High potential and gifted education

Why choose us for your high potential or gifted child?

At Wiripaang Public School, high potential and gifted education (HPGE) is integrated into our daily learning experiences. Many of our students demonstrate exceptional talents, and we are committed to supporting and developing these strengths into meaningful achievements.

Our teachers identify each student’s learning needs within the classroom and apply evidence-based teaching strategies to extend and challenge their abilities. We provide a variety of learning pathways, including enrichment programs, extension tasks, and acceleration when suitable. Students are identified by teachers (with family insights welcome and encouraged) as having high potential or giftedness across the cognitive, creative, physical, or social-emotional domains. This information is shared throughout the school to ensure effective support for every learner.

We create nurturing classroom environments that foster a sense of belonging, encourage creativity, risk-taking, and collaboration. Gifted students, particularly in the cognitive domain, receive targeted instruction to meet their individual level of challenge. They engage in open-ended activities and enrichment opportunities.

Flexible groupings, leadership opportunities, and feedback centred on strengths with clear goals and self-assessment are key features of our approach.

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.

At Wiripaang Public School, we are dedicated to fostering the whole child by recognising and nurturing each student’s potential across these four domains, ensuring every learner is empowered to succeed.

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 classroom

At Wiripaang Public School, we recognise that high potential exists in many forms across all learners. Our approach to HPGE is embedded in everyday teaching and learning, guided by a strong focus on formative assessment, evidence-based practices, and effective differentiation to meet the unique needs of every student.

Here are some of the evidence based teaching strategies used in the classroom to support all students:

Use of Formative Assessment Tools
Teachers regularly use diagnostic assessments, observation checklists, and student self-assessments to identify strengths and areas for growth across multiple domains, providing timely data that informs lesson planning and differentiation to promote continuous student growth and engagement.

Differentiated Learning Tasks and Flexible Grouping

Learning activities are designed with varying complexity, allowing students to work individually, in pairs, or flexible groups based on interests or abilities, ensuring appropriate challenge, fostering collaboration, leadership, motivation, and social skills.

High Expectations Embedded in Lesson Planning

Teachers explicitly communicate high expectations by designing learning objectives that foster higher-order thinking, creativity, and problem-solving, encouraging students to set personal goals and reflect on their progress, which promotes a growth mindset, resilience, and self-efficacy, leading to deeper learning and higher achievement.

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.

Ongoing Professional Learning and Collaboration

Teachers regularly engage in professional development on HPGE strategies and collaborate to share best practices and design differentiated curriculum units, strengthening instructional quality and consistency to ensure all students benefit from effective talent development.

Across our school

At Wiripaang Public School, we offer a wide range of opportunities to support and enrich our High Potential and Gifted Education (HPGE) students both within the school and the wider community. Our programs are designed to nurture talents across multiple domains, providing pathways for students to excel and engage beyond the classroom.

We offer diverse Creative Arts opportunities, including dance ensembles and combined schools creative arts events, allowing students to develop their artistic talents and collaborate with peers. Our amazing volunteer Mrs Gowenloch provides a chance to explore musical skills using a range of percussion instruments and digital pianos.

For those with sporting interests, we have school sporting teams and representative sporting pathways that encourage physical development and teamwork. Leadership skills are cultivated through involvement in the Student Representative Council and various school leadership roles.

We also support students in developing their communication and critical thinking abilities through Public Speaking and Debating programs. Additionally, our students have the chance to participate in a variety of academic competitions that challenge and extend their intellectual growth.

At Wiripaang Public School, we are committed to providing a rich and varied HPGE experience that fosters talent development to thrive across all areas of their development, both within our school community and beyond.

Across NSW

We actively participate in statewide competitions and activities, providing our students with valuable opportunities to challenge themselves and perform at their best. Through this collaborative and enriched approach, we ensure every student’s unique potential is recognised, developed, and celebrated.

Here are some of the opportunities available to support the talent development of students at Wiripaang Public School: