High potential and gifted education

Across all learning areas, our teachers design learning environments where high potential and gifted students are continually invited to stretch, explore and excel. Through purposeful differentiation, rich enrichment experiences and opportunities for acceleration, we ensure every learner engages with work that sparks curiosity and matches their level of readiness.

This takes shape through:

• Explicit teaching supported by deconstructed learning intentions and co-constructed success criteria, giving all students clarity about what they are learning, and empowering them to take responsibility, lean into challenge and strive for success
• Flexible grouping arrangements that connect students with peers who challenge, inspire and elevate their learning
• Intentional teaching of critical and creative thinking, encouraging students to question, innovate and refine their own thinking processes through metacognition and self-regulation
• Scaled rubrics and visible growth walls, featuring exemplars that empower students to monitor their progress, identify next steps and independently accelerate their own learning trajectory
• Extension tasks that go beyond the expected, inviting students to dive deeper, wrestle with complexity and apply higher-order thinking in meaningful ways
• Ongoing, responsive assessment, enabling teachers to understand evolving strengths, address emerging needs and map the next steps for growth
• Bravo Walls that showcase and celebrate student growth, displaying increasingly sophisticated work samples that acknowledge effort, highlight progress and inspire students to reach for the next level

Together, these approaches create a learning culture where every student is known, valued and challenged in every classroom and where high potential is transformed into high achievement.

Our whole-school structures champion both equity and excellence, ensuring that high potential and gifted learners are systematically identified, purposefully supported and continually extended. Through a coordinated, school-wide approach, we create an environment where talent is recognised early and nurtured thoughtfully.

This commitment is brought to life as we:

• Build deep teacher expertise, engaging staff in professional learning aligned to the HPGE Policy and Talent Development frameworks so they are confident, skilled and inspired to extend high potential learners
• Draw on rich and varied data, using both qualitative insights and quantitative measures to identify students across the four domains - intellectual, creative, social-emotional and physical ensuring no learner’s strengths go unnoticed
• Deliver targeted St 1 - 3 Extension English and Mathematics classes, offering students who meet the academic criteria an authentic weekly opportunity to come together to explore passions, deepen understanding, extend skills by engaging with complex, meaningful challenges
• Artist in Residency program to deliver targeted K-6 HPGE Creative Arts Workshops and in/excursions to provide students with immersive, high-level artistic experiences that deepen technical skill, spark original expression and connect them with authentic creative practitioners and environments.  In 2026, we will welcome Paul Young as our resident musician. Paul has extensive experience as a pianist, musical director and educator. He has previously held positions including Staff Accompanist/Performance Coach at Knox Grammar and Redlands, Acting Head of Keyboard and Staff Accompanist at The Scots College, Head of Music Performance at McDonald College of Performing Arts and Head of Performing Arts at Calvary Christian College. Whilst in these positions he has also toured extensively, performing in Asia, Europe and the United States with both local and international acts and companies. Paul has been the official accompanist for the State and National Band Championships, and has worked on various musicals including Las Vegas, Wicked, Miss Saigon and Priscilla Queen of the Desert with Australia’s top musical directors including John Foreman, Guy Simpson and Kellie Dickenson. He has been appointed Musical Director for over a hundred revue, shows, cabarets and performances.
• Provide leadership, mentoring and wellbeing support, helping students build confidence, resilience and social-emotional capability as they navigate advanced learning pathways through class, school and environmental leadership opportunities.
• Develop and extend students’ sporting prowess through targeted programs, offering specialised coaching, skill-development clinics, representative opportunities and physical talent-nurturing initiatives designed to extend high potential and gifted athletes

Through these structures, we cultivate a school culture where talent is nurtured, growth is celebrated and every student is empowered to thrive.

We actively engage with state-wide HPGE initiatives to ensure our students benefit from broader opportunities beyond the school context. This includes:

• Participation in NSW DoE extension programs, global, national and state-wide competitions and enrichment events, notable achievements include:

• 2025 Kids World Travel Guide Essay Competition, themed “My World – Our Future” Arini Kazi the only Australian student to make it to the Merit list.
• 2025 Dorothea Mackellar - short listed Ruby Johnson and commended Elle Karakash, Lily Meredith, Rose Allen across lower and upper primary category.
• 2025 Dubbo South Public School awarded ‘Commended’ for the Dorothea Mackellar School’s category
• 2025 Term 1 K-6 High Potential and Gifted Education Workshops in Drama, Dance, Music and Visual Arts
• 2025 Yr 4 Tessa Osborne’s artwork wins national ANZAC School Initiative Competition
• 2024 Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Award - Runner Up - Upper Primary Category - Malia Pring
• 2024 Write On Competition Gold Medal Award - Malia Pring
• 2024 RSPCA Victoria Short Story Writing Competition winners - Matilda Rutherford, Emma Taylor, Arini Kazi, Pancho Shi and Clair Shin.

• Collaborate with high school mathematics specialists, enabling our high potential students to engage with advanced mathematical thinking, deepen conceptual understanding and experience seamless talent development across stages
• Lead by example through teacher excellence, with one teacher achieving Lead Teacher accreditation, another achieving Highly Accomplished Teacher accreditation, and many others working toward recognition at state and national levels, demonstrating our school’s commitment to high-impact practice and professional mastery

Through these partnerships, our students access high-level challenges and supports that extend their learning and broaden their pathways for excellence.