Gifted and Talented
At Emanuel School our programs aim to ensure that all children are able to reach their full potential.
The extension program at Emanuel School aims to provide for the academic, physical, social, emotional and spiritual needs of each student. We encourage close collaboration between staff, parents and students in order to develop effective and dynamic programs to identify, develop and monitor students' strengths.
In order to identify gifted and talented students, our procedures are broad and include strategies such as class, standardised, and above-level testing, as well as parent, teacher and peer nomination. External assessments also play a role in the School's identification procedures. On-going assessment ensures that the children's needs are being effectively met.Once identified, there are a range of strategies used by the School to cater for the needs of gifted and talented students. These strategies may include:
Differentiation and Curriculum Compacting
A differentiated curriculum ensures that students are provided with modified programs in order to meet individual needs. Differentiating for gifted and talented students often involves compacting of the core curriculum. While ensuring that students have "the basics", this leaves time to extend and enrich students beyond the general grade expectations.
Ability Grouping
Ability grouping enables students to work with others of similar ability, at an appropriately challenging level. Ability grouping can take place by class, or within a class, and can be varied for each Key Learning Area.
Small Group Withdrawal
At times a dedicated Gifted and Talented co-ordinator teaches extension lessons in a range of subject areas to small groups.
Subject and Grade Acceleration
Emanuel School has developed flexible structures to cater for students requiring subject and grade acceleration. Subject acceleration involves students joining higher grades, if they are able to manage successfully the content and expectations of the higher grade for a particular subject.
Whole grade acceleration involves students skipping an entire grade if they are capable of working at the higher grade level in all Key Learning Areas. Close attention is given to the children's social and emotional needs when considering these options.
Mentoring
Emanuel's mentoring program involves adults with areas of expertise sharing their knowledge and skills with the students. This may be in a 'one-off' session or regular weekly/fortnightly sessions.
External Competitions and Opportunities
Emanuel provides external opportunities for students to extend their skills and knowledge. We participate in a wide range of competitions including Tournament of Minds, Da Vinci Decathlon, Robocup, Maths Olympiad, public speaking and debating competitions, as well as ICAS (International Competitions and Assessments for Schools) competitions in English, Maths, Science and Computer Skills.
Individual Research Projects
Class teachers and the Gifted and Talented co-ordinator work with students to develop individualised research projects to support and extend students' areas of interest.
Opportunity Classes
The Opportunity Class (OC) in Years 5 and 6 caters for students of high academic ability and performance.
