High potential and gifted education (HPGE)
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 Teaching and Learning Programs
- Essential Assessment - online platform
- Public Speaking
- Premier’s Reading Challenge
- STEM
- Student Representative Council (SRC)
- Art Show
- Whole school dance performance
- 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 in PDHPE.
- Targeted learning goals for coordination, agility, and control.
- Supportive learning environments that enable exploration and self-assessment.
- Strengths-based feedback and goal setting.
- Academic competitions
- STEM and coding clubs
- Critical thinking workshops
- School musicals
- Music ensembles
- Wellbeing programs
- Operation Art
- Southern Stars
- Festival of Instrumental Music
- Wollondilly Performing Arts Festival
- Band lessons
- Dance groups
- Choir
- Talent Quest
- Access to sporting pathways – Zone, Regional, State
- Razorback sporting trials
- Gala Days
- Junior AECG
- Student leadership
- GRIP Leadership
- UP Program
- Go Foundation Scholarships
- ICAS Assessments
- Access to sporting pathways – Zone, Regional, State
- The Premier’s Spelling Bee promotes our students’ vocabulary development and attention to detail in competitive settings.
- Participation in music ensembles (e.g. State Wind Orchestra, State Choirs) 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 and CHSSA 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 Stage 5 dance students’ technical skills, performance presence and physical expressiveness.
Student Leadership
Festival of Instrumental Music
Thirlmere Public School Band - Tulip Festival
Sydney Southeast Symphonic Winds
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