the top cohort is excelling in literacy. The literacy strategy introduced has been extremely successful. The numeracy strategy has not had quite the same results. There has been improvement. In dealing with the top cohort, however, we must move away from the idea that, by supporting students with additional needs at the lower end of ability, it automatically means you are supporting the people at the top. We must be able to ensure, through differentiated practices in classrooms, that we are stretching the best students' abilities. We exposed teachers to the works of John Mighton, the professor of maths in Toronto, who was mentioned earlier. He came over and stated that the key element is that there is a core amount of information which you want to ensure every single student in the class can hit, but you must be able to ensure that the students at the lower end of the ability level have something they can grasp. You must also stretch the abilities of the ones at the top. He dealt with the core basic element. With first years at that time, he chose a bit of Boolean algebra, which is coding and which is quite challenging. They all had a basic understanding at the end. He gave incentives whereby even the student with the least ability had the opportunity to get onto a bonus sheet by the end and to be told they excelled. In such circumstances, everybody could experience success. There was far more stretching of abilities. You could go to five or six different levels in one class. It is about recognition of the differentiation of abilities across the class and making sure that the top is being challenged.