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.

In our classroom

At Murrurundi Public School, High Potential and Gifted Education (HPGE) is an integral part of our everyday teaching and learning practice. Our approach aligns closely with the NSW Department of Education's HPGE Policy, recognising giftedness across the four domains

Creative Domain: Natural abilities in imagination, invention and originality

Intellectual (Cognitive) Domain: Natural abilities in processing, understanding, reasoning and transferring learning

Physical Domain: Natural abilities in muscular movement and motor control

Social-emotional Domain: Natural abilities in self-management and relating to and interacting with others.

Our teachers are committed to recognising and nurturing high potential in every student. We use objective, valid, and reliable formative assessment measures to identify student strengths across all four domains. This ensures that all students, including high potential, gifted, and highly gifted learners, are known, valued, and catered for.

Teachers work closely to assess and identify the specific learning needs of each high potential learner, ensuring access to responsive, flexible, and tailored learning pathways. Our small school setting allows us to deeply know our students, enabling personalised programming and timely adjustments to maximise growth and achievement.

Our planning is grounded in the belief that all students can achieve excellence when provided with high expectations and differentiated, evidence-informed learning opportunities. We ensure that instruction is responsive to individual readiness, interest, and ability so that every student can continually extend their learning.

Across our school

At Murrurundi Public School, we recognise that every student is an individual with unique strengths and interests. Our High Potential and Gifted Education (HPGE) opportunities are designed to nurture each student's potential and encourage growth across a broad range of areas, including

Student leadership opportunities - School Captains, School Representative Council, Youth Council, Year 5 Kinder Buddies
Whole school wellbeing programs
Public Speaking
Learn to swim program
Cultural activities
Excursions and incursions
Sport gala days
PSSA pathways
Small Schools Collective - creative arts, science and PDHPE
Small Schools days - STEM, music, sustainability, visual arts
Kia-Ora Music Camp
Accelerated learning pathways

Across NSW

At Murrurundi Public School, we continually seek new ways to support our students' learning and help them achieve their best. Our students participate in a variety of statewide programs that encourage learning, leadership and personal development which include:

Premier's Reading Challenge
Premier's Sporting Challenge
Representative School Sport Pathway and PSSA events
Science and Engineering Challenge
Visual arts camp
Newcastle Permanent Mathematics Competition

Academic competitions

The Premier’s Reading Challenge

PSSA Sporting Pathways

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.

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Student opportunities and activities

At Murrurundi Public School, we offer a variety of programs in the classroom and across the school to help students build new skills, make friends and explore new interests.

Our programs may include:

school sport, athletics and inter-school competitions
creative arts groups
cultural activities
excursions and incursions
public speaking
student leadership opportunities
activities that support high potential and gifted learners
accelerated learning pathways

Additional learning support

At our school, we ensure every student is ready to learn. we support students with disabilities and additional learning needs so they can take part in all areas of school life. You do not need a formal diagnosis for your child to receive support in our mainstream classes. Support is offered at all stages of school.

Additional learning support can include:

teachers and support staff working together with families and students
providing tailored programs to help high potential and gifted students with their advanced learning needs
small group tuition to provide targeted literacy and numeracy support for students
changes to classrooms:
- accessibility to classrooms
- assistive technology
- instructional resources
learning adjustments
assessment adjustments
- more time
- simpler language
- breaks during tasks
- alternative ways to demonstrate learning, e.g. oral presentation instead of written task

We know when a student needs help when:

teachers notice changes in learning or behaviour
reviewing assessment results and learning progress
parents and carers raise concerns or ask for support

Adjustments are planned in collaboration with parents and carers and are reviewed regularly and changed when needed. If you think your child may need extra help, please do not hesitate to contact us.