Inspire – High potential and gifted education

At Tarago Public School, we are proud to align our approach with the NSW Department of Education’s Inspire – High potential and gifted education (HPGE) policy, which recognises the diverse strengths and needs of gifted and high potential students. We are committed to providing an inclusive and supportive learning environment that challenges and extends all learners, ensuring they are engaged, motivated, and able to reach their full potential. Our programs are designed to identify and nurture giftedness across multiple domains, reflecting the Department’s emphasis on catering to the whole child. By embracing a broad view of giftedness, we aim to foster excellence not only academically but also creatively, physically, and socially, preparing students for lifelong success and wellbeing.

Our approach focuses on four key domains: • Creative Domain: We provide opportunities for students to develop innovative thinking and artistic expression, encouraging originality and problem-solving through diverse creative activities. • Intellectual Domain: We challenge students with enriched learning experiences that promote higher-order thinking, deep inquiry, and advanced knowledge across the curriculum. • Physical Domain: Recognising the importance of physical development, we support students in enhancing their coordination, health, and physical skills through targeted activities and sports. • Social-Emotional Domain: We prioritise the emotional wellbeing and social development of gifted students, fostering resilience, self-awareness, and positive relationships to help them thrive within our school community.

At Tarago Public School, we are dedicated to implementing the NSW Department of Education’s HPGE policy by providing a comprehensive, student-centred approach that nurtures the potential of every learner across these four domains.

Why choose us for your high potential or gifted child?

Recognising potential and developing talent

Our teachers find potential and nurture our students to be the best they can be.

Tailored lessons

Each student has different abilities. Teachers respond to each student’s ability by providing extra challenges and extension activities to keep learning exciting and engaging.

Rich opportunities and activities

Students can take part in opportunities to develop their talent in the arts, sport, leadership and more.

Opening doors to wider experiences

Our students can participate in a wide range of state-wide opportunities that aim to extend and enrich student potential.

What is high potential and gifted education?

Inspire – High potential and gifted education (HPGE) is how our school supports students with advanced learning needs.

We do this through:

effective teaching strategies like enrichment, extension and acceleration

tailored support during lessons that stretch, challenge and inspire

access to a wide range of opportunities both within and beyond our school.

Our high potential and gifted education opportunities

Our students engage with HPGE education in the classroom, in our school, and across NSW.

In our classroom

At Tarago Public School, high potential and gifted education (HPGE) is embedded within our daily learning experiences. As a small school, we are uniquely positioned to know our students well, allowing us to recognise individual strengths early and respond with personalised support. Many of our students demonstrate exceptional talents, and we are committed to nurturing these strengths into meaningful and authentic achievements.

Across all classrooms, Tarago Public School implements a whole-school HPGE program led by our Assistant Principal Curriculum and Instruction (APCI), with a strong focus on the cognitive domain. This program explicitly develops students’ information fluency, strengthening social, critical, literate, innovative, and ethical thinking skills through an entrepreneurial learning approach. Students are supported to inquire deeply, think creatively, collaborate effectively, and apply their learning to real-world contexts, ensuring consistent challenge and high expectations for all learners.

Our teachers closely monitor each student’s learning within the classroom and apply evidence-based teaching strategies to extend and challenge their abilities. The small-school context enables flexible and responsive learning pathways, including enrichment programs, extension tasks, and acceleration where appropriate. Students are identified by teachers, with family insights both welcomed and encouraged, as demonstrating high potential or giftedness across the cognitive, creative, physical, or social-emotional domains. This information is shared across the school to ensure consistent, coordinated support for every learner.

We create nurturing classroom environments where students feel known, valued, and safe to take risks. Creativity, collaboration, and curiosity are actively encouraged. Gifted students, particularly within the cognitive domain, receive targeted instruction matched to their individual level of challenge and engage in open-ended learning experiences and enrichment opportunities that promote deep thinking and engagement.

Flexible grouping across classes, leadership opportunities, and feedback that is strengths-based, goal-focused, and supported by self-assessment are key features of our approach. Our small school setting allows students to access a broader range of roles and responsibilities, supporting confidence, agency, and personal growth.

Across our school and the community

At Tarago Public School, we provide a range of whole-school opportunities that extend and enrich high potential and gifted students beyond the classroom. Our small-school context allows students to access multiple pathways, take on meaningful leadership roles, and engage in authentic learning experiences tailored to their strengths and interests. Staff regularly engage in professional learning to ensure current, research-based practices inform our approach.

Students have opportunities to participate in programs and initiatives including:

Public speaking and debating, including Quota and Rotary competitions with explicit coaching
Chess club and chess tournaments, supporting strategic and critical thinking
Robotics and coding, including extension lunch-time robotics
Creative and performing arts opportunities, including school productions, dance, drama, music, Mighty Playwrights, GCOPS (Goulburn Community of Schools Performances) programs providing choir, dance and performance opportunities, and a specialised school Ensemble Group (band-style program) delivered in partnership with the Conservatorium
Leadership opportunities, including School Captain and Vice Captain roles, Student Representative Council (SRC), Young Leaders Program, and Peer Support Leader roles
Peer Support program (K–6), fostering leadership, mentoring, collaboration, and wellbeing
Sporting opportunities, including K–6 swimming and tennis programs, access to school and PSSA representative pathways, knockout competitions, and personalised coaching with targeted skill development to support students with high potential in the physical domain
Lunch-time and interest-based groups, such as radio club, creative dance, gardening, and chess
Individualised interest-based projects, allowing students to pursue passions and strengths
Global citizenship opportunities, including an ongoing partnership with SD Al Muslim School (Indonesia)
Excursions and incursions that enhance and extend learning beyond the school context

Through these opportunities, Tarago Public School is committed to providing a rich, inclusive, and engaging HPGE offering that supports students to develop their talents, confidence, and capabilities across a range of areas.