High potential and gifted education

At Undercliffe 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 Undercliffe 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 school uses explicit teaching. This means we clearly tell students what they are learning, why it is important and how to do it step by step. Explicit teaching helps students understand new ideas by breaking them into smaller parts.

Learning at our school is student-centred, inclusive and practical. We are committed to equity and access. We support all learning styles and needs. Our teachers use proven teaching strategies.

Our learning approach includes:

real-world learning: hands-on tasks, group work and exploring new ideas
technology: to help students learn and build digital skills
flexible teaching: the right support for each student, with a focus on wellbeing
community connections: through excursions and local programs.

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.

At our school, we give the right support to help advanced or talented learners grow and do their best.

We notice these students early. They may learn quickly or show strong skills in creativity, leadership, problem solving or sport. We help them stay challenged with lessons and activities that match their strengths.

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

At Undercliffe Public School, we recognise that high potential exists in many forms across all learners. Our approach to HPGE is embedded in everyday teaching and learning, guided by a strong focus on formative assessment, evidence-based practices, and effective differentiation to meet the unique needs of every student.

Here are some of the evidence based teaching strategies used in the classroom to support all students:

Use of Formative Assessment Tools
Teachers regularly use diagnostic assessments, observation checklists, and student self-assessments to identify strengths and areas for growth across multiple domains, providing timely data that informs lesson planning and differentiation to promote continuous student growth and engagement.

Differentiated Learning Tasks and Flexible Grouping
Learning activities are designed with varying complexity, allowing students to work individually, in pairs, or flexible groups based on interests or abilities, ensuring appropriate challenge, fostering collaboration, leadership, motivation, and social skills.

High Expectations Embedded in Lesson Planning
Teachers explicitly communicate high expectations by designing learning objectives that foster higher-order thinking, creativity, and problem-solving, encouraging students to set personal goals and reflect on their progress, which promotes a growth mindset, resilience, and self-efficacy, leading to deeper learning and higher achievement.

Student Leadership and Voice
Students take lead roles in projects, discussions, and school initiatives tied to their interests, and participate in setting goals and self-assessing, fostering ownership, motivation, and leadership skills.

Ongoing Professional Learning and Collaboration
Teachers regularly engage in professional development on HPGE strategies and collaborate to share best practices and design differentiated curriculum units, strengthening instructional quality and consistency to ensure all students benefit from effective talent development

Across our school

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