High potential and gifted education
Some students learn faster and more easily than others. These students may shine in creativity, thinking, leadership or sport. At our school, we recognise and nurture these strengths early. We support advanced learners with great lessons and activities to help them grow and thrive.
At Raymond Terrace 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.
Why choose us for your high potential or gifted child?
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 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.
Our high potential and gifted education opportunities
Our students engage with HPGE education in the classroom, in our school, and across NSW.
At Raymond Terrace Public school, HPGE lives in everyday practise. Many students have high potential, and we hope that potential will grow into something powerful.
- We are committed to recognising and nurturing high potential and gifted students, ensuring every student has the opportunity to thrive
- Differentiated tasks are used that adjust pace, complexity and higher-order thinking
- Formative assessment monitors growth and is utilised to adapt learning
- Explicit teaching of critical thinking and problem-solving strategies is evident in all classrooms
- Flexible grouping is used to optimise collaborative learning and peer mentoring
- Differentiated movement tasks and skill refinement are used in PDHPE
- Three star differentiated learning goals are used across all lessons in all subjects.
- Strengths-based feedback and goal setting for students
- Opportunities for leadership within the classroom through Student Voice
- Safe learning environments that encourage confidence, risk-taking, and perseverance.
- Our teachers engage in professional learning to support the diverse needs of all students, including our high potential and gifted learners.
- Our school recognises that every student is individual, and we provide flexible and diverse opportunities for students to explore and grow their strengths outside the classroom.
- All our students, including high potential and gifted students, are encouraged to take on leadership roles through our Student Voice initiative and other leadership opportunities including student mentoring programs such as 007 and Junior AECG.
- Student talent is celebrated and extended through school musicals, choir, signing choir, visual art showcases, creative groups, chess club, garden club and STEM lab activities.
- Our students’ unique skills are celebrated through our participation in the Hunter Dance Festival and Hunter River High School Showcase.
- Our cultural room, wellbeing hub, Library and STEM lab are opened during breaks to allow students opportunities to build on their high interest areas and experiment with new opportunities.
- Our students can take part in sports training squads, coaching sessions, sporting competitions and differentiated Physical Education programs.
- The Premier’s Spelling Bee promotes our students’ vocabulary development and attention to detail in competitive settings.
- Participation in Public Speaking competitions and the Premier’s Debating Challenge helps our students to build logical arguments and confidence in public speaking.
- Our HPGE Enrichment Partnerships with Hunter River HS and Irrawang HS build connections and offer vast opportunities
- Involvement in Maths Explorer and Maths Olympiad empowers our students to solve problems using higher order thinking.
- Our school performs at Starstruck, an iconic performing arts event that celebrates the talents, diversity and creativity of students from across schools in our area.
- The Premier’s Sporting Challenge (PSC) promotes whole-school participation in physical activity with leadership pathways and professional learning.
- The Representative School Sport Pathway and PSSA and CHSSA events enable our students to trial and compete in sports at regional, state and national levels, fostering discipline, commitment and collaboration.
- Statewide and NSW Department of Education support is available for high potential and gifted students, and we help with entries, preparation and reflection so every experience feeds back into learning
School Concert
Our school concert is a vibrant celebration of student talent and creativity. Through singing, dancing, and a variety of performances, students showcase their unique abilities and express themselves with confidence. This event not only highlights individual strengths but also fosters teamwork and school spirit, creating a memorable experience that inspires and unites our whole community.
Student Voice
Students’ ideas, interests, and aspirations to tailor learning and school experiences that challenge and inspire are shared during student voice collaborative sessions. Students are empowered to share their perspectives and create a shared environment that fosters creativity, critical thinking, and leadership.
Film By The Water
Students participate in Film by the Water. An amazing experience where students become filmmakers to create a short movie. These movies are then presented to the Port Stephens community where they are voted on. In 2025 Raymond Terrace were finalists having their movie shown at Scotty’s Cinemas Raymond Terrace and having the opportunity to walk the red carpet.
Children's University
Students discover new learning experiences outside of the classroom, in their local and regional community and on the campus of Newcastle University. Children build their own learning program by engaging in extracurricular activities throughout the year, recognising that learning happens everywhere.
Help for your high potential child
If your child shows signs of high potential, contact us. We can share how our HPGE support can guide their learning journey.
Student opportunities and activities
Discover the opportunities our students have at our school.
Learning
Find out about our approach to learning and supporting students to progress