Galileo Project

The Galileo Project is provided for the YG&T Learner Academy and brings together gifted learners, aged 6 to 13, from around the UK and provides support, encouragement, and intellectual stimulation. It exists to meet the needs of children in the top 5% of their year group by offering them a range of innovative educational opportunities and resources that are not necessarily available in the classroom.

Technology is utilised to create culturally diverse, dynamic environments where young learners can take the initiative and contribute and collaborate, developing their emotional literacy at the same time as deepening their understanding.

Aims

* To give a voice to young gifted learners, bolster their self-confidence and enable them to reach their full potential while having fun and sharing with their peers.

* To support, nurture, and celebrate children who are capable of high achievement.

The Lead Professional is Coral Milburn-Curtis BA, Cert Ed, CPSE, NLPP

Coral Milburn-Curtis is from Oxford, England. After teaching in Sheffield, Harlow, South Africa and Magdalen College Oxford she took over the headship of the country's top primary school, leading it and two other primary schools for 10 years.

During that time she served as a member and leader on a number of panels for the Department of Education and the Qualifications & Curriculum Authority. As an OFSTED and an HMC school inspector, she specialised in the inspection of maths, science and ICT in primary schools.

Representing the local authority, she has been a Threshold Assessment adviser, a workforce re-modelling consultant and a Newly Qualified Teacher consultant.

Coral is the author of 'How to Protect Your Child From Bullies'.

She has designed, coordinated and implemented online, blended and face-to-face courses for gifted children, delivering them on behalf of the YG&T initiative at the University of Oxford and outreach schools.

Coral is the lead professional on a number of e-learning and face-to-face projects for gifted children, based at the University of Oxford.

Learning Community Education Team

* Coral Milburn-Curtis, Lead Professional
* Dr Sarah Dauncey, Course Creator
* Dr Richard Beare
* Jen McKelvey, teacher
* Mark Curtis, University of Oxford
* Will Moir, University of Oxford
* Hanz MacDonald, mentor

Learning Community Strategy Team

* Daniel Jessop
* Coral Milburn-Curtis

Please email us for a gifted and talented checklist.

Annual Galileo membership gives learners unlimited access to the online learning environment which provides:

* termly projects
* international debating society
* holiday extension activities
* collaborative international projects
* learning community of gifted learners

Annual Fee: £350

Learners are recommended by their schools or are nominated by parents. Applications are endorsed by the child's teacher or headteacher, who confirms that the child is 'significantly ahead of his/her peers'.

Learners are encouraged to join the YG&T Learner Academy. We can assist in this process.

Government funded places are becoming available for learners aged 6 - 13 whose families are on Income Support. Please enquire for details.

Contact: Lead Professional: Coral Milburn-Curtis

Email: younggiftedandtalented@gmail.com

Please email us for a gifted and talented checklist.

This Galileo course aims to capture the imaginations of young learners and foster higher order thinking by introducing them to key philosophical ideas emerging from the study of astronomy.

During this 10 week programme, the learners will be exposed to specialised scientific areas, exploring galaxies and the cosmos and will be challenged to think philosophically. They will be invited to contribute, collaborate and speculate. They will participate in scientific research, assisting in the categorisation of distant galaxies.

Together, we will be asking: What is our place in the universe? How does scientific progress affect our lives? What would we write on a signpost outside our solar system?

This course offers an enjoyable and innovative way to strengthen learners' thinking and reasoning skills.

Course Creators: Coral Milburn-Curtis, Dr Sarah Dauncey & Dr Richard Beare

Associate Course Developer: Lorna Stevenson, University of Oxford

Senior Mentors: Hanz MacDonald (Rugby School), Mark Curtis (Oxford University)

Pre-requisites:

* participants should demonstrate a desire to improve their critical thinking and reasoning skills
* participants should demonstrate an interest in how rational discussion can assist in developing an understanding of others' points of view and to discovering solutions to problems
* participants should be open-minded and inquisitive
* this course assumes no previous knowledge of astronomy or physics
* regular access to a PC with an Internet connection.

Aims & Rationale for the Course:

* explore the structure and identification of galaxies
* introduce the philosophy of science
* stimulate an interest in astronomy
* develop critical reasoning skills
* develop a spirit of enquiry
* improve reasoning and evaluation skills
* improve communcation and synthesising skills.

