Here at BHPS, we strive to support all of our students to reach their potential. The High Potential and Gifted Education Policy promotes engagement and challenge for every student, regardless of background, across intellectual, creative, social-emotional and physical domains. It supports every student to achieve their educational potential, through talent development opportunities and differentiated teaching and learning practices to ensure that their specific learning and wellbeing needs are met.
Our school has a strong focus on high potential and gifted education. We promote an inquiry approach from kindergarten to Year 6 in every classroom, providing opportunities for rich learning, deep thinking and 21st century learning capabilities which are communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking.
We have brand new open plan classrooms where students learn in flexible groupings. The physical resources are outstanding. You can take a virtual tour here:
Our school attains outstanding results in external assessments. You can view these on the My School website. https://www.myschool.edu.au/
Whilst we do provide a HPGE class at BHPS, many BHPS teachers have HPGE training and we utilise many strategies to help meet the diverse needs of our HPGE students. Our goal is to provide quality learning experiences in every classroom that meet and challenge the students where they are at, not just provide more for them to do.
We offer many other programs and initiatives that support high potential and gifted learners including,
- Gateways, ICAS assessment, Bebras challenge, Leadership program, Languages (Hebrew, Russian or Italian), Music, Band, Sport, etc
- Staff are trained in the High Potential & Gifted Education, differentiation, talent development and mentoring
- All staff caters for the individual learning needs of all students with attention to pace of instruction, complexity and depth of content
- All students are considered for our Year 5 and 6 Reach class (extension class) which is for high potential and gifted students
- Opportunities in the four domains of giftedness, intellectual, physical, creative and social/emotional
Common questions we get asked about our Yr 5 & 6 HPGE Class:
I would like my child in the HPGE class, should I get them a tutor?
The short answer is, no. If a child requires tutoring to get into an enrichment class, whether that be an OC class or 5/6 REACH, they will often need to maintain that tutoring to keep up once they are in the class.
My child is in the mainstream Year 5 class. Can they still be considered for the High Potential class for Year 6?
Yes. Whilst the majority of students do remain in 5/6 REACH for both Year 5 and Year 6, the invite only extends to the current year. Throughout the year, the identification and assessment process occurs and towards the end of the year all of the data is looked at to best inform the decisions we make for classes. As students develop at different rates, it would be unfair to only assess them for the High Potential class at only one time.
Both Year 5 and Year 6 students are in the same class, how do you cater for both grades?
Firstly, the curriculum to be covered is across the Stage so we split the content into Even and Odd years so there is no repetition of content. Then the learning experiences are differentiated to meet the learners where they are at. Some may require some support and more guided or explicit learning, whilst others are moving on to more challenging concepts and connections within the same topic area.
My child is advanced in only one subject. Can they still be in the 5/6 class?
Of course it is a possibility; however, there are other ways your child might be extended instead. For instance, they may stay with their mainstream cohort and be placed in an extension group for that subject, or alternatively, they may even be accelerated to a higher grade just for that subject.
My child has a disability. Can they still be considered for the class?
Absolutely! Students with disabilities, both physical and cognitive, can be high potential/gifted learners too. If a student’s learning needs require their learning to be extended or enriched, then they will be placed in the learning environment that best suits their needs and the learning will be modified to support them.
My child is amazing at maths, particularly number skills and they attend Kumon every week. Why aren’t they in the HPGE class?
Kumon is a program that we have seen help students to be really quick at solving number problems; however, this doesn’t always equate to the student being great problem solvers and critical thinkers. Often, Kumon students know the steps to take to solve an equation but not always understand why those steps are used or ways to solve it differently.