ABSTRACT
Why have schools found it difficult to keep high ability on their agenda? How can teachers and learners discover and define excellence for every learner and their school? This chapter begins to chase down and map those associative networks of understanding to help answer these questions. It explores the outer landscape that makes up the world of the able child: the various and sometimes conflicting agendas of parents, governments, schools and inspectors, and also looks at the international perspectives. It also examines alongside these agendas the inner landscape of individual students: what happens in their classrooms, the issues of disadvantage and underachievement, the importance of finding the right strategies for teaching and learning, and how independence can be encouraged and pursued.
