MindQuest 2019 Workshops

These challenging fast paced two day workshops are designed to stimulate and extend your child across a broad range of subject areas. These hands on activities include chemistry, earth sciences, lego robotics, drama, art, writing and much more. Courses focus on developing critical and creative thinking skills, problem solving and broadening your child's interests. Many of the courses for older children give them a unique opportunity to acquire advanced concepts at the high school level. 

To find out more about the 2019 courses click here.

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Differentiation in Action - Parent Information Session

At St Mary's we believe in providing an education that suitably challenges and engages all of our students. As an accredited Newman Selective Education school we embrace the philosophy of Cardinal Newman through:

• fostering a classroom environment where ALL students are challenged and engaged through creative and critical thinking and academic rigour

• where the students engage with the world through authentic learning experiences and where they are encouraged to deepen their passions

• fundamentally, we foster collaboration and independent learning to instil a lifelong love of learning in our students

Click here to access a copy of the slides presented at the sessions.

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Raising Awareness through memes

In celebration of Gifted Awareness Week here are a few of my favourite memes around at the moment.
Is there one in particular that speaks to you?

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Gifted Awareness Week - March 17 to 23

Belonging.

When it comes to gifted education, what does belonging mean? Does it refer to a sense of connectivity with ones’ tribe? Does it call into question how and where gifted education fits into our education system?

According to Mind Matters, a sense of belonging provides young people with purpose, meaning, self-worth and social control, all of which are contributors to positive mental health. Students with a sense of belonging are more motivated to participate actively in the life of the classroom than those students who do not have this kind of experience. Conversely, the feeling of not belonging or social isolation can lead to a range of negative — and under some circumstances, long term — consequences, both physical and psychological.

We invite you to come on a journey of belonging this Gifted Awareness Week.

Melinda Gindy
National Facilitator- Gifted Awareness Week Australia

For more information about Gifted Awareness Week click here.

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Differentiation in Action - Parent Information Session

Please complete this google form to indicated which session you will be attending.

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Joys and challenges of raising a gifted child

Here's another great article and blog that discusses the joys and challenges of raising gifted children along with offering supports and suggestions.

"Often people think of gifted kids as high achievers. They assume if a kid gets good grades, is bright and working ahead, he or she must be gifted, right? This is a common misconception. One is not necessarily an indication of the other. One measure of giftedness is IQ. A person can be in the gifted range of intelligence (IQ over 120) and struggling academically for various reasons. And a person can be of average intelligence (IQ of 80-119), but be highly motivated and working very hard, and excel."

Full article - click here

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Let's Talk About Emotional Overexcitability

"Emotional overexcitability is easy enough to take notice of. The child who is so nervous they make themselves sick. The child who doesn’t want you to leave because they’re so attached to you. The daughter who screams when her brothers laugh at her. The child who hides behind the couch and sobs when Bing Bong disappears in Inside Out. The child who wakes up at 2:30 am every single night just to come get a reassuring hug. The child who cries two months after watching a movie where a character was bullied. The daughter who clings to you, soaked with tears, and cannot stop crying because she just loves you really much. The child who takes offense, builds strong attachments, leaps with joy, holds grudges out of pain and forgives quickly out of hope. The daughter who cries daily, hourly, but also laughs loudly, deeply. The child who is compassionate, angry, loving, fearful, frustrated, annoyed, embarrassed, elated. The child who just has a lot of feelings."

To read the full article, click here.

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St Mary's is a Newman Selective Gifted Education School. What does this mean?

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Join us for our Newman Symposium and Learning Celebration.

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How to tell if you've got a gifted and talented child, and what to do about it

How to tell if you've got a gifted and talented child, and what to do about it

We are very luck at St Mary's that all of our staff are regularly involved in considerable Professional Learning opportunities to better understand the needs of gifted students and how to cater for them, so not all of this article applies to our context. Some information here is very useful as are the links to the related articles.

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