DCU's Saturday sessions for bright young sparks between eight and 13 years of age are breaking new ground. Our European partners are impressed with this pioneering work with talented youngsters.

It's 9.30 a.m. on a Saturday morning in late September and up to 130 eight to 13-year-olds are arriving at DCU's northside campus. Casually dressed and clutching schoolbags, they flock into the main reception hall. Accompanied by a mum or a dad, these youngsters are here to register for classes with the Irish Centre for Talented Youth (CTYI).

In the afternoon, another group will sign on. Many of them are returning to DCU for their second or third year of Saturday classes.

One 11-year-old confides that he can't wait to get back to his computer class. "In school," he says, "you have to stay back and do everything over and over again. Here you can just move on when you're ready."

These classes were originally part of a project co-ordinated by Dr Sean Close at St Patrick's College, Drumcondra, Dublin. More recently, however, the programme has linked up with DCU's Irish Centre for Talented Youth, which has been offering summer programmes for academically talented students since 1992.

Saturday classes include computing, creative writing, world affairs, archaeology and game theory (decision-making). "We try to give students something that they're not going to get in school," explains CTYI's director, Dr Sheila Gilheaney. The centre invites all schools in the Dublin area to put forward students for assessment.

"We test them for numerical reasoning, verbal reasoning and abstract reasoning, but we don't expect them to perform well in all three areas," she says. CTYI hopes to offer similar Saturday classes in Limerick and Cork in the new year.

Information on the centre's summer school is sent to every post-primary school in the country. During the summer CTYI offers two three-week programmes for 12 to 16-year-olds and three one-week sessions for eight to 12-year-olds.

"At this stage at least half of all second-level schools have sent at least one student for assessment," says Gilheaney.

Exceptionally talented children are likely to have superior reasoning powers and great intellectual curiosity, she points out. They often learn to read at an early stage, often before they go to school.

Although children attending CTYI programmes are academically talented - the Saturday children are among the top five per cent - they do not necessarily perform well in school. Some simply coast along unchallenged. A number don't know how to study because learning has always been so easy for them. Others become bored and show little interest in schoolwork.

In some instances children will be reluctant to display their abilities for fear of bullying. Some teachers, too, can find it difficult to cope with youngsters who may be way ahead of the rest of the class in a particular subject or who are quick to point out mistakes. Because of their frustrations many talented children are often labelled as disruptive in school.

One father admits to sending his son to the DCU classes and the summer programme because the boy shows little enthusiasm for other activities. "We always knew he was bright," he says, "but he doesn't perform well in school and he's prone to bullying. If he's not interested in a subject he won't apply himself.

"Coming here is one of the few things he likes to do. It's wonderful to see him motivated." It has also been a revelation to meet parents with similar experiences, he notes.

Colm O'Reilly, a PhD student, has been evaluating the programme for the past four years. "The results are overwhelmingly positive," he says. "I've seen students who were disillusioned with school now fulfilling their potential. Coming here re-motivates them and they become more positive about school."

Despite coming from a wide range of backgrounds and schools, there is a great camarderie among students. "They're mixing with their peers and everyone is in the same situation," says O'Reilly. "The pace of classes is much faster than at school. Some children are coming from innovative schools but others are not and they may have to adjust themselves to the courses." There is no pressure to perform though, so the children work in a very relaxed atmosphere.

The centre is becoming something of a model of good practice for institutions abroad. It was originally established in conjunction with the John Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, which has done pioneering work with talented youngsters in the United States. In Europe, however, CTYI's work is regarded as ground-breaking and could provide a blueprint for similar establishments in other countries.

The centre too has been visited by OFSTED, the British education review body. "They were impressed," says Sheila Gilheaney. "They're looking at it from a policy point of view."

The director estimates that there are 10,000 highly able children in this country who have special educational needs. "It's important that attitudes in the field of education are changed," she says. "We need more teacher training at undergraduate level and in-service training on the special needs of highly talented children should be made compulsory. In New South Wales, Australia, for example, every school must have at least one teacher trained in the special needs of highly able children."

CTYI runs in-service training courses for teachers. "We are happy to talk to schools about the issue and we have information packs for teachers," says Gilheaney.