High potential and gifted education
Some students learn faster and more easily than others. These students may shine in creativity, thinking, leadership or sport.
At our school, we recognise and nurture these strengths early. We support advanced learners with great lessons and activities to help them grow and thrive.
Why choose us for your high potential or gifted child?
Recognising potential and developing talent
Our teachers find potential and nurture our students to be the best they can be.
Tailored lessons
Each student has different abilities. Teachers respond to each student’s ability by providing extra challenges and extension activities to keep learning exciting and engaging.
Rich opportunities and activities
Students can take part in opportunities to develop their talent in the arts, sport, leadership and more.
Opening doors to wider experiences
Our students can participate in a wide range of state-wide opportunities that aim to extend and enrich student potential.
What is high potential and gifted education?
High potential and gifted education (HPGE) is how our school supports students with advanced learning needs.
We do this through:
- effective teaching strategies like enrichment, extension and acceleration
- tailored support during lessons that stretch, challenge and inspire
- access to a wide range of opportunities both within and beyond our school.
Our high potential and gifted education opportunities
Our students engage with HPGE education in the classroom, in our school, and across NSW.
- Differentiated tasks that adjust pace, complexity and higher-order thinking.
- Formative assessment to monitor growth and adapt learning.
- Advanced learning pathways, including accelerated or compacted content.
- Explicit teaching of critical thinking and problem-solving strategies.
- Opportunities for abstraction, inquiry, and curriculum depth.
- Tasks that promote choice, authenticity, and critical and creative thinking including cross-curricular projects.
- Flexible grouping for collaborative ideation and presentation.
- Differentiated movement tasks and skill refinement with dedicated PDHPE teacher.
- Targeted learning goals for coordination, agility, and control.
- Opportunities to take on lead roles in physical demonstrations or team strategy.
- Supportive learning environments that enable exploration and self-assessment.
- Strengths-based feedback and goal setting.
- Opportunities for leadership within the classroom.
- Structured peer collaboration and reflection.
- Safe learning environments that encourage confidence, risk-taking, and perseverance.
- STEM Enrichment Program including annual STEM Pentathlon
- Academic competitions - Game Changer Challenge, Premier's Spelling Bee and Maths Olympiad.
- School musicals
- Music ensembles - guitar and recorder
- Festival of Instrumental Music
- Visual arts and drama showcases - Sapphire Coast Learning Community Performing Arts Festival and Stage Band.
- Sport - PSSA Soccer and Touch Football
- Small Schools Athletics and Swimming
- Dance Ensemble
- Student Parliament
- Grip Leadership
- Wellbeing program (Grow Your Mind)
- Participation in whole-school inclusion and wellbeing initiatives
- Bournda Environmental Education Centre HPGE programs
- Annual Careers Expo
- The Premier’s Spelling Bee promotes our students’ vocabulary development and attention to detail in competitive settings.
- Our STEM Enrichment Partnerships with industry and universities deepen our students’ intellectual curiosity while developing innovation and collaboration.
- Involvement in the Game Changer Challenge empowers our students to solve future-focused problems using design thinking.
- Participation in (state/regional) drama ensembles promotes character exploration, storytelling and expressive freedom for high potential and gifted drama students.
- Participation in music ensembles (e.g. FOIM, South Coast Dance Festival) hones our students’ musical skills, discipline and ensemble awareness.
- The Premier’s Sporting Challenge (PSC) promotes whole-school participation in physical activity with leadership pathways and professional learning.
- The Representative School Sport Pathway and PSSA events enable our students to trial and compete in sports at regional, state and national levels, fostering discipline, commitment and collaboration.
- Participation in state-wide dance ensembles develops our high potential and gifted dance students’ technical skills, performance presence and physical expressiveness.
- Our mentoring programs connect our students with trusted adults including school alumni to build confidence, motivation, and interpersonal skills.
Festival of Instrumental Music - Sydney Opera House
The Festival of Instrumental Music at the Sydney Opera House is a special event where young musicians from all over New South Wales come together to play music. You can enjoy concerts that show how talented and passionate these students are. It’s a fun and inspiring way to celebrate music and creativity.
Game Changer Challenge
The Game Changer Challenge is an exciting competition that encourages students to solve real-world problems with innovative ideas. It inspires creativity, teamwork, and problem-solving skills, giving students the chance to make a positive impact in their communities and beyond.
Grip Leadership
The GRIP Leadership Program helps students build strong leadership skills through fun and interactive workshops. It encourages confidence, teamwork, and effective communication to empower young people to become positive leaders in their schools and communities.
The Premier's Spelling Bee
The Premier’s Spelling Bee is an exciting competition that challenges students to showcase their spelling skills. It promotes literacy, builds confidence, and encourages a love of learning in a fun and friendly environment.
PSSA Soccer Touch Football
PSSA Soccer and Touch Football offer students' fun and competitive opportunities to develop teamwork, skills, and sportsmanship. These popular sports encourage active participation and healthy living while bringing schools and communities together through friendly matches and tournaments.
STEM Pentathlon
Students eagerly participated in the STEM Pentathlon, tackling exciting challenges that sparked their creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills. This engaging event inspired a passion for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics through hands-on activities and friendly competition.
Help for your high potential child
If your child shows signs of high potential, contact us. We can share how our HPGE support can guide their learning journey.
Student opportunities and activities
Discover the opportunities our students have at our school.
Learning
Find out about our approach to learning and supporting students to progress