Daylesford Primary School
Creating an aspirational culture for all students, Daylesford Primary School is nurturing children’s potential with an inquiry-led approach that is enriching their curriculum and community.
Accessing professional learning and support from the high-ability toolkit and the High-Ability Practice Leader role, the school is creating opportunity and access for high-ability learners in inquiry-based extension programs that are inspiring children of high-ability to experience learning in new ways.
Connecting with programs from the Victorian Challenge and Enrichment Series and Victorian High-Ability Program, students interact with the local community and wider education network in student-led projects and initiatives. Collaborative learning and outstanding classroom practice has strengthened the school’s emphasis on individual goal setting and student agency, increasing highability achievement outcomes across the school.
Partnering with the University of New England, the school has worked closely with the university to video document their exemplary high-ability provision for inclusion in the department’s updated high-ability toolkit.
Glendal Primary School
The leadership team at Glendal Primary School are extending their students’ social, emotional, and intellectual growth by providing a challenging curriculum for all their high-ability students.
The highly differentiated curriculum places strong emphasis on developing students’ literacy and numeracy through engagement with Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). A specialist science program extends student learning well into secondary school curriculum levels and subjects including engineering, chemical and electrical science.
Glendal Primary School has achieved great success through their STEM program, particularly in Robotics, with students’ succeeding annually in local, state, and national robotics competitions. Working and learning collaboratively with digital technology is facilitating students to achieve and be taught at higher levels.
Highly regarded across the community and region for their high-ability extension programs, classroom differentiation and application of the Victorian High Ability Program, the team at Glendal Primary School are providing leadership and professional learning to others across a wide network of schools.
Lethbridge, Teesdale, Napoleans and Inverleigh Primary Schools
Working collaboratively, a group of leaders from across Lethbridge, Teesdale, Napoleans and Inverleigh Primary Schools have successfully developed an innovative, crossschool learning system to support high-ability learners in the Central Highlands Area of the south-west Victoria region.
In 2022, a targeted online, high-ability mathematics program was developed by the team. Delivered through a common instructional model, the program is designed to lift students who are on the cusp of attainment into the top two National Assessment — Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) bands of achievement in numeracy.
The exemplary cross-school enrichment program has facilitated high-ability students, who have just missed out on the statewide Victorian High-Ability Program, to access high-quality teaching practice and to challenge their learning in collaboration with other high-ability students from across the four schools.
Working in small groups, students are empowered to solve problems, confidently share strategies, and celebrate their learning growth and achievements.
Templestowe Park Primary School
Templestowe Park Primary School is dedicated to providing an opportunity-rich learning environment for their high-ability students, with a specific focus on Mathematics.
The school has a whole-school teaching and learning model that focuses on both learning and wellbeing to ensure their students feel safe, respected, and empowered to learn. Challenging learning opportunities support high-ability students to reach their full potential.
The school’s Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) program is undertaken in a specially designed learning environment to provide practice-based learning experiences for students in areas such as robotics. High-ability STEM students also attend the John Monash Science School Mini Mathematicians and Big Science, Little Scientists program.
The school has been a Maths Active Victoria school member since 2017. Data-based Maths Extension classes are balanced by external learning opportunities such as Maths Talent Quest, Maths Games and Olympiad and the Melbourne University Maths Challenge, which extend high-ability students through challenge in dynamic social environments.
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