Life as a Gifted and Talented student

By Michelle Leese

Hello! My name is Michelle and I recently completed my A-Levels here at NULC. I studied French, German, Business Studies and Critical Thinking and am now heading to Oxford University to read German and Linguistics.

Throughout my time at college, I was part of the Gifted and Talented group, which was set up to recognise and cater for the College’s brightest students. The purpose of this article is to give you an insight into what life as a member of the group is like.

In reality, the week of the Gifted and Talented group member isn’t really that different to that of any other student, except that instead of attending a regular weekly tutorial class with a mixture of other students, the 20 or so with the highest number of A* and A grade GCSEs in the year attend a special tutorial class together, where the focus is purely on providing the students with all the advice they need to be able to grasp all the best opportunities within their reach, apply to the country’s best universities and fulfil their potential.

I must admit that when I first arrived at the College and heard of this group, I was relieved that, at last, there was a place that recognised the need to nurture gifted students whilst offering individually tailored advice that would allow them to flourish and not get held behind in their studies (which is rather unlikely anyway – A Levels are really difficult! There’s no denying it!)

Membership of the Gifted and Talented group means automatic admission into the AS Critical Thinking class, which most Gifted & Talented students continue to A2.

Critical Thinking is a subject that involves deep analysis of arguments, points of view, newspaper articles and other publications. For example, we would consider: What is the assumption in this argument? Is an ethical dilemma presented? Is there an element of bias?

There is no need to worry about all of this – all will be explained. Besides, there is only one Critical Thinking class per week (unlike all other subjects, which have 3 per week).

Critical Thinking is there to support your main studies and to challenge you and train you not to accept everything you read as being true. It teaches you to ask intelligent and necessary questions and thus is likely to strengthen your university application, as it shows you are acquiring the analytical skills useful for any subject. (There’s also never too much writing to do either – which is always a bonus when you spend the rest of the week writing reams and reams!)

During my time at the College, Wednesday afternoon was the time dedicated to Gifted and Talented group classes. I would have Critical Thinking at 12.30pm (and we always finished a little early – all that thinking made everyone’s brain ache after an hour!) and we would then head to tutorial at 2.00pm.

My Gifted and Talented group tutor was Claire Poole, a lecturer in Psychology and Sociology in the NULC Sixth Form Centre. Although I did not study either of these subjects and so mostly never saw Claire other than on Wednesdays, she made sure that she got to know me and always made time during tutorial sessions to ask me about my work, exams, university application and future plans – always giving me advice on how to fulfil my potential as a successful languages student. Her office was always open to me and to all members of the group during the rest of the week too.

Sometimes, tutorial sessions would be themed – i.e. one week Claire would talk about managing money, another week about personal statements, another week about exams and revision etc. – and it was always advice tailored to us - and our academic abilities, which was always beneficial.

I would say that the Gifted and Talented group is great for people who want to work and want to succeed – and I always found it nice to be with students who shared similar aims to me, even though we were all doing different subjects and I was the only student in the class studying languages. I even found my best friends in the College to be members of the Gifted and Talented group, even though I was with them least often!

My advice to somebody thinking of joining NULC and who is likely to become a potential member of the Gifted and Talented group would be to focus on your strengths, the subjects you excel in and enjoy and to work really hard in those 2 years.

It does get difficult at times (trust me, GCSEs will seem easy compared to A Levels!) but all those weeks of revision are definitely worth it in the end. Look at me, I’ve been accepted at Oxford University and have been in the Sentinel four times this year! I was also on Signal One and Radio Stoke on A Level results day and on that day I was photographed numerous times as part of the Gifted and Talented group.

You can do it too! Just keep your goal in mind and work hard. Two years pass so quickly!