NSW Parents & Citizens' Federation Gifted Students Policy

Provides the policy text as approved at the Federation Annual Conference in August 2000 - following twelve months of reconciling the many valid concerns of parents across NSW

PREMISE 8F

All students must be encouraged and helped to reach their potential. Students with exceptional abilities in one or more areas present particular challenges in school education, including many who feel alienated from their age peers and who engage in patterns of behaviour that may hide their abilities. To facilitate the right of these students to reach their potential, Federation believes the public education system needs to implement appropriate policies and practices to meet their educational and social needs.

Gifted/talented children are those children who possess an untrained and spontaneously expressed natural ability in at least one ability domain significantly beyond that typically seen in children of the same age. Giftedness comes in many forms and levels. It is found in students of all socio-economic groups, and of diverse personalities and backgrounds. It can be combined with other exceptionalities/special needs such as learning disabilities, socio-economic disadvantage, geographic isolation, Aboriginality and having English as a second language.

POLICY

8.33 Families with gifted students have, in line with all parents, the right to expect appropriate educational responses and provisions that meet their children’s needs.

8.34 Federation believes the development of gifted children is not automatic. It depends on a range of environmental and personality factors, including supporting home, school and learning environments.

8.35 Federation supports the establishment and maintenance of school environments that encourage and celebrate excellence in any domain.

8.36 Federation notes the research that teachers’ capacity to identify and provide for the needs of gifted students depends critically on the training they receive and asserts that educational authorities have a fundamental responsibility to ensure that all staff are trained to recognise and provide for the needs of gifted students.

(a) The compulsory core of pre-service teacher education courses at early childhood, primary and secondary levels should provide student teachers with practical knowledge of:

(i) the range of characteristics and behavioural patterns of gifted students which will be encountered in the regular classroom to assist teacher identification, including when accompanied by other special factors;

(ii) teaching strategies and practices within the classroom that facilitate appropriate educational experiences of every student;

(iii) case studies with acceleration and tailoring individual education programs for students whose needs cannot reasonably be met within a class of their age peers; and

(iv) the range of support services and tailored educational provisions that are available to assist in meeting the needs of these students.

(b) In-service training should be provided to all schools across the state covering the above training goals to reach current teachers, and this should be provided as a state-level coordinated training initiative beyond the limited funding available to each school for staff training. Where possible this training should include community information sessions to help parents understand the ways giftedness can be handled in both school and home environments.

(c) Teachers undertaking specialist gifted education roles within schools and the education system should generally have a high level of training in this field and gifted educational qualifications should be used as a factor for the filling of existing and new specialist gifted positions.

8.37 The NSW State Government and Department of Education and Training should provide a sufficient allocation of time and resources so that

(a) each school has a gifted students’ coordinator to support the principal by coordinating gifted provisions implemented inside and outside the regular classroom and to provide support for, and overview outcomes of, teachers meeting the needs of gifted students in their classes;

(b) each district has a gifted students’ coordinator to support schools by coordinating district-wide gifted provisions and in-service training, networking and support for the district’s in-school gifted students’ coordinators and teachers;

(c) the state educational system has a gifted education unit to

(i) support the gifted students’ coordinators across the state,

(ii) develop state wide provisions and resources,

(iii) support teacher networking in the area of gifted students including via conferences and electronic technologies, and

(iv) develop and review implementation of policy across the state;

(d) each school and district can procure teaching resources and incur peripheral expenses (entrance fees, transport costs) involved in the range of provisions.

8.38 Federation supports the use of strategies found by research to support the diverse range of learning and other needs of students (including the gifted), such as:

(a) open-ended questions and activities;
(b) flexible ability grouping strategies both within and across classes and schools (including vertical integration), with these groupings varying by content area, and being regularly reviewed and reformed;

(c) individual and small group research and contract work with active student ownership;

(d) flexible progression strategies within content areas, (including acceleration with the agreement of the parents and student and subject to ongoing review and counselling/support);

(e) extension activities, both within and across class groupings, with self-selection by students used in conjunction with other selection practices to ensure equity of opportunity;

(f) appropriate mentoring arrangements; and

(g) the provision, monitoring and review of individual education programs for students whose educational needs are not able to be appropriately met otherwise.

8.39 A state-wide Extension Program across all government schools should be established to coordinate the provision of open-ended learning opportunities beyond the prescribed school curriculum. Interested students, parents and teachers should be involved in determining the topics to be explored, with some of these involving content and depth explicitly addressing the needs of gifted students. Selection should include self-selection by students based on clear understanding of the proposed content and purpose. The program should be properly resourced in all schools and should be subject to proper reporting at school, district and system level. The program should be used to promote government schools and their meeting of the diverse needs of their students, including gifted students.

8.40 Federation supports a school-student-based numbers based formula for funding schools for time-intensive gifted provisions such as mentor arrangements and Individual Education Programs to ensure that they are available across the state for all students that need them. Expenditure of this funding should be under the supervision of the gifted education unit to ensure appropriateness.

8.41 All the monies to pay for positions and materials for gifted and talented students shall be from new funds.

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Last updated:16/5/07

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