Fears gifted students will languish without help

Principals,parents and academics warn tens of thousands of gifted and talented students will languish because of a NSW Department of Education decision to disband the team that advises schools on how to engage high potential students.

In 2019,the departmentlaunched a policy to identify and extend gifted students across all public schools,and not just in opportunity classes and selective schools. Their talents could be in sport and the arts,as well as academia.

Parents,principals and academics are worried gifted students will not get the support they need

Parents,principals and academics are worried gifted students will not get the support they neediStock

A key part of the policy was providing expert support and training to schools through the High Potential and Gifted Education (HPGE) Advisory Group because few teachers learn at university about spotting or extending gifted students.

However,members of the group were recently told their contracts would finish and any expertise would be moved to the curriculum reform teams. Critics fear this indicates the policy is no longer a priority for the department. The department denies this.

The secondary and primary schools principals associations have criticised the decision,as has the Australian Association for the Education of the Gifted and Talented (AAEGT),which represents teachers,parents and specialists.

A group of academics has also written to Education Minister Sarah Mitchell to express deep concerns,saying the rollout of the policy and training was slowed due to COVID-19 and disbanding the team meant many students would miss out.

“Teachers cannot know how to develop talent in HPG students unless they are taught to do so,” the letter said.

“Our education system’s failure to adequately respond to the needs of HPG students is most detrimental to those from disadvantaged backgrounds because they are the least likely to enjoy support mechanisms outside school.

“It is not necessary to detail here the enormous personal and academic cost to those underachieving students or to our society and economy.”

Craig Petersen,the head of the Secondary Principals Council,described the high potential and gifted education policy as excellent,but said schools required support and expertise to ensure it was implemented well enough to drive cultural change in an area that had long been neglected.

“Technically the support still exists,but not in a way that’s useful to schools,” he said. “It ought to be a priority for the department to maintain the quality and effectiveness of the implementation of what is a really strong policy.

“The research says we’re looking at between 10 and 20 per cent of our students who are not being adequately catered for because they’re not the kids in the OC class (opportunity class) or doing the selective high school entrance exam. At the bottom of that range,we’ve got 100,000 students in our school who’ll benefit from the implementation of this policy. We’re really upset about this.”

A spokesman for the NSW Department of Education said,“seeking out and supporting gifted students remains a priority for the department. The High Potential and Gifted Education team has never been a standalone unit.”

One of the signatories to the letter was Dr Geraldine Townend,an expert in gifted education at the University of NSW. She said disbanding the group before all schools had a chance to access its training and advice suggested gifted education was no longer a priority for the department.

“Schools were embracing it and getting that support and specialists they could lean on,” she said. “I don’t know what will happen now that’s gone.”

AAEGT president Melinda Gindy said she had been contacted by parents who were distraught that they would no longer have a point of contact to help them work with the school to nurture their children. “I fear that this illogical decision will simply result in a repeat of the futile outcomes of the previous gifted policies,” she said.

The department spokesman said the advisory group provided advice to the HPGE team to develop a revised policy and teacher training in how to identify and support students. “Their role was not to provide direct support to schools,” he said.

“They created an excellent policy and professional learning which is being delivered by the department’s curriculum teams. This will continue.”

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Jordan Baker is Chief Reporter of The Sydney Morning Herald. She was previously Education Editor.

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