Gifted Education

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For Parents

Schooling options for your child

A number of schooling options are available for gifted and high potential students. You should consider the following options in partnership with your child’s school:

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Early entry into school

This occurs when your child is allowed to enter school at an earlier age than that mandated by education authorities.

In Victoria children usually start primary school in Prep. Children must be five years of age or older by 30 April of the year they start school.

Researchers have found that as a group, students who enter school early show no evidence of being more at risk for adjustment difficulties than students who enter at the ‘usual’ age.

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Advanced offerings in a specific subject (Single-subject acceleration)

This allows your child to access a curriculum at least one year in advance of their current year-for-age level if they demonstrate that they have advanced knowledge and skills in a particular area.

If your child demonstrates specific talents in a subject area, such as mathematics or languages, single-subject acceleration may be beneficial to your child’s overall academic attainment and school satisfaction.

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Curriculum compacting

Curriculum compacting is different from subject acceleration in that your child’s actual level of achievement is assessed through pre-testing. This pre-testing then determines what will be learned next.

The purpose of curriculum compacting is to reduce the amount of repetition your child receives. They should already be able to demonstrate a high level of mastery of knowledge in the subject being tested, perhaps achieving 80–85 per cent on the pre-test against the measured outcomes. Your child would also generally be highly motivated to learn.

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Telescoping

Grade telescoping is when your child is allowed to complete several years of the school’s curriculum in less time. For example, Years 7, 8, 9 and 10 are completed in total of three, rather than four years.

In a ‘telescoped’ curriculum, material is not necessarily ‘skipped’ but students move speedily through all the ‘standard’ curriculum material. In this way, the needs of your child can be met by eliminating repetition and considerably increasing the pace of instruction.  

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Year level advancement

Year level advancement occurs if your child is promoted into a higher grade, resulting in the student not completing a full twelve months placement in an intervening grade. For example, at the conclusion of Grade Three a student is promoted into Grade Five the following year.

Your child could also be grade-advanced where they are based in a Grade Three–Grade Four composite classroom. Your child would commence the year in Grade Three and during the year completes the Grade Four curriculum as well as Grade Three. When the Grade Fours are promoted at the end of the academic year, your child would then be promoted with the Grade Four group.  

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Concurrent enrolment (student is enrolled at two educational institutions)

Concurrent enrolment occurs when a gifted or high potential student is enrolled at two schools (one may be a tertiary institution) in the same year and attends classes (or lectures and tutorials) in two physically different locations.

In this instance, the majority of your child’s subjects would be taught at one school and perhaps one or two subjects taught at the second school. This would allow your child to access a curriculum at least one year in advance of their year-for-age level, if they clearly demonstrated advanced knowledge, skills, behaviours and understanding.  

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Select Entry Accelerated Learning (SEAL)

In 2008, there will be more than 35 Victorian secondary schools providing a Select Entry Accelerated Learning (SEAL) Program to address the learning needs of their gifted and high potential students who are capable of learning at a significantly faster pace and in greater depth than their age peers.

Your child’s work in core subjects is accelerated in these programs and opportunities for in depth study are provided. They would usually complete Years 7–10 in three years, giving your child an extended range of options for their final years of schooling.

Your child may subsequently choose to complete additional Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) units, enabling them to accrue a greater breadth of subjects. Some students undertake VCE Extension Studies, which allows them to complete one or more university subjects as part of their VCE. Some students choose to enter tertiary education after only five years of secondary schooling.

Select Entry secondary schools are situated throughout metropolitan Melbourne and rural Victoria. Each school is responsible for determining its own selection criteria. Enquiries about Select Entry Accelerated Learning Programs should be made early in the year prior to your child’s Year 7 placement. Entrance exams usually begin in May. Enquiries should be made directly to schools.  

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Mentoring

A mentoring arrangement would have your gifted or high potential child partnered with an ‘expert’ or professional in your child’s specific area of interest.

The support of mentors may be more general rather than academic in nature. Mentoring may also be arranged to support your child if they may be at risk of disengaging at school. The mentor provides important support to your child as they endeavour to ‘get back on track’.

There are some researchers who believe that a mentoring arrangement should not be entered into until you and your child have exhausted the resources at the secondary school level, and until the student is ‘mature’ enough to maximise the time spent with the mentor.  

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Virtual mentoring

Virtual mentoring is particularly suitable if your child is from geographically isolated schools in country Victoria.

This schooling option would require the teacher to work with a tertiary institution to find suitable tertiary students to become mentors for your child. Under supervision, your child would work with the mentor to agree on a research project which your child would then work on. The idea of the program is to extend your child’s capacity for independent research in an area of interest negotiated between them and the mentor.  

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VCE Extension Studies

These Studies are undertaken by gifted and high potential students prior to Year 11 to ensure that the curriculum is sufficiently challenging and matches their learning needs.

Your child may then successfully complete their subject requirements in a shorter time-span than usual and they would be able to undertake a broader range of subjects which can be studied in greater depth. This can be helpful if they are interested in both humanities and sciences and want to study the range at an advanced level.

VCE Extension Studies also provides highly able students with the opportunity to extend their interest in a subject by studying a first-year university subject in Year 12. This can be intellectually rewarding for your child and will also contribute to a VCE study score.  

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Early entry into tertiary education

This can occur if your child completes VCE after radical acceleration (perhaps using a variety of curriculum options) and enters university at a significantly younger age than the usual 18 years.