Gifted and Talented Report
Welcome to Week 6! It was wonderful to see many Newman and former Newman students assisting at the Campus Experience Evening. Their knowledge of the Newman programme and their first hand experiences were an authentic testament to the programme. They were mature, well mannered and articulate- well done ladies on being outstanding ambassadors for the College.
In this edition of the newsletter I would like to “bust” one of the myths regarding gifted programmes in schools.
Myth #1 Gifted students don’t need help, they will do fine on their own
In studies by Rimm 2018, the following attitudes were prevalent:
“Average children are the majority so parents shouldn’t support other children”
“Gifted children possess great potential without special support”
“Gifted education is elitist”
Myth: BUSTED
No- gifted students won’t be ok on their own. Gifted students do need support to reach their potential.
The first purpose of gifted education according to Renzulli, 2012, is to provide young people with “maximum opportunities for self-fulfillment through the development and expression of one or a combination of performance areas where superior potential may be present.”
He also notes the importance for society of having individuals who can be the problem solvers of the future.
As a College and in our system of Catholic schools, we have committed ourselves to provide opportunities to support our gifted students through the establishment of Newman classes to ensure there is an environment with an enriching, challenging curriculum that will engage and push those gifts into talents.
Gifted students can and do underachieve.
“Underachievement is usually described as a discrepancy between expected performance (ability or potential) and actual performance (achievement) that cannot be explained by a learning disability or the documented need for any other category of special education services” (Del Siegle et al., 2017, p372).
A sad reality: “The latest findings from PISA (the Programme for International Student Assessment) show that in Australia, roughly one-in-five 15-year-olds are failing to achieve the international baseline proficiency level in reading literacy, and about the same proportion in mathematical literacy and scientific literacy…This is Australia’s ‘long tail’ of underachievement.” Masters, 2016
Gifted students also fall into this category of underachievement.
With this evidence: Are they ok on their own? Will they make it on their own?
Mrs Colreavy’s Conundrum
A series is given with one missing term. Choose the correct alternative
B,E,H,K,N,?
(a) Q
(b) M
(c) N
(d) W
Email: rachael.colreavy@syd.catholic.edu.au with your answer. Correct answers will win a prize.
Taken from: SSC CGL Prelims Reasoning Practice Test -1 – GeeksforGeeks
