Monitoring the progress of 'more able' pupils

Understand your role in monitoring the progress of 'more able' and 'most able' pupils. See questions you can ask your school leaders, and examples of policies for high-ability or high-achieving pupils.

Last reviewed on 25 May 2023
School types: All · School phases: All
Ref: 3990
Contents
  1. Your role as a governing board
  2. First, check whether your school has a 'more able' policy
  3. Ask your school leaders these questions
  4. Tackle boredom for 'more able' pupils
  5. Support 'more able' pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds

Note on terminology: in this article we refer to higher-achieving pupils as 'more able' pupils, but your school may use other terms, such as 'most able', 'high prior attainers', 'high-ability' pupils or 'gifted and talented' pupils.

Your role as a governing board

In the same way as you'd monitor pupil progress in general, your role involves:

  • Asking questions of your senior leaders (e.g. the 'more able' lead, if you have one) - see below for example questions to ask
  • Looking at external and internal pupil progress data
  • Looking at pupils' books - this isn't essential, but can be a useful form of evidence

Get more detailed information about how to:

Your board might have a link governor or committee

See this blog