High potential and gifted education

Premier's Reading Challenge

At Palinyewah Public School, we are committed to identifying, nurturing and extending the abilities of all students. In line with the NSW Department of Education’s High Potential and Gifted Education (HPGE) Policy, our school provides a range of opportunities that support students to achieve their personal best.

High Potential and Gifted Education (HPGE)

The HPGE policy is a mandatory, system-wide framework implemented across all NSW public schools. It ensures that students who demonstrate high potential in intellectual, creative, physical and social-emotional domains are appropriately identified, challenged and supported.

At Palinyewah, we use evidence-informed practices and differentiated teaching to meet students’ learning needs. A particular focus is placed on developing high potential in literacy, including reading comprehension, to help students transform potential into high achievement.

Premier’s Reading Challenge (PRC)

The Premier’s Reading Challenge is a valued enrichment opportunity offered at our school and is an important part of our literacy and HPGE programs. The PRC encourages students to develop a love of reading by engaging with a wide range of quality texts.

Our students consistently demonstrate high participation and strong success rates in the Premier’s Reading Challenge. This reflects our school’s positive reading culture and strong home–school partnerships.

Supporting High Potential Readers

Participation in the PRC provides meaningful opportunities for students who show high potential in reading comprehension to:

• Explore increasingly complex and diverse texts
• Extend their thinking through deeper engagement with literature
• Develop advanced comprehension, vocabulary and critical reading skills

For many students, the PRC acts as a talent development pathway, supporting the goals of the HPGE policy by extending learning beyond the classroom and fostering intellectual curiosity.

Our Commitment

By integrating programs such as the Premier’s Reading Challenge within our broader HPGE framework, Palinyewah Public School ensures that high potential learners are supported, challenged and inspired to reach excellence in reading and beyond.

Sporting

Some students learn faster and more easily than others. They may demonstrate high potential in areas such as creativity, thinking, leadership or sport.

At our school, we recognise and nurture these strengths early. We support advanced learners through high-quality teaching, targeted opportunities and purposeful activities that allow students to grow and thrive across a range of learning areas.

Within the High Potential and Gifted Education (HPGE) framework, sport is recognised as a key domain. This year, several students have demonstrated high potential in the sporting area. Through explicit teaching of relevant skills, structured training, opportunities to practise, and a focus on fitness development, we have been able to identify and support students to extend their abilities.

As a result, two students were further developed to compete at state level in cross country, long jump and discus. Another student has been recognised by external sporting bodies for his soccer skills. Over the past two years, this student worked closely with the previous Principal — an experienced soccer player and coach — to intentionally develop his potential in this area.

The Premier’s Sporting Challenge is used as a key scaffold to support students with high potential in sport. It encourages goal setting, self-monitoring and perseverance, allowing students to set, meet and often exceed personal fitness and performance goals. Through this structured approach, students are supported to develop confidence, resilience and a lifelong commitment to physical activity.

STEM

The NSW Department of Education (DoE) recognises Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) as a key component of its High Potential and Gifted Education (HPGE) Policy, particularly within the intellectual and creative domains. The HPGE policy provides a framework for identifying and nurturing students with high potential, and STEM offers rich and authentic opportunities through which these students can be challenged, extended and inspired.

At Palinyewah Public School, students engage in weekly STEM learning experiences. These activities are carefully planned and differentiated to meet the diverse learning needs, interests and readiness levels of all students. Through hands-on investigations, problem-solving tasks and creative design challenges, students are encouraged to think critically, collaborate, test ideas and reflect on their learning.

For students demonstrating high potential in STEM, tasks are intentionally designed to provide greater complexity, depth and independence. This ensures they are appropriately challenged while being supported to develop higher-order thinking skills, creativity, resilience and a strong sense of curiosity. In this way, STEM learning at Palinyewah supports the identification, development and ongoing growth of students with high potential, while engaging all learners in meaningful and enjoyable learning experiences.