Inspire – High potential and gifted education
At Riverwood Public School, we are committed to both equity and excellence. We believe all students can succeed and should be challenged to achieve their personal best. High potential and gifted education is embedded in our whole-school approach to teaching and learning. By getting to know each learner and responding to their individual strengths and learning needs, we identify students' potential and provide opportunities for them to develop their talents across the intellectual, creative, physical and social-emotional domains.
Why choose us for your child?
Recognising potential
Ongoing assessment helps teachers recognise students' strengths and identify high potential early. This enables teachers to respond with appropriate learning opportunities as students grow.
Challenge every day
Students with high potential experience appropriate challenge every day through Riverwood's explicit, evidence-informed approach to teaching, where learning is responsive to each student's strengths and readiness.
Deep understanding
Students develop deep understanding by exploring concepts in depth, making meaningful connections across the curriculum and applying their learning to new contexts.
Developing talents
Students further develop their talents through a wide range of enrichment opportunities within the school and beyond, including leadership, creative arts, sport and academic competitions.
What is HPGE?
Inspire – 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 HPGE opportunities
We support high potential and gifted students in the classroom, across our school and beyond.
At Riverwood Public School, HPGE is embedded in everyday classroom learning. Teachers identify students' strengths and provide appropriate challenge and extension through:
- Ongoing assessment to understand students' readiness and determine appropriate next steps
- Differentiated learning that adjusts the pace, depth and complexity of learning
- Opportuities for deeper thinking that encourage students to analyse, reason, make connections and solve complex problems
- Knowledge Rich Units that build deep conceptual understanding and connections across learning
- High quality feedback and goal setting that help students recognise their progress and continue developing their strengths.
Students have opportunities to develop their potential across the four domains of HPGE:
- Intellectual – extension in mathematics and spelling; interest-based groups, such as chess club; and competitive debating and public speaking
- Creative – choir, dance groups and ukulele club; and visual arts programs and competitions
- Physical – school sport and inter-school gala days; lunchtime activities, such as run club; and athletics and cross-country carnivals
- Social-emotional – Student Representative Council and other leadership opportunities; the Kindergarten buddy program; and student-led wellbeing initiatives
Students can extend their talents beyond Riverwood Public School through competitions, programs and representative pathways, including:
- The Premier's Debating Challenge develop students' critical thinking, reasoning and persuasive communication
- The Premier's Spelling Bee challenges students to learn increasingly complex words, extending their spelling knowledge and vocabulary.
- The Premier's Public Speaking Challenge develops students' confidence and presentation skills through the preparation and delivery of speeches
- Sydney Academy of Chess Interschool Challenge gives students the opportunity to apply their strategic thinking and problem-solving
- The Gifted Games at GRC Peakhurst gives Year 4 students the opportunity to take on mathematics, science, creative and physical challenges
- Primary Proms gives students the opportunity to rehearse and perform as part of a large choir at a professional concert venue, developing their musical and performance skills
- Zone and regional sport enables students to compete against others schools in athletics, cross-country and a range of representative sports
Academic competitions
Students participate in school and inter-school spelling, debating and public speaking competitions.
Representative sport pathways
Zone and regional athletics and cross-country carnivals offer students the opportunity to challenge themselves against other schools.
Musical ensembles
Primary Proms gives students the opportunity to perform as part of a large choir at a professional concert venue.
Leadership opportunities
Our Student Representative Council and student leaders represent the school at various community events.
Help for your high potential child
If your child shows signs of high potential, contact us. We can discuss how our HPGE programs can support their learning.
Student opportunities and activities
Discover clubs, sports and other activities your child can enjoy at school.
Learning
Learn about our approach to teaching and learning, and how we support student progress.