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 teachers are committed to identifying high potential in students by using objective, valid, and reliable measures as part of formative assessment to support and inform teaching and learning across the creative, intellectual, physical, and social–emotional domains.

Teachers actively assess and identify the specific learning needs of all high potential, gifted, and highly gifted students, ensuring that every student has access to tailored programs and support that meet their unique learning needs.

Our planning is shaped by the belief that teachers must hold high expectations for all students, recognising that every student requires differentiated and evidence-informed learning opportunities to optimise growth and achievement.

We collaborate with families, our school community, and the wider community, and engage in ongoing professional learning to build teacher capability and enhance growth and achievement for all high potential and gifted students. Through these actions, our teachers are dedicated to being the catalyst for high performance and talent development for every student.

In our classroom

At Windale Public School, we celebrate and nurture the Intellectual and Creative domains as essential pillars of student growth. We recognise the Intellectual domain as the natural ability to process, understand, reason, and transfer learning across different contexts. Equally, we value the Creative domain, which encompasses imagination, invention, and originality. By fostering both, we empower our students to think critically and creatively, preparing them for a dynamic and innovative future.

Coding Sessions bring together high-potential students who are eager to challenge themselves and grow their skills. Guided by the principles of the High Potential and Gifted Education (HPGE) policy, these sessions focus on developing the Intellectual domain—students’ natural abilities to process information, understand complex concepts, reason logically, and apply what they’ve learned in new ways. Our expert teaching staff support students to immerse themselves in problem-solving and coding projects that stretch their thinking and spark creativity, preparing them for future learning and opportunities in technology.

Student Reflections:

Mia (Year3): Through Scratch I have learnt to use a variety of tools for my coding projects.

Elena (Year 3): It lets me use my creative skills.

Myla (Year 3): It lets you be yourself and can direct your own learning.
At Windale Public School, we recognise the importance of the Physical Domain in the High Potential and Gifted Education (HPGE) policy. This domain focuses on nurturing students’ physical development, promoting health, fitness, coordination, and body awareness. Through tailored activities and challenges, students are encouraged to enhance their motor skills, endurance, and physical confidence. By integrating physical wellbeing with academic and creative growth, the HPGE program supports the holistic development of high potential students, helping them achieve their full potential in a balanced and healthy way.

Throughout Term 2 and 3 high potential primary students are given the opportunity to participate in representative sports through the Eagles League Footy, Macquarie Cup Netball Competition and Macquarie Cup Soccer. These representative programs provide students with an opportunity to engage socially with peers across local schools and further develop their advanced motor skills, physical fitness, physical confidence and endurance.

Student Reflections:

Harper Grace (Year 5): It’s very fun and competitive. – Macquarie Cup Netball Representative

Tex (Year 6): I love getting to play with my friends. – Macquarie Cup Soccer Representative

Jaxon (Year 6): It’s competitive and I love scoring tries. Eagles League Footy Representative

Across our school

At Windale Public School, High Potential and Gifted Education forms a part of our core business. We recognise and nurture the unique talents of every student by providing flexible, diverse, and enriching opportunities that support growth across academic, creative, social, and physical domains.

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

Interschool sport competitions
Representative sport pathways
Student Representative Council
Public speaking
Dance groups
Interest groups
Chess
School camp
Green team
Starstruck
Wellbeing programs
Curriculum aligned excursions & incursions

Across NSW

The Premier’s Spelling Bee promotes our students’ vocabulary development and attention to detail in competitive settings.
The Premier’s Sporting Challenge (PSC) promotes whole-school participation in physical activity with leadership pathways and professional learning.
Students in NSW have exciting opportunities to participate in PSSA School Sport pathways, allowing them to develop their skills and compete at various levels across the state.