High potential and gifted education

• Art Club: Each term, a different stage group participates in a weekly session, allowing all students from K to Year 6 to take part throughout the year. Over the course of the term, students engage in fun and inspiring activities such as drawing, painting, and other hands-on creative projects. This relaxed and supportive environment encourages imagination, skill development, and a love of artistic expression. Whether experimenting with colours or trying new techniques, students enjoy developing their originality and producing unique artworks to be proud of.

• Band: Peakhurst Public School partners with Bandemonium to provide the opportunity to learn a musical instrument and be part of our school’s band program. Students participate in 2 sessions each week – a small group instrumental tutorial and a full band rehearsal. Currently these sessions occur during lunchtime. Bandemonium has a wide range of instruments that can be rented or purchased outright.

• Dance: Peakhurst Public School partners with Groove Nation to provide students with an opportunity to be part of a dance group. Currently the school has a Junior (K-2) and Senior (3-6) dance group. These classes are held once a week before school.

• Extension Writing group: Years 3-6 students who show ability and interest work alongside our identified writing students to collaboratively plan, story board, write and illustrate a book. Our ‘illustrator group’ draw using digital tools to accompany the words written by the ‘writers group’.

Our school recognises that every student is individual, and we provide flexible and diverse opportunities for students to explore and grow their strengths outside the classroom.

• Mathematics challenges: Extension students in Stage 3 participate in the Australia Maths Olympiad each year. They complete 4 tests over the year to build their computational and problem-solving skills.  A select group of students attend the Stage 3 Gifted and Talented Mathematics Competition run by Sydney Technical High School, our local selective high school.

• Graded Maths groups:  From Years 1–6 our students are placed into graded maths groups to allow for extension and explicit instruction, meeting the students at their point of need. Pre- and post-assessments, along with consistent teacher judgement help to form these groups each semester.

• Extension Writing group: Years 3-6 students who show ability and interest work alongside our identified artistic students to collaboratively plan, story board, write and illustrate a book. Our ‘writers group’ write the words and the ‘illustrators group’ draw pictures to accompany the writing.

• Debating:  Years 3-6 students who enjoy public speaking and debating current events and topics are able to join our Inter-school and Premiers Debating teams. Our school competes against other schools in our local area.

• Public Speaking: Each year all our students learn about oral communication during English lessons. Students who have an interest and ability are then able to take their speeches written in class, work on them individually and compete in our Public Speaking Competition. Each class has 2 finalists in our school competition. The winners go o to represent our school in our District Public Speaking Competition.

• Georges River College – High Potential Gifted Education (HPGE) Day for Year 4 students. Each year students attend the high school to rotate through four engaging HPGE activities designed to extend their learning across the intellectual, creative, and physical domains. Some activities involve friendly competitions, with points awarded between schools.

• PSSA: Each semester the school offers years 3-6 students the opportunity to try out and be a member of one of the sports that then competes in an interschool competition each Friday. There are usually 5 different sports offered each semester.

• Representative Sport:  Students who excel in a sport, whether it is within the PSSA competition, or through our swimming, athletics or cross country carnivals go on to represent our school in the Georges River Network District Carnival. Students who place in the top performers then go on to represent our network of school at the Sydney East Sports competitions.

• Dance and movement sessions: Students participate in dance and movement sessions as part of our PD/H program. Learning dance forms and types, choreographing and participating in dances for our school show.

• Student Representative Council (SRC): Two students from each class are voted in at the beginning of each year.  Students meet weekly to discuss important school issues and plan activities. They organise fundraising events to support school projects and community causes. SRC members also gather suggestions from their classmates and report these ideas back to teachers and the school leadership.

• Year 6 Buddies: During our Kindergarten Transition program at the end of each year, our Year 5 students meet their new Kindy Buddy. As the kindergarten students start school the following year their Year 6 Buddy spends their lunch time and recess with them for the first few weeks of school. The Buddy helps with opening lunch boxes, playing games and helping build friendships among their classmates. Throughout the year the Kindy and Buddy will

• Eco Kids:  Interested students from K-6 come together once a week and tend the vegetable patch and care for the school gardens, helping plants grow and stay healthy. They also raise awareness among students about the benefits of eating healthy food and making good choices.

• Mindfulness and resilience activities: Each day after lunchtime, students spend 10 minutes engaging in mindfulness activities like quiet drawing and practicing mindfulness techniques. These sessions also include teaching self-regulation strategies to help students manage their emotions and stay focused.