Learning Outcomes:

* an understanding of the concept of philosophy & ability to engage in philosophical discussion
* an introductory knowledge and understanding of the main characteristics of stars, galaxies and the structure of the solar system
* strengthened analytical, logical and reasoning skills
* ability to research a topic in depth
* higher order thinking
* collaboration
* evaluation.

Course members are expected to:

* keep up to date with tasks and exercises
* make regular contributions
* post thoughtful and reasoned messages
* participate enthusiastically in discussions, tasks and quizzes
* proof-read and edit their contributions in order to make them of the highest quality
* support other learners by giving feedback.

Content:

We introduce the course with an overview of astronomy, investigating scientific theories about the origins of the Universe and taking a detailed look at our solar system.

Learners are taught how to to recognise different types of galaxy and to understand why they look so different.

Learners will be invited to participate in scientific research, categorising uncharted merging galaxies, contributing to university research into the wider universe.

Our investigations make use of real scientific data and images, especially those from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), and robotic telescopes such as the Faulkes Telescopes.

The investigations are not prescriptive, but offer the student genuine choices as to what to investigate and how to do so (whilst at the same time providing all necessary guidance and background scientific information). They aim to get students thinking scientifically for themselves and experiencing the thrill of scientific discovery.

Students are encouraged to collaborate scientifically with others in their own country and around the world, including the UK, the US, Australia, Europe and elsewhere.

The Internet is used for asynchronous, moderated and monitored discussions that form a central part of the course, and also to access astronomy sites.

This is also your chance to contribute to considered debate and in-depth investigation, extending your knowledge, developing your critical thinking skills and research skills.

The course does not aspire to provide a comprehensive survey of the study of astronomy or the philosophy of science. Rather, it offers an introduction and encourages learners to become flexible and critical thinkers.

Duration: 10 weeks, starting April 20th 2009

Suitable for: Top 5% academically; 6 -13 year olds; learners who enjoy a challenge.

Venue: This course is available throughout the UK, online

Language: English

Fee: free to Galileo members

Please email us for a gifted and talented checklist and a Membership Form.

Short mental challenges to keep those little grey cells occupied!

Course Leaders: Coral Milburn-Curtis, Daniel Jessop

Pre-requisites:

* None

Aims & Rationale for the Course:

* To provide short extension activities
* To maintain interest and motivation during holiday periods

Content:
Recent activities have included:

* Pi investigation
* Maths investigations
* Lateral thinking exercises
* Science projects
* Individual projects
* Collaborative projects
* Wiki challenge
* Balloon debates
* Competitions
* Logic quizzes
* Mandarin Chinese course
* The Games Room

Duration: main UK school holidays

Suitable for: Top 5% academically; 6 -13 year olds; learners who enjoy a challenge

Venue: online

Where: This activity is available throughout the UK.

Language: English

Fees: free to Galileo members

Please email us for a gifted and talented checklist and a Membership Form.

Course Leaders: Coral Milburn-Curtis & Hanz MacDonald

The debating society is open all year round and is a very popular activity in the community of learners. It offers the opportunity for learners to communicate and share ideas and opinions in the safe, managed and moderated environment of a debate. The debating society also offers leadership opportunities whereby older learners volunteer to become debate leaders, encouraging other learners and summarising the debate.

Pre-requisites:

* Participants should demonstrate a desire to debate logically and with considered argument.
* Participants should demonstrate an interest in how debating can assist in developing an understanding of others' points of view and to discovering solutions to problems.

Aims & Rationale for the Course:

* To develop skills related to debating, public speaking and critical thinking.
* This course will build upon skills gained in other literacy courses and offers further opportunities for the development of debating skills.

Content:

In this simplified debating process, students are expected to speak both for and against, before voting for the most powerful argument.

Each debate is in four parts:

* Speaking for
* Speaking against
* Voting and conclusions
* A volunteer learner summarises the debate, using a wiki, which everyone else can then contribute towards.

Course members are expected to:

* Make thoughtful and reasoned contributions
* Participate enthusiastically in discussions, tasks and quizzes
* Proof-read and edit their contributions in order to make them of the highest quality
* Give encouraging feedback to other learners on the course.

Optional Follow-up

Students are encouraged to include their best work in the 'Bodleian Room' collection.

Key benefits

* Debating is one of the most rewarding activities you can do in this learning community.
* Debating offers you important argumentative and persuasion skills, which will help you in your school and university career as well as later on in life, especially in career paths that require any form of leadership.
* Debating teaches how to be an effective speaker, using language in a fluent and clear manner to be understood by your audience. Skills like this are needed to prepare you for tomorrow's world.
* Debating enables you to interact with new friends and really participate in our vibrant and inclusive community.
* Debating skills open doors at higher levels. You may choose to take this skill further and compete in debating competitions.

