Gifted Education

At Balwyn our aim is to ensure every child is encouraged to develop to their full potential. We seek to do this within all our classrooms by differentiating the curriculum, which means making the curriculum different to meet the different needs of students within a class. For gifted students this means providing experiences that are qualitatively different from those provided for all children. We provide concepts at higher levels of abstraction or greater complexity, emphasising the development of higher order thinking skills

Depending on their individual needs, gifted students will be presented with a variety of opportunities for enrichment and extension of their learning, and may be identified to be accelerated through classes.

Across the school each term we operate an Enrichment program, which allows teachers and students with special interests and talents to come together in small groups, share ideas and work on special projects. Enrichment classes are widely varied, including professional Chess coaching and other activities across the curriculum. Recent Enrichment programs have included philosophy, leadership, painting, maths problem solving, writing, computer animation, digital photography and basketball.

Our Gifted program also provides opportunities for students to participate both as individuals and in co-operative teams in a range of challenges, competitions and targeted gifted and talented programs. These include opportunities through Tournament of Minds, G.A.T.E.Ways, Australasian Problem Solving Mathematical Olympiads, ICAS (International Competitions and Assessments for Schools) Competitions, the Mathematics Challenge for Young Australians and the Australian Mathematics Competition.