High potential and gifted education

At James Erskine Public School, we proudly uphold the principles of the NSW Department of Education’s High Potential and Gifted Education (HPGE) policy, recognising and valuing the diverse talents and needs of gifted and high potential students. We are dedicated to fostering an inclusive and encouraging learning environment that both challenges and supports every learner, ensuring they remain engaged, inspired, and empowered to achieve their fullest potential. Our initiatives are thoughtfully designed to identify and cultivate giftedness across a variety of areas, reflecting the Department's commitment to nurturing the whole child. By adopting a broad and inclusive understanding of giftedness, we strive to promote excellence not only in academic pursuits but also in creative, physical, and social development, preparing students for success and wellbeing throughout their lives.

Our framework concentrates on four essential domains:

Creative Domain: We offer a range of opportunities that foster creative thinking skills, encouraging innovative problem solving, and allowing students to explore their interests in unique and meaningful ways through varied and enriching creative experiences.

Intellectual Domain: We provide a range of enriched and challenging learning activities that encourage critical thinking, problem-solving, and advanced knowledge across curriculum areas.
Physical Domain: We nurture students’ physical abilities through tailored programs and engaging sports activities that challenge them, foster teamwork, and build resilience, ultimately supporting their overall growth and development.
Social-Emotional Domain: We place strong emphasis on the emotional wellbeing and social growth of gifted learners, nurturing resilience, self-awareness, and positive interpersonal relationships to help them flourish within our school community.

At James Erskine Public School, we are committed to delivering the NSW Department of Education’s HPGE policy through a holistic, learner-focused approach that supports and develops the unique potential of each student across these four key domains.

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.
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.
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

STEM and coding clubs

Academic competitions
Critical thinking workshops
Pulse Choir
Wakakirri
Visual arts and drama showcases
Creative writing groups
Sport squads
House competitions
Performance-based movement groups
Peer mentoring
Student leadership (SRC)
Wellbeing programs
Participation in whole-school inclusion and wellbeing initiatives.
Chess Club

Podcasting

Cultural Dance Programs

Gardening Club

Dance groups

Peer Support

Public Speaking Competitions

Art Therapy

Design Competitions

Sporting Gala Days

Across NSW

The Premier’s Spelling Bee promotes our students’ vocabulary development and attention to detail in competitive settings.
Our STEM Enrichment Partnerships with industry and universities deepen our students’ intellectual curiosity while developing innovation and collaboration.
The Schools Spectacular is an iconic performing arts event that celebrates the talents, diversity and creativity of students from across NSW public schools.
The Premier’s Sporting Challenge (PSC) promotes whole-school participation in physical activity with leadership pathways and professional learning.
Our mentoring programs connect our students with trusted adults including school alumni to build confidence, motivation, and interpersonal skills.