A FRIEND of mine was lamenting the other day about her wasted school days.

She is now an extremely successful, bright, innovative career woman and so it came as a bit of shock to me to discover that her school record did little to represent these traits.

It would seem, you see, that the best days of her life were whiled away getting into trouble.

Nothing criminal, just the sort of thing which requires detentions, establishes one a reputation among one's peers, and irritates the hell out of the teachers.

"The problem is I was bored," she said. "I could do the work with my eyes shut. Of course, everyone assumed I was just naughty - a bit of a tearaway, an attention seeker.

"But in actual fact I suppose I just wasn't challenged."

It is for this very reason that the specialist field of gifted children is so important, because my friend is not alone.

Many children are in danger of going off the rails, seeking amusement and challenge elsewhere, because what's on the board or in their books is not suitably challenging them.

Last year the Government quite rightly recognised the need to concentrate on these youngsters.

School Standards Minister Estelle Morris declared that every school should have a clear policy to ensure that its most able pupils were fully stretched to achieve their potential.

She rightly pointed out to the Education and Employment Select Committee that many schools have very strong policies for their weakest pupils, while neglecting the most able.

At the time she announced a string of measures, including pilot schemes, aimed at concentrating on rectifying the situation.

Another measure announced was a grant of £23,000 to the National Association for Gifted Children, which is piloting a mediation service to resolve disagreements between parents of able children and their schools.

The good news now is that Worcestershire, or University College Worcester, is once again at the forefront.

The St John's-based college has made a major step forward in tackling the problem of recognising and nurturing gifted children by signing a unique partnership with the National Association for Gifted Children.

The college will now undertake specialist training for teachers to help them recognise particularly gifted and talented children in the classroom and to develop their curriculum appropriately. It is even offering a diploma and Masters programme on the subject.

"Identifying and nurturing gifted children is a growing national concern and one which the Government are very interested in," said UCW's head of applied education studies ,Stephen Bigger.

"It is now considered a priority nationally to recognise gifted children and give them the education they need.

"We shall be offering existing teachers a basic introduction with specialist modules building up to a diploma and the chance to do a Master's degree."

I suspect a lot of this country's talent has been wasted over the years, simply because children have been misunderstood, diagnosed as troublemakers instead of talented.

It's therefore good to see UCW, which is the first in the country to form a partnership with the association, helping to harbour these talents and save them from having to explain away rather embarrassing school reports for the rest of their lives.