Duration: all year round

Suitable for: Top 5% academically; 6 -13 year olds; learners who enjoy a challenge

Venue: online

Where: This course is available throughout the UK.

Language: English

Fees: free to Galileo members

Please email us for a gifted and talented checklist and a Membership Form.

1. What is Galileo?

Galileo is an independent learning community, provided for the YG&T Learner Academy, providing opportunities for gifted learners aged 6 -13 years from around the UK. It provides support, encouragement and intellectual stimulation. It exists to meet the needs of children in the top 5% of the ability range in their year group by offering them a range of innovative educational opportunities and resources that are not necessarily available in the classroom.

2. What do the learners do?

Children who join Galileo have unlimited access to:

* online courses specially designed for gifted children
* the debating society
* holiday activities
* international collaborative projects
* a community of gifted learners

Annual Membership gives 24/7 unlimited access to a wide range of online courses, ranging from astronomy to philosophy, debating to logic. New courses, specifically designed for bright learners are added each term and a wealth of extension activities are always available, with clear instructions detailed at the beginning of each week.

Short courses are provided for the holiday periods.

We use innovative approaches to problem solving and critical reasoning, making full use of collaborative tools such as discussion groups, wikis etc.

Led by a team of university academics, tutors, senior & junior mentors, learners thrive in this supportive and motivating environment.

3. What do the learners say?

(Children's responses to the satisfaction survey: November 2008)

* 'My two stars are that I can think about my answer very carefully and I can do research to make sure that my answer is the best I can do. No-one gets at me for being bright because instead of being on my own in the class there are lots of people like me here and I don't stand out so much and the wikis let me be an expert. This is my friend and I look forward to getting online when I get home from school. My wish is to do this in school all the time.'

* 'The way they help me on this project is that there are no messing around kids to distract me'.

* 'Being able to communicate with each other and learn new things about each other instead of being stuck with no body you know'.

* 'All new challenges every day of the week to keep us going and enthusiastic. I am very happy that this site gets updated so regularly.'

* 'What's great is they've got challenging quizzes that I love to contribute in and try and complete them.'

* 'I can be happy when I am here. If I am happy I can learn well.'

* 'This helps me because at school lots of people struggle. So we do things for a longer time and I understand it straight away because everyone else is not as "clever" as me.'

* 'People here are kind, unlike at my school where people distract me.'

* 'here is perfect!'

* 'At school everyone asks me how to do a question in an easy maths book and here no one asks me because they understand.'

* 'It really encourages you to do really fun activities that stretch your brain to the limit!'

* 'there is so much to do on the website, so if you had finished something you could do other things.'

* 'People in the community have been giving me loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooots of courage'

* '[It makes me] feel good to be bright'

* 'I think that being part of this community will look very good on my CV, which can help me get a job when I need to find one.'

4. What are the expectations for participation?

Your child can participate at two levels:

1. Extension activities. There is a wide variety of extension material in the form of un-certified courses, quizzes, challenges, discussions etc. Children can dip in and out of these at will. These activities are updated weekly and are intended to provide short-term challenge.

2. Certificated courses. These are long-term, structured courses, typically lasting for 10 or 12 weeks at a time. These courses have clear guidelines for assessment, which are:

Pass

* Minimum 50 % participation in the course.
* 'Participation' means responding to tasks, contributing to discussions and attempting quizzes, exercises etc.
* Typically, those who 'pass' will have responded to tasks with clear simple responses.

Merit

* Minimum 80% participation in the course
* Those who are awarded a Merit will have made, in the opinion of the Course Leaders, significant, high-quality contributions to the course. Typically, work will have been well-presented, with thoughtful content; care will have been taken to proof-read work before it is submitted.

Distinction

* Minimum 90% participation in the course.
* The Distinction Award will be made to those learners who have not only reached the standard of Merit, but who have consistently demonstrated support and encouragement to other learners, by responding sympathetically, constructively and helpfully in order to raise the standard of participation across the whole community.
* Those who are awarded Distinction, will be awarded the status of Junior Mentor.

5. Will my child feel included?

This is what the learners said in November 2008 about the sense of 'community':

* 'I think that this leaning community is helping me because I think that it gives me exiting challenges and the chance to make lots of new friends.'

