They do not have special lessons as such but meet once a month after school - rising to once a week in their third year - to learn study skills and take on extra work they would not be able to do in a whole-ability class, a recent example being chromatography in chemistry.
Banding involves an admissions test, with results divided into ability bands - the school then accepts a percentage of pupils from each band, resulting in a mixed-ability intake.
The country was tired of polarization, and Mitt could provide a problem-solving antidote, a demonstrated ability to bring a Republican solution -- the individual mandate -- to a problem that Democrats traditionally cared most about.