When a 10-year-old takes part in a high school maths class, it's a sign that something in the High Potential and Gifted Education (HPGE) space is working.

Identified as having high potential at Lindfield East Public School, the student had been accelerated through maths from Year 2 and by Year 6, he joined the maths classes at Killara High School.

Success stories like this are exactly what the “Dee Why Cross Network” are working to make more common.

The HPGE-focused network was formed by a group of principals and educators spanning the Forest, Beaches and Pittwater regions in Sydney's northern beaches.

Starting in 2021, it has grown from around 80 participants to more than 150 today, with primary and secondary schools sitting alongside each other in shared professional learning.

Network leader and Terrey Hills Public School principal Adrienne Bruce says the initiative is fundamentally about inspiring excellence and equity among students and staff in NSW Public Schools.

"We do all these adjustments for our students requiring learning support at one end of the scale, but what about those kids who are high performing?" she says.

"It's about how we make sure that every single child is known, valued and cared for."

One of the key focuses of the network, through its series of annual conferences and workshops, is to help teachers identify students with high potential, including how to assess, plan and program quality learning which will inspire, enrich and extend students.

In the context of high potential and gifted students, the traits teachers look for go well beyond high test scores.

Susan Tickle, principal of Harbord Public School, describes high potential students as intensely curious, deeply focused, complex problem-solvers and passionate, but also notes they can come with challenges like perfectionism or a reluctance to take risks.

“Often they need to be supported to overcome these traits in order to develop their areas of talent," she says.

"Recognising potential and developing talent is complex. It's not necessarily across the board. A student might thrive in the creative domain or in leadership, but not in the intellectual or physical domains.”

A major focus of the network's most recent conference was differentiated assessment, challenging teachers to create assessments with a high ceiling.

"There's nothing to be gained by having a child sit an assessment who already knows the information — that leads to disengagement," says Mrs Bruce.

"We need to know exactly where the child is on their learning journey, so we can tailor the learning to ensure we're pitching it at the optimum level."

In practice, that means building in choice, increasing complexity, and using pre-assessments as genuine diagnostic tools.

“For example, rather than a comprehension task where students simply recall facts, we built in elements of choice, open-ended tasks, and options for students to demonstrate their learning in different ways, drawing on higher-order thinking skills like synthesis and evaluation.

"It's not a test for test's sake. It's a diagnostic tool that really focuses on those high potential students, and then giving a direction of where to go next,” she said.

One of the most important shifts the network is driving is moving teachers away from a narrow view of giftedness, as HPGE covers four domains: intellectual, social-emotional, physical and creativity.

Mrs Tickle said that the focus wasn’t just on the intellectual domain of high potential and giftedness.

"It's about focusing on the lot, whether that's creative, leadership, or sporting. There are so many opportunities in NSW public schools for children with potential to thrive."

Diane Read, another network leader and principal of Lindfield East Public School, notes that identification starts with opportunity.

"You need to offer programmes that allow children to shine and provide opportunities for children across each of the four domains — leadership programmes, creative and sporting challenges, maths competitions, public speaking."

Importantly, student panels at the conferences have ensured that the voice of high potential students is heard, providing a consistent and powerful element.

At the intellectual domain conference held in May this year, the message from those primary and high school students was clear: they want to be challenged, they want higher complexity and open-ended work with choice.

"They were saying, we are high potential students, and we learn in a different way. We don't want more of the same," Mrs Tickle said.

The Dee Why Cross Network is coordinated by a steering committee and runs a structured annual calendar: a whole-network conference each year, followed by workshops and professional learning.

Sixteen trained HPGE leaders then help facilitate a train-the-trainer model, running workshops and sharing best practice across schools.

A distinguishing feature of the network is the genuine collaboration between primary and secondary schools.

"All my teachers are now quite comfortable sitting with secondary teachers," says Ms Read.

"They know teachers from other schools. It's created really positive networks. Everyone feels comfortable, so they're more willing to share."

That collaboration has practical benefits, particularly around the critical transition from Year 6 to Year 7.

Through this specific network, primary teachers can see where their students are headed and secondary teachers better understand what's happening in primary classrooms.

The two sectors share programs, and the transition conversation becomes far richer.