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 Cooerwull Public School, we are committed to recognising and nurturing high potential and gifted students, ensuring every student can thrive at our school. We employ objective, valid, and reliable measures as part of formative and summative assessment practises to effectively guide and enhance teaching and learning across the creative, intellectual, physical, and social–emotional domains.
Teachers actively assess and identify the specific learning needs of all high potential, gifted, and highly gifted students, ensuring that every student has access to tailored programs and support that meet their unique learning needs.
Our planning is shaped by the belief that teachers must hold high expectations for all students, recognising that every student requires differentiated and evidence-informed learning opportunities to optimise growth and achievement.
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.
In our classrooms, we promote a sense of belonging, encouragement and support to promote students in taking thoughtful and productive risks. Our teachers engage in professional learning to support the diverse needs of all students, including our high potential and gifted learners (HPGE). This expertise is seamlessly integrated into our daily learning experiences, ensuring every child is challenged, supported and inspired to reach their full potential.
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Our practices align with the NSW Department of Education’s HPGE policy, which highlights the importance of supporting giftedness across four essential domains:
- Creative Domain: Supporting students to develop original ideas and express themselves through creative thinking, problem-solving, and artistic pursuits.
- Intellectual (Cognitive) Domain: Offering challenging learning experiences that nurture advanced thinking, deep inquiry, and intellectual development.
- Physical Domain: Encouraging physical growth and wellbeing through activities that improve coordination, health, and physical skills.
- Social-Emotional Domain: Promoting emotional resilience, self-awareness, and positive social interactions to support the wellbeing of gifted learners.
Our classrooms offer:
- Differentiated learning tasks
Teachers tailor learning to each student’s needs, adjusting pace, complexity, and encouraging higher-order thinking ensuring students are challenged appropriately, fostering deeper understanding, critical analysis, and creativity.
- Explicit teaching of critical thinking and problem-solving strategies.
Teachers guide students step-by-step, modelling strategies and encouraging reflection. This focused approach equips learners to analyse information, make informed decisions, and confidently tackle challenges across all subjects, preparing them for future success
- Tasks that promote choice, authenticity, and critical and creative thinking including cross-curricular projects.
Teachers create engaging tasks that offer students choices and real-world relevance. Through hands-on, cross-curricular projects, students develop critical and creative thinking skills, explore connections between subjects, and express their ideas confidently, fostering curiosity and a love for learning in a supportive environment.
- Targeted learning goals for coordination, agility, and control.
Students experience fun, developmentally appropriate activities that enhance motor skills, balance, and movement precision. They recieve clear instructions, regular practice, and personalised feedback to support each students’ physical growth, confidence, and ability to participate actively in various physical tasks and games.
· Student Leadership and Voice
Students take lead roles in projects, discussions, and school initiatives tied to their interests, and participate in setting goals and self-assessing, fostering ownership, motivation, and leadership skills.
School Level
Our school recognises that every student is individual, and we provide flexible and diverse opportunities for students to explore and grow their strengths outside the classroom. We also provide adjustments to ensure high potential and gifted students with disability can participate in learning experiences on the same basis as students without disability.
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Our school offers a range of whole-school programs that support student growth. In addition, our students have the opportunity to travel to different events outside the school, including participating in performing arts showcases such as dance and choir, as well as debating, chess competitions and a plethora of sporting events.
Our School offers a range of opportunities across intellectual, creative, social, and physical domains including:
- Debating and Public Speaking
- STEM
- Chess
- Choir and Dance Group
- Performing Arts Showcases
- Sporting Schools (Australian Sports Commission)
- Interest Groups including guitar, drama and drumming.
- House Competitions including swimming, cross country, athletics and weekly house sport.
- Peer Mentoring
- Student Leadership (SRC)
- Wellbeing Programs
Across NSW
Our students actively participate in a wide range of statewide programs to extend and enrich student potential.
We provide access to local, state and national competitions and events to help students explore and extend their talents. These include:
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- The Premier’s Spelling Bee promotes our students’ vocabulary development and attention to detail in competitive settings.
- The Premier’s Reading Challenge challenges each student to read, to read more and to read more widely.
- The Premier’s Debating Challenge helps our students to build logical arguments and confidence in public speaking.
- Our STEM Enrichment Partnerships with industry and universities deepen our students’ intellectual curiosity while developing innovation and collaboration.
- 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 and CHSSA events enable our students to trial and compete in sports at regional, state and national levels, fostering discipline, commitment and collaboration.
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.