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
Fairfield Public School is committed to ensuring every student is provided with meaningful learning opportunities that reflect their strengths, needs and interests. We recognise that high potential and gifted learners may emerge across all cultural, linguistic and socio-economic backgrounds, and we aim to nurture and extend every child’s abilities so they can reach their full potential.
Understanding High Potential and Gifted Learners at Fairfield Public School
Every child has their own strengths, interests and abilities. At Fairfield Public School, we understand that students develop along a continuum and may show different levels of potential. To support families, we describe this continuum in three levels of potential:
1. High Potential Students
These students show abilities above what is typically expected for their age in one or more areas (intellectual, creative, social–emotional or physical).
They often benefit from learning experiences that go beyond everyday classroom activities, such as enrichment or extension tasks.
2. Gifted Students
Gifted students have abilities that are significantly higher than most of their peers.
Around 10% of students may fall into this category.
They usually learn new concepts quickly and may master skills at a faster pace. These students often need more challenging learning opportunities to stay engaged.
3. Highly Gifted Students
Highly gifted students have exceptional abilities, generally within the top 1% for their age.
They may need more personalised or specialised adjustments to meet both their learning and wellbeing needs due to the advanced pace at which they learn and think.
Gifted and highly gifted students are sub-groups of high potential students.
Intellectual
The Intellectual domain refers to a child’s natural ability to think, understand and make sense of new information. Students with high intellectual potential often learn quickly, make connections between ideas, reason deeply, and apply their learning in new situations. This type of potential can appear in many ways, such as strong problem-solving skills, advanced comprehension, or a natural curiosity about complex topics.
- capacity for greater analytical depth
- fewer repetitions needed for mastery
- greater capability in abstract reasoning
- relative ease in making connections between disciplines
- advanced reading ability and comprehension
- knowledgeable in areas of passion
- processes information in complex ways
- enjoys hypothesising
- thrives on complexity and can see many points of view
- thinks in analogies
- Explicit teaching, differentiated teaching and learning programs across KLAs
- Academic challenge
- Spelling Bee
- Public Speaking
- Community Language Other than English program
- Premier’s Reading Challenge
Physical
The Physical domain refers to a child’s natural abilities in movement, coordination and motor control. Students with high physical potential may demonstrate strong balance, strength, agility or endurance, and often show confidence and skill in physical activities. This type of potential can also include excellent body awareness and the ability to learn new physical skills quickly.
- subtlety in movement and control of body
- self-disciplined
- coordinated, balanced and confident in physical activities
- high energy levels
- superior understanding of spatial relationships
- endurance, stamina and persistence in physical activities
- suitability of body build for area of physical high potential
- demonstrates prowess in physical activities common amongst age peers
- competitive
- ‘hands on’ learning preference
- Weekly Interschool Sports
- Sport Carnivals
- Athletics Carnival
- Cross Country
- Swim School
- NRL Clinics
- Premier’s Sport Challenge
Creative
The Creative domain refers to a child’s natural abilities in imagination, originality and inventive thinking. Students with high creative potential often generate unique ideas, make unexpected connections, express themselves in original ways, and enjoy exploring problems from different angles. This may be seen through creative writing, art, drama, music, storytelling or innovative problem-solving.
- educational risk-taking
- tolerance for ambiguity
- makes unusual associations between different ideas
- demonstrates creative thinking across domain areas and in the different disciplines
- demonstrates novel thinking in written and oral expression
- flexibility and divergence in thinking
- unusual ability for expressing self through art, dance, drama, music
- creates several solutions to a given problem
- synthesises a variety of ideas in original ways
- Glee Club
- Senior Dance Club
- Partnership with Dance Company
Social & Emotional
Social–emotional potential refers to a child’s natural abilities to understand themselves and interact effectively with others. Students with high social–emotional potential often show strong self-management skills, empathy, leadership qualities and the ability to navigate social situations with maturity. They may build positive relationships easily, communicate well, and demonstrate thoughtful decision-making.
- advanced organisational and management skills
- advanced social and communication skills
- emotional stability
- Empathy
- demonstrated leadership and decision-making skills
- resilient and self-aware
- foresees consequences and implications of decisions
- respected by peers
- Self-confident
- task analysis and backwards mapping abilities
- social justice advocacy
- School Captains/ Prefects
- House Captains
- Student Leadership Team
- Buddy Program
- Student Sport Coaching Program
- Wellbeing - Bounce Back Leaders
Help for your high potential child
If your child shows signs of high potential, contact us. We can share how our HPGE support can guide their learning journey.
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