Read on to learn more about Gifted education at St Mary's.
Gifted Education at St Mary’s Primary School
‘I have come that they may have life and have it to the
full’ John 10:10
Here at St Mary’s, as a systemic Catholic School in
the Archdiocese of Sydney, we are called to:
“Nurture students’
love of learning through a Catholic pedagogy that fosters the development of
the intellect, moral knowledge, understanding and reasoning in a relational,
social and cultural context.”
(The Archbishop’s
Charter for Catholic Schools, Archdiocese of Sydney, Item 2, July 2011)
We
passionately believe that all of our students should be provided with an
education that challenges them to develop themselves to their full potential.
We strive to offer an educational setting where all of our students are
provided learning opportunities at a suitably challenging and engaging level. At St Mary’s, we believe that all learners have the right to
receive an education that is responsive to their needs; and the provision of an
appropriate educational program for the gifted is an issue of equity.
Students
who are identified as being gifted require modifications to the ways that they
are taught including modifying the pace, complexity, depth and breadth in their
curriculum; as these students learn in a different way to their peers.
The Gifted Education Policy that is implemented at
St Mary’s, as with all systemic Catholic Schools in the Archdiocese of Sydney, adopts Gagne’s definitions of giftedness and talent as identified
in his Differentiated Model of Giftedness and Talent (2010, DMGT 2.0).
According to Gagne’s definitions and model (2010), gifted students represent
about ten percent of the student population in Sydney Catholic Schools. This
calls for a differentiated response in every school to the educational needs of
these students.
What do
the terms gifted and talented mean?
Giftedness designates the possession and use of untrained and spontaneously
expressed outstanding natural abilities or aptitudes (called gifts), in at
least one ability domain; Intellectual, Creative, Social, Perceptive or
Physical, to a degree that places an individual at least among the top 10% of
age peers.
Talent designates the outstanding mastery of systematically developed
competencies (knowledge and skills) in at least one field of human activity:
Academic, Technical, Science and Technology, Arts, Social Service, Sales,
Administration, Business Operations, Games, Sports and Athletics, to a degree
that places an individual at least among the top 10% of ‘learning peers’ (those
who have accumulated a similar amount of learning time from either current or
past training)
(Gagne, 2010, p. 82).
What does it mean that we are
part of the Newman Selective School Gifted Education Program?
The aim of the Newman Selective Gifted Education Program
is to improve provision for gifted and talented students in Archdiocesan
Catholic schools by the systematic development of a whole school program in
gifted education; thus providing a Kindergarten to Year 12 pathway for gifted
and talented students within our system. There are currently over 38 schools
that are a part of this program.
To be fully accredited as a Newman School, a school must
undergo three years of professional learning and implementation of policies and
programs that show how the gifted students are effectively being identified and
catered for within the school. At St Mary’s, we are in our final year of this
process and will apply to be accredited at the end of 2018.
In 2018 we will be focusing on:
-
Using
our systematic identification procedures to identify the students in our school
who are gifted. This will include identification of students across many
domains - academic, sporting, creative arts.
-
Continuing
to up-skill and support all staff with professional learning opportunities to ensure quality differentiation and suitably challenging learning
opportunities are offered to gifted students primarily through flexible
groupings within class where students will be working with like-minded
peers.
-
Communicating with and
informing parents about the needs of gifted students and how these needs are
being met at St Mary’s.
What will this differentiation
look like?
Our focus at St Mary’s is to provide
differentiated learning opportunities that are embedded across the curriculum.
This allows all students to mix with and learn from like minded peers and
engage with appropriately challenging and engaging content. This is what best
practice and research suggests has the most significant increases in students
academic gain and social effects. In 2018 this will occur by flexibly grouping
students across grades. This means that students will be grouped across their
grade based on their learning needs and learning styles for particular subjects
and tasks. In many grades this will mean students have a ‘homeroom’ teacher who
is their class teacher and they may also work with a different teacher for
English and / or Mathematics. Students in an extension (Newman) group will be
provided opportunities to explore the content in more depth and with greater
complexity in ways that will best address their learning needs. Opportunities
will also, at times, be offered for withdrawal extension or enrichment
activities across a range of domains.
How are students placed in the appropriate group for
their learning needs?
The identification process is inclusive,
dynamic and continuous. Information is gathered from a balance of objective and
subjective procedures and measures to gain a complete understanding of each
child and their learning needs. This information includes (but is not limited
to) teacher observation, parent nomination, standardised ability testing,
psychometric assessments and gifted screening tools. The information is then
analysed and students are placed in the most appropriate learning environment
for their needs. The groups are not fixed and can be fluid within and across
years. Teacher assessment before, during and at the conclusion of units of work
is also used to adjust groups as required through the year.
How can I find out more information?
We will be holding regular Parent Information
sessions throughout the year and the differentiated learning of all of our
students will be showcased at our annual Newman Symposium.
Our Term 1 Parent Information session will be:
- Tuesday March 6 at 7pm
- repeat session on Thursday March 8 at 9am.
These will be presented by Meghan Bassett, St Mary’s Newman Facilitator, and
Amanda Tinson, Gifted Education Officer from Sydney Catholic Schools.
All
parents are warmly invited to attend these sessions.
For
further enquiries contact:
Meghan Bassett
Newman
Facilitator
meghan.bassett@syd.catholic.edu.au
