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 Ballina Public School, we recognise and nurture these strengths early. We support advanced learners with great lessons and activities to help them grow and thrive.
We offer a variety of opportunities for students to extend themselves in areas that they excel. This includes activities across all four HPGE domains. We believe strongly that each child be given the chance to succeed and thrive in a supportive, caring environment.
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 high potential and gifted education opportunities
Our students engage with HPGE education in the classroom, in our school, and across NSW.
We focus on four key domains:
- Creative Domain: Opportunities for innovative thinking, artistic expression, originality, and problem-solving.
- Intellectual Domain: Enriched learning that promotes deep inquiry, higher-order thinking, and advanced understanding.
- Physical Domain: Activities that build coordination, physical skills, and healthy habits.
- Social-Emotional Domain: Support for emotional wellbeing, resilience, and positive relationships.
At Ballina Public School, we recognise that high potential exists in many forms across all learners. Our approach to HPGE is embedded in everyday teaching and learning, guided by a strong focus on formative assessment, evidence-based practices, and effective differentiation to meet the unique needs of every student.
Our safe and supportive classroom environments promote a sense of belonging and encourage risk-taking, perseverance, creativity, collaboration and confidence
We offer:
- Differentiated tasks that adjust pace, complexity and higher-order thinking.
- Formative assessment to monitor growth and adapt learning.
- Differentiated movement tasks and skill refinement in PDHPE.
- Targeted learning goals for coordination, agility, and control.
- Strengths-based feedback and goal setting.
- Opportunities for leadership within the classroom.
- Structured peer collaboration and reflection.
At Ballina Public School we recognise that every student is individual. We provide flexible and diverse opportunities for students to explore and grow their strengths outside the classroom.
These include:
- School choir
- School Dance Troupe
- Aboriginal/Torres Strait Islander Culture and Dance Troupe
- Stage Sport groups
- Representative sport pathways
- Student Representative Council
- School camp
- Wellbeing programs
- Curriculum aligned excursions and incursions
- Bundjalung Language and Culture Camp
- GRIP Leadership Conference
- Bundjalung Dance Workshop
- Intensive Swimming Program
- Byron Bay Writers Festival
- Whole School Music/Drama/Dance Production
- Bundjalung Language lessons
- HPGE elective groups
- MALPA Young Doctors Program
At Ballina Public School, we are committed to providing a rich and varied HPGE experience that empowers gifted learners to thrive across all areas of their development, both within our school community and beyond.
We participate in the following statewide HPGE opportunities:
- The Premier’s Spelling Bee promotes our students’ vocabulary development and attention to detail in competitive settings
- Far North Coast Dance Festival promotes students creativity pathways to perform in front of live audiences while showcasing their skills as dancers.
- The Premier’s Sporting Challenge (PSC) promotes whole-school participation in physical activity with leadership pathways and professional learning.
- The Premiers Reading Challenge. The Challenge aims to encourage a love of reading for leisure and pleasure in students, and to enable them to experience quality literature. It is not a competition but a challenge to each student to read, to read more and to read more widely.
- The Representative School Sport Pathway and PSSA events enable our students to trial and compete in sports at regional, state and national levels, fostering discipline, commitment and collaboration.
- Seasons for Growth supports connection with others going through similar circumstances, fostering emotional literacy and resilience as a pathway to improved social and emotional wellbeing.
- The Goanna Academy, founded by Greg Inglis and proudly Indigenous-owned, accredited, Supply Nation certified, and Headspace endorsed. Goanna Academy is Australia’s first organisation of its kind—changing lives through culturally informed education and real, relatable support
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.