Sydney Catholic Schools takes an agile, nurturing, ‘best-practice’ approach to gifted education, built on a shared understanding of what makes a student gifted, talented, or both.
Our staff embrace Gagné’s Differentiated Model of Giftedness and Talent.
In this model, ‘gifted’ students’ natural abilities and ‘talented’ students’ performance place them in the top 10 percent of same-age peers in intellectual, creative, social and physical areas.
Sydney Catholic Schools’ gifted education policy recognises the advanced learning capacity of gifted students, and outlines how they are supported to thrive.
Our Gifted Education Standards Framework and the NSW Education Standards Authority also inform gifted education at our schools.
PROFESSIONAL SUPPORT
Through comprehensive professional development, our primary and secondary school teachers learn how to identify and provide social and emotional support to gifted learners and ensure they are challenged at the correct level.
The Gifted Education Naturally Embedded (GENE) program supports schools to develop structures and practices that meet the needs of their gifted and talented students.
THE NEWMAN SELECTIVE GIFTED EDUCATION PROGRAM
Exclusive to Sydney Catholic Schools, the Newman Selective Gifted Education Program provides holistic support to gifted learners through a rigorous program informed by research and high-quality professional learning for staff.
The program began in 2011 and offers a wide range of opportunities for gifted learners.
Student’s learning is extended in class and through enrichment activities in Creative and Performing Arts, coding, rich literature experiences, robotics and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) initiatives.
Academics and psychologists specialising in gifted education contribute to the development and delivery of the program.
Newman students are identified through measures including standardised testing and other data collated by teachers.
The program supports all gifted learners by developing their individual strengths. This includes ‘twice-exceptional students’ – who are gifted and also have a learning or developmental disability, underachievers, Additional Language or Dialect (EAL/D) students, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.
Schools are accredited to deliver the program based on explicit, research-based standards. They renew this accreditation every four years. The process also builds school and teacher expertise in gifted education.
OUR NEWMAN SCHOOLS
The Newman Selective Gifted Education Program is offered at 90 schools across the Archdiocese of Sydney. For more information on the program, please contact your school.