At Halswell School we describe gifted students as being…
those with innate high abilities and particular personal abilities that may be seen across one or more domains, including intellectual, creative, social, cultural, visual-spatial and physical.*
*definition from NZCGE
Identification of our gifted students
Students are identified through a variety of ways including teacher observation, formal and informal assessments and parent nomination. Please talk to your child’s T Group teacher or our GAT Lead Teacher if you feel your child may be gifted.
Meeting the needs of our Gifted Students
The diagram below shows the three tiers of support provided.
Most GAT students are well supported within our learning studios through differentiation of regular class programmes, opportunities arising out of our Learning Through Play approach, flexible grouping with like minded students and our collaborative learning spaces.
Intellectual / Creative Domain ICAS tests Cantamaths Quiz, Literacy Quiz, Science Quiz Rotary Speech Competition Robocup ePro8 Technology Challenge Itinerant music lessons Interschool competitions e.g. Spelling Quiz, Current Events School choir Christchurch Schools Music Festival – special groups Media Team (Journalists, Podcasters, Photographers, Radio Presenters) Enviro Group
Physical Domain Inter-school sports competitions e.g. Zone and Canterbury cross country, athletics, winter tournament Participation in weekly inter-school sports for Years 5-8 PALS (Physical activity leaders)
Social Domain Student Council Student Leadership Team PALS (Physical Activity Leaders) Buddy Ambassadors
These programmes focus largely on extending GAT students in the intellectual/creative domains. The content of programmes may vary from term to term and the students involved may change accordingly to meet identified needs.
In Years 0-4 programmes are provided once a week as part of our Learning Through Play programme. In Year 5-8 students participate in a weekly half day “Mindplus Your School” programme run jointly by our staff and staff from the New Zealand Centre for Gifted Education.
