High potential and Gifted Education (HPGE; formerly GATs)
The Department of Education and communities has an extensive policy regarding the implementation of high potential and gifted education programs within school.
School communities have the responsibility to:
- Develop effective and equitable procedures for identifying high potential and gifted education students
- Implement developmentally appropriate programs for gifted and talented students
- Foster collaborative home-school partnerships to support high potential and gifted education students
Teachers have the responsibility to:
- Select and implement a variety of teaching strategies for inclusion in programs for the range of gifted and talented students in their classes
At Maitland High School we have dedicated HPGE classes for each year group as well as differentiated learning in every classroom, ensuring targeted teaching and learning activities are implemented to nurture the development of gifted and talented students.
Giftedness refers to potential distinctly beyond the average for the student’s age and encompasses a broad range of abilities in the intellectual, creative, socio emotional and physical domains.
Talent denotes achievement distinctly beyond the average for a student’s age as a result of application to training and practice.
Maitland High School also offers a growing range of HPGE activities within the school, including:
- An extensive range of sporting activities including representative teams such as netball, Basketball, Cricket, Swimming, Rugby Union and Rugby League
- A wide variety of extra-curricular activites and clubs such as Tech Girls, SRC, Junior AECG, School Spectacular and Star Struck
- Opportunities to participate in academic competitions such as ICAS, Geography Challenge Day, Build ME a Future Challenge and ISTEM.
Further support can be found on the Department of Education's HPGE website.