Enrichment
South Padbury Primary School staff collaborate to identify students that would benefit from special programs or enrichment of the curriculum, and provide an enrichment and differentiation teacher to support the planning, teaching and assessing of special programs (either through withdrawal or in class) to challenge and extend our gifted and talented students in Years 2-6.
Using the current research from Gagné (2009), we identify gifted children as having natural abilities or aptitudes at levels significantly further beyond what is expected for their age. Giftedness is a measure of potential and may not be linked to current performance. These gifts can be in one or more domains.
Talented children have high achievement at a level significantly beyond their expected age. Gagné suggests that approximately 10% of a cohort contains gifted and talented children.
The diversity of gifted students means that there may be some who also have specific disorders such as Dyslexia or ADHD which may also impact their learning and achievement. These students are referred to as twice exceptional (2E).
It is widely recognised that underachievement in gifted students can occur. This is where the student’s potential does not match their achievement. There may be a number of intrapersonal, environmental and developmental catalysts which can affect this.
At South Padbury PS gifted and talented students may be catered for in the following ways:
- Differentiated class work and/or teaching strategies such as questioning
- Ability groupings which may also be multi-age
- Subject acceleration
- Compaction of the curriculum
- Special programs (withdrawal with Enrichment Program Coordinator)
- Competitions/ initiatives
- Utilisation as experts and/or mentors
- PEAC/ EYE programs
Enrichment groups have been involved in some of the following activities:
- Formulation of programs based on needs of students in critical and creative thinking using the SCSA critical and creative thinking continuum
- Community-based art projects (Hart My Neighbourhood and Soaring)
- Passion projects based on student interest and guided by the Williams Model to frame their inquiry process
- Enrolment in national/ international competitions (Prime Minister’s Spelling Bee, NMREO Art competition, Bebras International Computational Thinking Challenge)
- School Toilets Project with the help of artist Paul Deej
Many of the projects undertaken reflect our school’s Moral Purpose of ‘Be the Change’.
Please see our Enrichment Policy and supporting documents below.
Differentiation
Successful differentiation increases student engagement, ensures the curriculum is accessible, and provides every student with the opportunity to progress and succeed, regardless of their starting point.
Effective teachers can enrich and differentiate learning opportunities for those students who have already mastered core content. They can provide opportunities for these students to engage with:
- learning area content in more depth or breadth using open ended tasks or higher order questioning
- specific aspects of the general capabilities for example, the higher order cognitive skills outlined in the critical and creative thinking capability, and/or focusing on cross-curriculum priorities
Further differentiation for some students may include:
- varying how the task is introduced, such as using scaffolds or audio visual material
- providing options at different levels of difficulty
- varying the amount of support provided
- altering the time allocated or the classroom space/learning environment
- allowing for student interest or passion projects by tapping into prior knowledge
- providing opportunities to work independently and/or collaboratively
- flexible small group learning
- reducing the complexity of the subject matter
- utilising digital technologies
- providing varied ways for students to demonstrate learning or assess work (reports, brochures, videos, audio recording, diagrams/art, performance, presentations)
At South Padbury Primary School, teachers document differentiation strategies or everyday adjustments made in the classroom for students on a ‘Differentiation, Adjustments and Intervention Student Plan’ that is updated throughout the year and added to the student’s record file. This allow teachers to share differentiation strategies that are in place for a student and prepare a learning environment that supports specific student needs. If your child has one of these plans, the class teacher will share it with parents/carers.
The school believes all students are capable of learning successfully if given appropriate learning opportunities and the necessary support, and teachers work hard to provide that environment for every child.