The Forest High School prides itself on enriching the learning of all students, not only those who have been identified as being gifted and talented. We cater for the differing learning needs and styles of each student and have an enrichment program for all of Year 7 and gifted and talented classes for Years 7 – 10.
Staff are provided with the opportunities to be professionally developed in the teaching of gifted and talented students. The Gagne model of Giftedness and Talent has been used to guide this teacher training and development. Gagne's Differentiated Model of Giftedness and Talent propose that 'the child progresses from giftedness (high potential) to talent (high performance) through the learning process, assisted by intra-personal and environmental factors, That is, gifts are innate abilities and talents are systematically developed skills'. He also maintains that students can be gifted in one subject area and not necessarily all areas. His model recognises the student who may have high ability but who may be under-achieving, de-motivated or prevented from realising his or her potential by environmental, personality or physiological constraints. The teacher's task is to recognise the gifts and foster the talents.
In Year 7, there is one High Potential & Gifted Education (HPGE) class and students remain in the same class for all subjects. They are, however, integrated for welfare, social and sporting programs. In Year 8, students will be placed into the HPGE stream depending on their results gained in Year 7. Whilst in Years 9 to 10 HPGE students remain in their HPGE class for the core subjects: English, Mathematics, Science, History, Geography and PDHPE, they will be integrated in their elective subjects. Once again students must earn the right to be in the HPGE class.
Students in the HPGE classes in each of Years 7 to 10 study the core curriculum in the relevant subjects in common with their year cohort; however, this curriculum is compacted and qualitatively differentiated to allow more time for enrichment, extension, problem solving and critical thinking skills.
Within the senior school students are integrated in all subjects, although English, Mathematics, History, Music and Languages offer extension courses to cater for the HPGE students.
Students wishing to be placed in our HPGE class for the intellectual doman in Year 7 2025 must first sit the HPGE Test
The HPGE Test is for local (in area) enrolments only.
Date: Wednesday 3 April 2024
Time: 8.45am - 12.34pm
Where: The Forest High School
Full details can be found here
