Global Gifted,Talented and Neurodiverse (GTN) Awareness Week 2022.
By Anna Comino James, Founder of The Potential Trust.
What gives me #GiftedJoy is my brain putting together snippets of information and coming up with ideas of how to forward the work I have been involved in since 1984 as a Trustee of the Potential Trust. Often these ideas result in holding another Potential Conference, a gathering of some of those in some way involved in looking after the needs of children with HLP (high learning potential the phrase we use rather than Gifted and Talented) or DME (Dual or Multiple Exceptionality – children and young people with Special Educational Needs and/ or Disabilities and High Learning Potential. They are sometimes called Twice Exceptional or 2e) – events that are brimful of potential for encouraging and supporting the potential for achievement of the children the Trust was set up to help. At the end ot the two days I drive home tired but exhilarated the possibilities that have been generated.
I also experience #GiftedJoy through the small things in life; creating delicious meals out of new combinations of ingredients, inspired by whatever is in my fridge, my food cupboard, and my shelf of herbs and spices. Then sharing the results with family and friends round the kitchen table.
What gives you #GiftedJoy? Young or old, big or small, email us us at potentialtrust@gmail.com and let us know! We’ll put some of your responses on our website.
About Anna Comino James.
Anna has been working to help and support children with high learning potential (HLP) since the late 1960s when she joined Potential Plus UK (then the newly established National Association for Gifted Children). Having set up a committee to run a local branch she later served on NAGC’s national Council of Management for many years, for whom She eventually organised and ran a large programme of summer schools as well as editing newsletters for different age ranges of members’ children. Then in 1984, to ensure the financial survival of the summer schools, together with an NAGC colleague Anna set up The Potential Trust.
When Anna’s father was asked in the early 1940s what effect his tiny printing company could have when the world looked as though it was going to war, he replied: ‘Perhaps not a lot, but you hope that by throwing a stone in the pond you cause ripples that spread.’ Anna inherited from him a belief in the importance of sharing ideas, experiences, concerns, and possibilities. and over the years She has organised and facilitated many Potential Conferences for the Trust. The first one was simply an invitation to all the interesting people she knew to come and meet each other, and now The Potential Trust brings together other organisations working to help and support HLP children. These events are based on a strong gut feeling that something good will come of it – and it invariably does.
As well as being a Trustee of the Potential Trust, the Comino Foundation. and a founder member of GT Voice, Anna is an honorary life member of Potential Plus UK, and a Fellow of the RSA.
About The Potential Trust
The Potential Trust (https://www.thepotentialtrust.org.uk) is a small educational charity set up in 1984 to provide, promote and encourage whatever makes education more interesting and exciting for children of high learning potential – especially those with considerably more than the average share of curiosity, perception and persistence – and to enable them to access events and experiences that facilitate their personal and social development and their creative, artistic and practical skills as well as their intellectual abilities.
To this end, The Potential Trust now has four main areas of work to achieve our mission
Questor Bursaries – The Trust offers small bursaries to children and young people up to the age of 18 from low or lower- income families who have the potential for high attainment in academic or other subjects but who are not achieving at that level and cannot afford to take part in activities that:
- enable them to learn new things and try new challenges
- enable them to explore existing interests in greater depth or gain mastery of a subject
- encourage them to make new friends and improve their confidence and well-being.
Potential Conferences – The Potential Trust runs an annual programme of Potential Conferences on a variety of different subjects relating to learning and high learning potential. A Potential Conference is a professional retreat for a group of up to about 20 people interested in discussing something they are passionate about in this area and that resonates with the aim of the Trust.
Potential Collaborations – As a small charity, The Potential Trust strongly believes in working in partnership with other like- minded organisations who can help it in its mission to make education exciting for children and young people with high learning potential.
Potential Change – in the long term, The Potential Trust seeks to ensure the needs of children and young people with high learning potential in education and in society as a whole are recognised and met and the barriers they face addressed to ensure they receive equity of challenge, experience and inclusion to maximise their potential. This aspect of The Trust’s work includes such as:
- conducting research into different aspects of high learning potential
- raising awareness of high learning potential
- lobbying for equity and inclusion of children with high learning potential in education.
About The G-Word and Global Gifted,Talented and Neurodiverse Awareness Week 2022
Defying popular myths that assume most gifted people are wealthy, white, and will do fine on their own, THE G WORD is a film currently in production that reveals the economic, cultural, and gender diversity of gifted and talented population in the USA at every stage of life, highlighting their educational challenges, social isolation, deep emotional sensitivities, and complex, neurodiverse brains. It puts a face to the physical threats experienced by many in schools and society-at-large, while also revealing a large and lively community of people working hard to meet their needs while challenging the prejudice and trauma that comes with being labeled “smart” in the 21st century.
To find out more about THE G WORD and explore excerpts from the film, click on this link https://www.thegwordfilm.com/home#synopsis
As a result of working in partnership with those in the gifted, talented and neurodiverse community, in 2021 the team behind The G Word launched Global Gifted,Talented and Neurodiverse (GTN) Awareness Week to raise awareness around the world of the rich diversity of this communityh. In 2022, the theme for GTN Awareness Week is Bringing JOY and EQUITY Into Focus. During 24-28th October a programme of webinars, podcasts and discussions will be held on a series of topics related to this year’s theme. For more information and to register click on this link https://www.thegwordfilm.com/gtn-awareness-week
#GiftedJoy #GTNAwarenessWeek #TheGWord