ABSTRACT
This chapter places the design and technology content of all that follows into the more general national and school framework. The debate about whether to make special provision for the most able pupils in secondary schools ran its course during the last decade of the twentieth century. Since 1997, when the then Department for Education and Employment set up its Gifted and Talented Advisory Group, many initiatives designed to raise aspirations and levels of achievement have been targeted on the most able, especially in secondary schools. In an attempt to deal with the chronic underachievement of able pupils in inner city areas, Excellence in Cities was launched in 1999. The most able must be seen to have as many opportunities for development as other pupils. Poor, unchallenging teaching or an ideology that confuses equality of opportunity with levelling down must not hinder their progress.
