High potential and gifted education
Some students learn faster and more easily than others. These students may shine in creativity, thinking, leadership or sport. We are committed to recognising and nurturing high potential and gifted students, ensuring every student has the opportunity to thrive at our school.
We support advanced learners with great lessons and activities to help them grow and develop. We identify students' learning needs in the classroom and use evidence-informed teaching practices to challenge and extend students. We provide learning pathways, including enrichment and extension programs and acceleration.
Our teachers engage in professional learning to support the diverse needs of all students, including our high potential and gifted learners.
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 tasks that adjust pace, complexity and higher-order thinking.
- 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.
- Opportunities to take on lead roles in physical demonstrations or team strategy.
- Supportive learning environments that enable exploration and self-assessment.
- Strengths-based feedback and goal setting.
- Opportunities for leadership within the classroom.
- Structured peer collaboration and reflection.
- Safe learning environments that encourage confidence, risk-taking, and perseverance.
- Chess Club
- Multi-cultural public speaking competition.
- Hornsby Zone School Sport- Representative teams in tee ball, softball, league tag, cricket, AFL, football and netball
- Student Representative Council (SRC) members
- Field of Mars - Entomologist Program
- Bush Studio Visual Arts Program
- Arts Alive Program
- Operation Art
- Think Tank critical thinking workshop through partnership with Consensus Education
- Dance groups
- Gateways programs: Ignite, Eureka, Challenge and Leadership
- BrainWays programs: Mindquest and Academicus
- School Band and Choir
- Ethics Olympiad
- APSMO Maths Olympiad
- Dymocks Beyond Words Creative Writing Competition
- ICAS Assessments
- NSW Junior Chess League competition
- NSW Premier's Spelling Bee
- NSW Premier's Debating Challenge
- Multicultural Perspectives Public Speaking Competition
- NSW Premier's Reading Challenge
- Northern Area Debating Camp
- WriteOn 2025 Competition
Academic competitions
2025 Maths Olympiad distinguished achievers
Music ensembles
Our band and choir performing at festivals
The school band has participated in events outside our school including the NSSWE Spring Music Festival and Asquith High School Musicale.
Our choir participated in the Festival of Children's Music.
Athletic Success
Congratulations to Huxley who competed at the NSWPSSA Athletic Championship in October and placed 1st in the long jump event.
He is now off to Nationals as part of the NSWPSSA Athletics Team to participate in the 2025 School Sport Australia Track and Field Championship in Canberra.
We wish him all the best and are proud of this amazing achievement.
The Arts Unit's Primary Debating Workshop
A full day of coaching and practice for our students from some of the state's most senior adjudicators and coaches.
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