“There is no better time than today, to encourage our gifted learners to shine”
At Kenmore South State School we believe that gifted and talented students are found in all communities regardless of their ethnic, cultural or socio-economic characteristics. The gifted population includes students who are underachieving and who have disabilities.
Giftedness refers to an individual’s potential that is 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.
At Kenmore South State School we endeavour to:
become familiar with characteristics of giftedness and methods for identifying students who are gifted.
continually liaise with parent/carers and other professionals
identify the student’s gifts
ensure that the student has appropriate and ongoing educational opportunities
We believe that:
all gifted and talented children/students need a learning environment that fosters wellbeing and learning outcomes consistent with their abilities. The learning environment should provide educational pathways and appropriately challenging enrichment, extension and acceleration experiences, based upon the individual students’ needs.
A differentiated curriculum caters for a wide range of learning styles, readiness and ability levels within a mainstream class and further supports the development of gifted and talented learners.
Enrichment Programs
Kenmore South State School continues to focus on the development of special programs to cater for gifted and talented students. These students are catered for by both classroom teachers and special programs established to meet their needs.
We believe in a whole school approach to gifted and talented students. Providing for the needs of these students is achieved through an approach known as a differentiated curriculum. An example of this is having “tiered “tasks, in which a student is required to complete only the sections that are suitable for them. For example, they may not do some activities as these are seen as too easy. Instead, they are challenged to work at levels that require the use of their talents. We believe in the term “readiness” which indicates that a student’s “readiness” to undertake a task or aspect of curriculum changes overtime. As a result the differentiated approach to learning supports this understanding.
Using this approach, class teachers plan units of work to cater for all students, including the gifted and talented. This is based on an assumption that every child has a talent, which, with appropriate opportunity and nurturing, may become a gift.
Throughout the year students are able to enter various competitions or events which provide opportunities to develop teamwork, problem solving and presentation skills.
“Our greatest natural resource is the minds of our children” Walt Disney