* 'people in the community have been giving me loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooots of courage'

* 'The fact that you can keep in contact with people(I know I've made a friend!).'

* 'Being able to make friends because I've made some.'

* 'People here are kind, unlike at my school where people distract me.'

6. Which countries can participate in Galileo?

Eligible students fall over the world can participate.

7. Will everyone who comes into contact with my child be CRB checked?

Yes. All tutors and moderators have enhanced CRB checks.

8. Is my child safe online?

The online learning website is accessed only by a secure log-in and password. All learners must obtain an endorsement from the school in order to join the community and schools are informed about who is participating. Every single contribution is scrutinised by a CRB-checked moderator or tutor.

9. In what ways can the learners collaborate?

Young learners together on creative-writing and extended projects. For instance two six year olds are writing a series of short stories, leading to the publication of their work in paperback. They are supervised by a mentor from Oxford University.

Another group of 10 year olds is creating their own course in writing a computer game. They have appointed their own mentor (aged 11) to coordinate the project.

Other Children, in small groups, are creating in-depth articles about specialist topics such as Dr Who, The Battle for T-Rex's Throne and the International Space Station.

Learners are grouped together at different times for specific activities such as debate or creative writing.

Learners, wherever they are in the UK, have access to University academics who devise, coordinate and moderate the activities.

10. What are the advantages of e-learning?

* E-learning is learner-centred, flexible and convenient, ideal for gifted glearners who would benefit from accelerated learning.
* With the focus on personalised learning, the emphasis in the pedagogical process shifts from teaching to learning.
* Learners are able to implement their own preferred learning styles. In the online environment, all learners have an equal opportunity to participate in discussions.
* Learning can take place in short segments and is customised to suit the learner's needs.
* Students take charge of their own learning.
* E-learning material can be accessed in a non-sequential way, enabling learners to navigate content in different ways, and perceive the global view before attempting individual units.
* All students have access to the same materials but are supported by peer support and student-to-tutor support services, thus reducing the cost of delivery.
* Learner access to the materials is monitored and early potential drop-out is detected and remedied.
* Students can study anywhere: at home, at school, in hospital and on holiday.
* Gifted students who usually sit in the back of the classroom and avoid speaking in class, for one reason or another, blossom in the online environment. Participants are more willing to risk written participation than spoken, perhaps partly because they can rethink and edit their work before submitting it. In the online environment, the visual barriers that hinder some individuals in expressing themselves are largely eliminated.

11. How does my child join?

Your child can join at any time of the year. The membership will last for a full year from the date of enrolment.

13. Fees

The annual membership fee is £350. Through working with partners and sponsor organisations we aim to keep the membership fee as low as possible and government funded places are becoming available for disadvantaged students. Please enquire for further details.

Please email us for a gifted and talented checklist and a membership form.

Q: Can learners who are on the Galileo programme access their courses and extension activities in school?

A: Yes. Galileo learners are encouraged to make full use of the extension material on offer. For instance, literacy activities are always on offer (currently a weekly debate). There is always a modern foreign languages course running (currently Mandarin Chinese) and a major maths or science course (currently An Introduction to Astronomy and the Philosophy of Science).

Learners need access to an Internet computer and, for the MFL course, headphones.

Q: How does the school benefit if a learner joins the Galileo programme?

A: Galileo members access specialist personalised learning materials in school, thus saving on:

* teachers' time for researching, planning, developing and implementing specialist G&T activities
* specialist resources (Galileo activities are developed, planned, implemented, moderated and evaluated by e-learning and subject specialist professionals based at The University of Oxford).

Galileo participation makes a significant contribution to the following agendas:

* Every Child Matters
* Personalised learning
* Extended schools
* Primary National Strategy
* OFSTED inspection of gifted and talented learning.

Q: Who pays for the membership?

A: Whilst membership fees (£350 per year) are usually paid by parents, schools are encouraged to contribute to the fee if funds for personalised learning are available.

Q: How are financially disadvantaged learners able to access Galileo membership?

A: Government subsidies for disadvantaged learners are about to come on-stream. We are working with other partners to provide further funded places. Please enquire for details.

Lead Professional: Coral Milburn-Curtis

Academic Office:
Oakenstone House
Ferris Court
Sibford Ferris
Oxon OX15 5QR, UK

Telephone: 01295 788937
Mobile: 07785 397153
Email: younggiftedandtalented@gmail.com

Please email us for a gifted and talented checklist and a membership form.