Every school in NSW to offer gifted education programs

High potential and gifted education will be rolled out in every public school in the state under a new plan to challenge the students who are not reaching their full potential.

Such programs were available in only half of the state’s public schools, Education Minister Prue Car told the Sydney Morning Herald’s Schools Summit on Thursday, but fixing that would depend on tackling the state’s teacher shortage.

Education Minister Prue Car speaking at the Herald’s Schools Summit.Credit: Rhett Wyman

She said teachers had been “gaslit” by the previous government into thinking there was not a crisis in the sector.

“Parents deserve to see high potential and gifted education inside the doors of every local school,” Car said.

“Parents want confidence that regardless of their choice of school, that the learning environment will bring out the best in their child.

“Our vision is that in NSW, high potential and gifted education will be delivered in every public school, in a high-quality offering, in a way that is valued by students, parents and teachers alike.”

Education experts say gifted classes should be mandatory.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos

Under the plan, public schools will identify high potential students across four domains: intellectual, creative, social-emotional and physical.

A 2021 policy was supposed to make gifted education training available at all schools to ensure gifted students were extended even if they did not attend a selective school or opportunity class. However, only half of the state’s schools have the programs in place.

University of NSW researcher Professor Jae Jung said the extent to which the current gifted program was being taken up was highly variable.

“There needs to be a follow-up process and assessment to understand to what extent it is being implemented,” he said.

“One way to ensure gifted education practices are implemented is to guarantee all teachers have gifted education training at the pre-service teacher training level. There also needs to be a mandatory requirement that gifted education programs are available in all schools.”

Gifted education can take different forms including grade skipping, gifted classes and curriculum differentiation within the regular classroom, Jung said.

Car told the summit the challenges the public school system had faced, such as a lack of staff or resources, had left some communities wanting their schools to deliver more gifted education programs.

She said teachers felt “gaslit” by those supposed to support them, and that their challenging experiences in the classroom were being dismissed.

“They were told there was no shortage. That it was a beat-up,” Car said.

A research review by the NSW Department of Education previously found gifted children comprised the top 10 per cent of students, but up to 40 per cent of them were under-achieving.

If at least 10 per cent of students are gifted, 80,000 students in NSW public schools have high potential.

It found that without help to turn their promise into achievement, the students might never achieve their potential.

Car also announced at the summit that she had asked the NSW Education Standards Authority to conduct a review into professional development requirements for teachers and whether they were preventing them for undertaking learning that met their individual needs.

“I asked that NESA consider the administrative burden for teachers … as well as the professionalism of teachers in being able to identify their own professional learning priorities,” she said.

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