[Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are advised that this video may contain the images, voices and names of people who have passed away.]

[music]

[The Early Adopter School journey continues...

HIGH POTENTIAL and GIFTED EDUCATION.]

Voiceover

The New South Wales Department of Education High Potential and Gifted Education Policy was launched in June 2019. Implementation commenced in government schools’ Term 1 2021. To support the new policy, teachers and leaders from a range of schools representing metropolitan sites through to rural and remote sites, including networks, came together as early adopter schools to give staff time to trial, act, reflect and share what they've learned through their various school journeys.

[Megan Lockery, Principal – Lindfield Public School]

Megan Lockery

And it showed success. It meant that the teachers were taking on board the things that we were talking about

Voiceover

Through the challenges of COVID 19 and school lockdowns these teachers forged ahead with their plans to embed the new policy into their practice.

Penrith Selective High School concentrated on teacher professional development, using action research, providing time to work with academic mentors and celebrating success with a sharing circle.

[Jaclyn Cush. Deputy Principal – Penrith Selective high School]

Jaclyn Cush

One of the key focus points for us was really around how we start to develop collective teacher efficacy.

Voiceover

Their focus was on exploring the social – emotional domain with the aim to improve student outcomes.

[Mark Long. Principal – Penrith Selective High School]

Mark Long

It's just incredible the depth of what they're doing. But those conversations. So we've been strategic. We've allocated time and worked through that. We've learned a lot. And sometimes you lose some skin in those leadership positions. But I think deep down, you go, we know this is going to be worth it because it's been a really consistent 5 or 6 year journey.

Voiceover

Leeton High School put particular effort into communicating and supporting the aims of the new policy with their whole learning community. As a result, they saw increased engagement across the domains and improvement in academic results,

[Sally Doig. Teacher – Leeton High School]

Sally Doig

Guiding students to really take the right path for them based on their potential.

Voiceover

Lindfield Public School focused on differentiation by building creativity and applying the strategies in the differentiation adjustment tool to their programming.

[Megan Lockery. Principal – Lindfield Public School]

Megan Lockery

We're seeing policy now going into practice. We didn't dwell on the policy. We've got straight into practice. That's what's having the impact.

Voiceover

The initiative was supported by whole school planning to identify and develop creativity in students,

[Libby Hamilton. Teacher – Lindfield Public School]

Libby Hamilton

Reflecting on the learning environment that you'd set up, reflecting on the programming that you've done. And now let's see how we can embed some critical and creative thinking.

Voiceover

Seven schools around Dungog in rural New South Wales worked together as a network. They familiarised their teachers with the policy and are focusing on the ‘assess and identify’ key action.

[Michael Kelly. Teacher – Dungog High School]

Michael Kelly

We've been really well supported by the department, particularly through the evaluation and planning tool. That's been a huge amount of work, but absolutely invaluable for assessing where we're at now, identifying some of the strengths that we have and didn't know we had, and also obviously for identifying some areas for development.

[Gillian Manning. Learning Coordinator – Dungog High School]

Gillian Manning

I think it's definitely about a collegial support and also sharing of skills and expertise, not having to reinvent the wheel all the time. If somebody in a bigger school has already worked something out in a program, the willingness to share that across the community and to support our smaller schools and make sure that all of our students have equal outcomes

Voiceover

By working on distinct areas of implementation and then coming together to share experiences, the early adopter schools are creating these illustrations of practice, as well as PowerPoints located on the (High Potential and Gifted Education) HPGE web section so other schools can reflect and be supported on their policy implementation journey.

Michael Kelly

In implementing any sort of a change in a school, it's really important that all staff feel comfortable in being able to take risks knowing that their line managers, their deputies and their principals trust them. That allows them to take that educational risk to really create something that's, that's unique and matches the particular needs of their students.

[Find the talent— Develop the potential— Make the difference

NSW Government logo

© 2021 NSW Department of Education]

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