High potential and gifted education

At Berkeley Vale Public School, high potential and gifted education (HPGE) is integrated into our daily learning experiences. Many of our students demonstrate exceptional talents, and we are committed to supporting and developing these strengths into meaningful achievements.

Our teachers identify each student’s learning needs within the classroom and apply evidence-based teaching strategies to extend and challenge their abilities. We provide a variety of learning pathways, including enrichment programs, extension tasks, and acceleration when suitable. Students are identified by teachers and families as having high potential or giftedness across the cognitive, creative, physical, or social-emotional domains. This information is shared throughout the school to ensure effective support for every learner.

We create nurturing classroom environments that foster a sense of belonging, encourage creativity, risk-taking, and collaboration. Gifted students, particularly in the cognitive domain, receive targeted instruction to meet their individual level of challenge. They engage in open-ended activities and enrichment opportunities.

Flexible groupings, leadership opportunities, and feedback centred on strengths with clear goals and self-assessment are key features of our approach.

Our practices align with the NSW Department of Education’s HPGE policy, which highlights the importance of supporting giftedness across four essential domains:

Creative Domain: Supporting students to develop original ideas and express themselves through creative thinking, problem-solving, and artistic pursuits.
Intellectual (Cognitive) Domain: Offering challenging learning experiences that nurture advanced thinking, deep inquiry, and intellectual development.
Physical Domain: Encouraging physical growth and wellbeing through activities that improve coordination, health, and physical skills.
Social-Emotional Domain: Promoting emotional resilience, self-awareness, and positive social interactions to support the wellbeing of gifted learners.

At Berkeley Vale Public School, we are dedicated to fostering the whole child by recognising and nurturing each student’s potential across these four domains, ensuring every learner is empowered to succeed.

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.

In our classroom

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.
Targeted learning goals for coordination, agility, and control.
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.

Across our school

Indigenous Cultural Group (K-6)
Peer mentoring program (K & 6)
Participation in whole-school inclusion and wellbeing initiatives (K-6)
Voice of Students (VoS)
School Leadership opportunities (Years 1-6)
Debating team (Stage 3)
Public speaking competition (Years K-6)
Mathematics Extension Group (Stage 2 & 3)
External academic competitions, such as ICAS competitions (Years 2-6)
Dance Groups (Years K-6)
GEN Z Visual arts extension group (K-6)
Duke of Berkeley (Stage 3)
Virtual STEM Academy (Stage 3)
Game Changer (Stage 3)
Maths Olympiad (Stage 3)
Maths Explorer (Stage 2)
GRIP Leadership Conference (Stage 3)
TLLC HPGE STEM Day (Stage 2 & 3)
Gateways 'Eureka' HPGE Program- (Stage 1-3)
GEN Z Art Workshops (K-6)
Outdoor Art Gallery HPGE showcase (K-6)
GEN Z Dance with High School (Stage 3)

Across NSW

The Premier’s Spelling Bee promotes our students’ vocabulary development and attention to detail in competitive settings.
Involvement in the Game Changer Challenge empowers our students to solve future-focused problems using design thinking.
The Premier’s Sporting Challenge (PSC) promotes whole-school participation in physical activity with leadership pathways and professional learning.
PSSA events enable our students to trial and compete in sports at regional, state and national levels, fostering discipline, commitment and collaboration.
Our mentoring programs connect our students with trusted adults including school alumni to build confidence, motivation, and interpersonal skills.