NACE specialises in working with schools and teachers to improve learning for able learners.
Founded in 1983, NACE is recognised nationally and internationally as the UK’s leading independent education organisation in the field of education for able learners.
Through its valuable network of members NACE provides high quality guidance, support and training, enabling teachers to attain the best from able learners in the everyday classroom, whilst enabling all learners to flourish and achieve.

NACE Values

High Ability can be manifested in numerous ways.
NACE is concerned with supporting schools in getting the very best for their able children.  The evidence is now strongly pointing towards the fact that if schools meet the needs of the more able it benefits all.

NACE believes:

• Defining ability is complex and evolving.
• High ability includes all domains of human achievement
• Many children are capable of high achievement given the right opportunities
• There should be no ceiling on how many children in a school are defined as highly able
• Every school should and can provide opportunities for their highly able to flourish and achieve

NACE and High Ability
Children of high ability may demonstrate all or some of the following:

• Able to master the rules of a domain easily and transfer their insights to new problems
• Make connections between past and present learning
• Work at a level beyond that expected for their age group
• Produce original and creative responses to common problems
• Shows curiosity, asks questions  and enjoys engaging in debate or discussion

NACE believes that some children may be underachieving because of the lack of opportunities and barriers to learning that they may face.  NACE is committed to empowering teachers to overcome these obstacles.

Recognising High Ability
NACE believes that recognising high ability goes hand in hand with understanding the characteristics of High Ability children and providing opportunities for them to achieve at the highest levels. It is important that a variety of methods is used to support this process. These include:

• Teacher observation
• Teacher assessment
• Generic and subject specific criteria
• Progress measures
• Parental / self / peer  nomination

Providing for High Ability
NACE believes that the most important factor in turning ability into achievement is the opportunities a school provides within and beyond the classroom to motivate and engage as well as deepen and extend more able pupils’ learning.
Strategies to deepen and extend learning will include:

• Tasks and questioning which involve analysis, synthesis and evaluation
• Tasks which require problem solving, enquiry, critical thinking and research skills
• ‘Rich’ tasks and ‘mastery’ approaches
• Tasks and assessment which encourage metacognition and talking about the learning process
• Tasks and classroom management which encourage the use and development of independence and choice
• Encouragement of transfer of knowledge and transfer across disciplines
• More advanced and conceptually difficult content
• Consideration of ‘big ideas’, the identification of trends and patterns and analogising
• The use of higher order technical and disciplinary discourse