Sylvania High School

Scholarship Honour Service

Telephone02 9522 9951

Emailsylvania-h.school@det.nsw.edu.au

High potential and gifted education

High Potential, Gifted and Highly Gifted students

High Potential and Gifted Education applies to all NSW public schools, teachers, and students. It describes a framework to develop the talent of high potential and gifted students. 

Through this framework, we promote engagement and challenge for every student in every classroom across intellectual, creative, social-emotional and physical domains of potential, while explicitly identifying and addressing the learning needs of high potential and gifted students.

Fundamental to this are issues of equity and excellence. We recognise high potential and gifted students have advanced learning capacity compared to same-age students and, as a result, require talent development opportunities and differentiated teaching and learning practices to ensure their specific learning needs are met.

Our guiding principles:

  • All students, regardless of background or personal circumstances, require access to learning programs that meet their learning needs and support to aspire to, and achieve, personal excellence.
  • Our commitment to high expectations for all students includes high potential and gifted students.
  • Achieving excellence for high potential and gifted students is underpinned by our quality learning environments.
  • Potential exists along a continuum, where differing degrees of potential require differing approaches and levels of adjustment and intervention.

We offer a academic extension classes in Years 7-10. Students with the demonstrated ability are afforded opportunities that expand their knowledge and skills, and challenge their capabilities through differentiated curriculum and enrichment projects.

Our approach to teaching and learning with high potential, gifted and highly gifted students draws on Françoys Gagné's definitions of giftedness and talent established in the Differentiated Model of Giftedness and Talent DMGT 2.0.

Your child will be encouraged to challenge their potential through complex problem solving, higher order thinking, and critical evaluation.

In Years 7-10, students participate in the Game Changer Challenge to deepen their skills in design thinking methodologies as they pitch solutions to wicked problems. They participate in the ANSTO Hackathon, a fast-paced action project engineered for passionate STEM students to design creative solutions whilst working alongside a range of industry mentors.

In the senior years, your child will have the opportunity to be part of the renowned Mock Trial competition run by the Law Society of NSW. This competition advances students’ skills in public speaking and legal reasoning as they argue a case against an opposing school in front of a serving magistrate. Your child will have a multitude of opportunities that accelerate their learning and potential.