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.

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.

High Potential and Gifted Education at Macarthur Girls High School

High Potential and Gifted Education (HPGE) reflects the NSW Department of Education’s commitment to promoting engagement and challenge for every student in every school across the Intellectual, Creative, Physical, and Social–Emotional domains.

Key principles that guide the development and implementation of HPGE:

All students, despite background or circumstances, should be able to access programs that meet their needs to inspire and achieve personal excellence.
Potential exists on a continuum and requires varied approaches to extension and intervention.
Achieving excellence for high potential and gifted students is underpinned by effective school environments including quality teaching, learning and leadership.

Differing degrees of potential require differing approaches and levels of adjustment and intervention.

Domains of Potential

Macarthur Girls High School provides opportunities for students in all domains identified in Gagné's revised model, as adopted by the Department of Education. While these domains often intersect, school teaching programs and extra curricular opportunities are designed to reflect this interconnectedness.

Through the development of partnerships with educational institutions such as Macquarie University and The Powerhouse Museum, our students are provided a wide variety of educational opportunities to develop the skills both in their academic programs and extra curricular activities.

The Intellectual domain: refers to natural abilities in processing, understanding, reasoning, and the transfer of learning.

The creative domain: refers to natural abilities in imagination, invention and originality.

The physical domain: refers to natural abilities in muscular movement and motor control.

The social-emotional domain: refers to natural abilities in self-management and relating to and interacting with others.

How does our school identify high potential in students?

Macarthur Girls High School uses a variety of practices to identify high potential students. We recognise that potential exists along a continuum, where different levels of potential require different approaches.

High potential students are those whose potential exceeds that of students of the same age in one or more areas.
Gifted students are those whose potential significantly exceeds that of students

At our school, high potential and gifted students are identified through a variety of measures including:

analysis of student performance in school based and system led tests
pre-testing and formative assessment
teacher observations.
evidence of critical thinking and problem solving skills
detailed ongoing analysis of student growth and development
student self-nomination

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 Classroom Learning

Differentiation is central to HPGE at Macarthur Girls High School. Teachers adapt learning experiences to provide greater depth, complexity and challenge, ensuring high-potential students are extended within the classroom. This approach also supports social and emotional growth by encouraging collaboration, leadership, and reflection. We implement evidence-informed strategies to support talent development for high potential and gifted students.

In the classroom teachers:

create safe learning environments that encourage confidence, risk-taking, and perseverance.
differentiate tasks adjusting pace, complexity and higher-order thinking. Teachers explicitly teach critical thinking and problem-solving strategies, providing opportunities for abstraction, inquiry, and curriculum depth.
use formative assessment to monitor growth and adapt learning.
ensure tasks that promote choice, authenticity, and critical and creative thinking including cross-curricular projects.
allow flexible grouping for collaborative ideation and presentation.
encourage and provide opportunities for leadership within the classroom.
structure peer collaboration and reflection.

Across our school

Leadership Opportunities

Macarthur Girls High School offers students a variety of leadership opportunities including the school’s Student Representative Council, School Sports Council, School Ambassador Program and The Peer Support Program. Students are also encouraged to extend their social-emotional skills through their participation in external leadership opportunities, enabling them to experience different perspectives, connecting with the broader academic and local community to apply their learning.

Students are encouraged to participate in extracurricular leadership opportunities including participation in Regional leadership opportunities, the Parramatta Youth Council and Departmental leadership opportunities such as the DOVEs Council (The Minister’s Student Council).

Students also have the opportunity to represent the school in a variety of community activities.

School clubs and extra curricular activities for all students

As part of the HPGE program at Macarthur Girls, students are encouraged to extend their learning through academic competitions, enrichment activities, and authentic real-world experiences. These opportunities allow students to apply their knowledge in new contexts, embrace challenges, and showcase their talents at local, national, and international levels.

The school offers a wide variety of extracurricular clubs and activities, strategic collaborations with a wide variety of external providers enhance student creativity and innovation, leadership, intellectual rigour and performance opportunities.

Across NSW

Participation in Department of Education programs

At Macarthur Girls High School, students are encouraged to participate in a variety of Department of Education activities. These include:

Debating Challenges and Public Speaking competitions help our students to build logical arguments and confidence in public speaking.
STEM Enrichment Partnerships with industry and universities deepen our students’ intellectual curiosity while developing innovation and collaboration.
Involvement in the Game Changer Challenge empowers our students to solve future-focused problems using design thinking.
The Schools Spectacular is an iconic performing arts event that celebrates the talents, diversity and creativity of students from across NSW public schools.
Participation in (state/regional) drama ensembles promotes character exploration, storytelling and expressive freedom for our Stage 5 high potential and gifted drama students.
The Arts Unit Regional Musical program which enhances student creativity, collaboration and performance skills.
The Representative School Sport Pathway events enable our students to trial and compete in sports at regional, state and national levels, fostering discipline, commitment and collaboration.