ABSTRACT
Interest and enthusiasm for more able education has waxed and waned over the last twenty years or more. This chapter summarises past policies and guidelines: in the UK, from the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted), various governments’ Departments for Education and The Sutton Trust, it attempts to pin down why interest has fluctuated so much in such a relatively brief period of time. Out of these ‘mislaid ideas’ there is the proposition that establishes a set of underlying principles which teachers can hold on to. It may be necessary to ‘unforget’ some of the best bits from the past and place them in the context of some more recent thinking. Most of all there is a need to press for an approach to learning that is holistic as well as dynamic and that is clearly a need for an urgent and immediate response to the needs of the more able.
