High potential and gifted education

At John Warby Public School, we are proud to align our approach with the NSW Department of Education’s High Potential and Gifted Education (HPGE) policy, which recognises the diverse strengths and needs of gifted and high potential students. We are committed to providing an inclusive and supportive learning environment that challenges and extends all learners, ensuring they are engaged, motivated, and able to reach their full potential. Our programs are designed to identify and nurture giftedness across multiple domains, reflecting the Department’s emphasis on catering to the whole child. By embracing a broad view of giftedness, we aim to foster excellence not only academically but also creatively, physically, and socially, preparing students for lifelong success and wellbeing.

Our approach focuses on four key domains:

Creative Domain: We provide opportunities for students to develop innovative thinking and artistic expression, encouraging originality and problem-solving through diverse creative activities.
Intellectual Domain: We challenge students with enriched learning experiences that promote higher-order thinking, deep inquiry, and advanced knowledge across the curriculum.
Physical Domain: Recognising the importance of physical development, we support students in enhancing their coordination, health, and physical skills through targeted activities and sports.
Social-Emotional Domain: We prioritise the emotional wellbeing and social development of gifted students, fostering resilience, self-awareness, and positive relationships to help them thrive within our school community.

At John Warby Public Public School, we are dedicated to implementing the NSW Department of Education’s HPGE policy by providing a comprehensive, student-centred approach that nurtures the potential of every learner across these four domains.

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.

Learn more about HPGE here

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

At John Warby 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 (with family insights welcome and encouraged) 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 ezxperiences 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 John Warby 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.

Across Our School

At John Warby Public School, High Potential and Gifted Education (HPGE) is an important part of our core work as a learning community. We are committed to recognising and nurturing the unique strengths and talents of every student by providing flexible, inclusive and enriching opportunities that support growth across the academic, creative, social and physical domains.

Some of the opportunities available to support the talent development of students at John Warby Public School include:

· Interschool sport competitions

· Representative sporting pathways

· Student leadership opportunities, including the Student Representative Council

· Public speaking and debating

· Creative arts experiences

· Choir and performance opportunities

· School camps that promote independence, resilience and teamwork

· Student wellbeing initiatives that support social and emotional development including our partnerships with The Resilience Project and the Salutogenic Schools Alliance

· Curriculum-aligned excursions and incursions that extend classroom learning

At John Warby Public School, we believe that nurturing high potential learners is a shared responsibility. Through purposeful programs and meaningful opportunities, we empower our students to explore their strengths, pursue their passions and achieve personal excellence, while remaining connected to our values of Happiness Through Learning and our strong sense of community.

Across NSW

We actively participate in statewide competitions and activities, providing our students with valuable opportunities to challenge themselves and perform at their best. Through this collaborative and enriched approach, we ensure every student’s unique talents are recognised, developed, and celebrated.

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

· Premiers Reading Challenge

· Premiers Spelling Bee

· Premiers Sporting Challenge

· NSW PSSA School sport pathways