The ACT Education Directorate recognises gifted and talented students as having unique educational needs. Gifted and talented students form a diverse group. They come from a variety of backgrounds and exhibit a wide range of personal characteristics that result in their gifts and talents being expressed in many different ways. As a consequence they can have quite different needs. To cater for this variety and ensure that all students are provided with challenges that match their ability level and learning needs, we include multiple provisions in our programming to support students movement according to their interests, strengths, and needs.
When we are able to effectively identify gifted students, we are able to:
- locate the student's domain(s) of giftedness (intellectual, creative, social, perceptual, physical [muscular or motor control])
- describe the student's level of giftedness (mild, moderate, high, exceptional, profound)
- describe the student's fields of talent (academic, realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, conventional, games, sports).
Developmentally appropriate programs for gifted and talented students include a combination of provisions to allow students access to meaningful learning opportunities such as a differentiated curriculum, incorporating advanced learning through:
- enrichment experiences
- counselling interventions
- acceleration or extension options
- grouping.
These provisions are dependent on each other and strongly supported by research as central to increasing learning outcomes for gifted individuals. The Gifted and Talented Students Policy is available on the Directorate’s Policies page at https://www.education.act.gov.au/publications_and_policies/policies
Macgregor's designated GATLO teacher is Renee Sochacki (renee.sochacki@ed.act.edu.au)
Macgregor's Gifted and Talented flowchart can be accessed here