High potential and gifted education

Coordinators: Ms Lana Rhodes (Head Teacher CAPA) & Mrs Georgia Jones (Mathematics Teacher)

Albury High School is proudly committed to nurturing the talents, passions, and potential of every student. Our High Potential and Gifted Education (HPGE) Academies Program is a cornerstone of this commitment—offering targeted enrichment, challenge, and extension for students who demonstrate high potential across intellectual, creative, social-emotional, and physical domains.

Launched in 2022, the HPGE Academies have grown into a dynamic and diverse suite of opportunities that inspire students to excel, explore new pathways, and connect with peers who share similar strengths and interests.

What Are the HPGE Academies?

The Academies Program is a specialised extension initiative running during designated sport periods across the school year. Students participate in 10-week cycles, working closely with expert teachers and visiting specialists to refine their skills, deepen their knowledge, and embrace new challenges.

Our Academies began with four focus areas—Visual Arts, Writing, Music, and Science—and have since expanded to include:

Mathematics Academy
Musical Theatre & Set Design Academy
Specialist Sport Academies
Rock Band Academy
Visiting Artist Program for senior students
Ongoing Creative and Performing Arts Enrichment Programs

In 2026, our Academies will include:

Rock Band Academy
Mathematics Academy
Drama Academy
Visual Arts Academy
Water Polo Academy
Hockey Academy

New Academies are added in response to student interest, teacher expertise, and emerging opportunities—ensuring the program remains vibrant, innovative, and relevant.

How Students Become Involved?

Students are invited to join an Academy through teacher nomination based on:

demonstrated talent or passion
strong engagement in class
creative or academic achievement
potential shown within a specific domain

This approach ensures students from all backgrounds have equitable access to high-quality enrichment experiences.

How the Program Works

Academies run in place of sport for a structured 10-week block.
Students engage in hands-on workshops, advanced skill development, rehearsals, training sessions, or creative projects.
Programs are taught by specialist teachers and strengthened by partnerships with industry professionals.
Staff receive ongoing professional learning in HPGE practices, ensuring Academies align with current research and NSW Department of Education policy directions.

In 2024/2025, the school also introduced a seed funding model, where staff can apply for financial support to launch new Academies and purchase specialised equipment. This encourages continual innovation and growth.

Our Commitment to Excellence

The HPGE Academies reflect Albury High School’s whole-school dedication to:

Identifying and nurturing high potential learners
Providing rich, authentic extension beyond the classroom
Supporting professional growth for teachers
Embedding HPGE into teaching, extracurricular activities, and senior curriculum pathways
Promoting equitable access to specialised programs
Celebrating student talent across diverse domains

This initiative is now a deeply embedded part of our school culture and planning cycles.

Impact on Students and the School Community

The HPGE Academies have had a transformative impact at Albury High School. Students benefit from:

advanced learning opportunities
strengthened confidence and motivation
deepened engagement through passion-driven learning
connections with peers who share similar interests
pathways into senior electives, CAPA and STEM programs, and representative sport

For staff, the program fosters leadership, collaboration, and the development of new teaching practices tailored to high potential learners.

This work aligns strongly with the School Excellence Framework, particularly in the areas of Learning Culture, Curriculum, Learning and Development, and Educational Leadership—positioning Albury High School as a regional leader in high potential and gifted education.

Why choose us for your high potential or gifted child?

Recognising potential and developing talent

Our teachers find potential and nurture our students to be the best they can be.

Tailored lessons

Each student has different abilities. Teachers respond to each student’s ability by providing extra challenges and extension activities to keep learning exciting and engaging.

Rich opportunities and activities

Students can take part in opportunities to develop their talent in the arts, sport, leadership and more.

Opening doors to wider experiences

Our students can participate in a wide range of state-wide opportunities that aim to extend and enrich student potential.

What is high potential and gifted education?

High potential and gifted education (HPGE) is how our school supports students with advanced learning needs.

We do this through:

effective teaching strategies like enrichment, extension and acceleration

tailored support during lessons that stretch, challenge and inspire

access to a wide range of opportunities both within and beyond our school.

Our high potential and gifted education opportunities

Our students engage with HPGE education in the classroom, in our school, and across NSW.

In our classroom

In our classrooms, High Potential and Gifted Education is embedded through purposeful teaching and learning practices that recognise and respond to individual strengths. Students are challenged through differentiated tasks, explicit skill development, and rich opportunities for inquiry, leadership, and creative thinking.

This is achieved through the following classroom practices:

Differentiated tasks that adjust pace, complexity and higher-order thinking.
Formative assessment to monitor growth and adapt learning.
Advanced learning pathways, including accelerated or compacted content.
Explicit teaching of critical thinking and problem-solving strategies.
Opportunities for abstraction, inquiry, and curriculum depth.
Tasks that promote choice, authenticity, and critical and creative thinking including cross-curricular projects.
Flexible grouping for collaborative ideation and presentation.
Differentiated movement tasks and skill refinement in PDHPE.
Targeted learning goals for coordination, agility, and control.
Opportunities to take on lead roles in physical demonstrations or team strategy.
Supportive learning environments that enable exploration and self-assessment.
Strengths-based feedback and goal setting.
Opportunities for leadership within the classroom.
Structured peer collaboration and reflection.
Safe learning environments that encourage confidence, risk-taking, and perseverance.

Across our school

Across our school, students are provided with a wide range of academic, creative, sporting, and leadership opportunities that nurture high potential and support individual strengths beyond the classroom. These opportunities enable students to extend their learning, collaborate with peers, and engage in authentic challenges.

These opportunities include:

Debating
STEM and coding clubs
Academic competitions
Critical thinking workshops
School musicals
Music ensembles
Visual arts and drama showcases
Creative writing groups
Sport squads
House competitions
Performance-based movement groups
Peer mentoring
Student leadership (SRC)
Wellbeing programs
Participation in whole-school inclusion and wellbeing initiatives.

Across NSW

Across NSW, high potential and gifted students are provided with access to exceptional extension opportunities that develop talent, excellence, and personal growth beyond the school context. These programs allow students to engage with peers of similar ability while refining skills in authentic, high-level settings.
This is achieved through participation in the following state and regional initiatives:

The Schools Spectacular - an iconic performing arts event that celebrates the talents, diversity and creativity of students from across NSW public schools.
Participation in (state/regional) drama ensembles which promotes character exploration, storytelling and expressive freedom for our Stage 5 high potential and gifted drama students.
The Representative School Sport Pathway and PSSA and CHSSA events which enable our students to trial and compete in sports at regional, state and national levels, fostering discipline, commitment and collaboration.
Participation in state-wide dance ensembles which develops our high potential and gifted Stage 5 dance students’ technical skills, performance presence and physical expressiveness.
Participation in music ensembles (e.g. State Wind Orchestra, State Choirs) hones our students’ musical skills, discipline and ensemble awareness.
More offering examples are listed on the HPGE system wide opportunities webpage.