Gifted Program

Gifted Education at Newington

A high degree of intellectual ability does not guarantee academic success.

2005 marked a new approach to Gifted Education at Newington College. While many activities had been run in the past, a formal a Gifted Program was created to ensure consistency over the three campuses.

Gifted students learn at a different rate from other children and accommodation of that rate is crucial to their intellectual and emotional development. These students need to be extended beyond the core content, to work at higher levels demanding greater complexity of thought. Gifted students need the challenge and freedom to explore research and express.

Students are identified using a number of criteria that aim to detect innate ability in a curriculum area. This information also indicates if a student is able to move through the curriculum at a faster rate. This testing is multi layered and ongoing, as students who are gifted may not manifest their traits until they are at certain developmental stages. Procedures are being established to help with the identification of underachieving students and aid them to access their intellectual abilities.

Gifted students learn at a faster rate than others. The Newington Gifted Program aims to track the students’ acquisition of knowledge so that students who are gifted can become familiar with the core curriculum more quickly. Once it has been established that the student has covered the curriculum outcomes, then the curriculum can be differentiated for the student. This may take the form of higher level work within the classroom or withdrawal from the classroom to work on individual research tasks or group work.

A key idea in the Newington College Gifted Program is that the differentiated work done by a student is in place of other work.

Extension work and work done as part of the program should not mean more work. It means more demanding and more rigorous work. Students who have qualified for the Gifted Program will not have to catch up on class work that they have missed. Students’ work completed as part of the program will be published in a number ways. The work will also be reported on to parents.

Newington staff are being skilled to deal with students who have these special needs. A full time Coordinator of Gifted Education, Rosalind McKenzie, aids in the development of this program and assists staff with its implementation.

GIFTED EDUCATION MODEL PDF 23kb

NOMINATION FORM FOR PARENTS 25kb