The gifted and talented represent a wide range of students with many different abilities.
CPDS aims to provide for gifted and talented learners, including the twice-exceptional, by recognising and responding to their specific abilities and qualities, these may be social, emotional, cultural, creative, cognitive, physical, and/or spiritual. It is our role to support these students with a variety of strategies in the classroom to enhance their output and assist in the scaffolding of their learning.
In addition to the many opportunities CPDS offer in Sport, Music and Technology we have an established ‘Link’ Programme.
Link groups are across the school at each year level and have been established to provide for these identified learners to meet weekly to link with ‘like’ minds, be challenged and empowered to develop self-understanding.
Students have opportunities to engage in critical, creative, and caring ways with complex issues shaping their world now and for the future.
These students have either a recommendation by an educational psychologist for a gifted programme, been referred by their classroom teacher as being well beyond their peers or identified as having the potential to be and displaying uneven performance and barriers to successful learning. Parents can also nominate their child to be a part of Link.
Gifted students can be asynchronous in academic development, vulnerable emotionally, have a heightened intensity, and possess a different way of thinking- in the abstract and with complexity.
They require support from their teachers, school community, family and each other.
Gifted, talented and very able children share a need to explore topics of interest in more depth and complexity than their peers.
Many struggle with over-excitabilities and sensitivities as well as perfectionism and often a feeling of being ‘different’.
At Link sessions we have fun and our environment is a safe, calm, challenging and positive one.
Throughout the year as well as learning a variety of thinking tools and strategies to encourage depth and complexity in their learning, the Link students are given support to gain
- Understanding of concept of giftedness
- Understanding of self as a gifted person
- Identifying associated needs.
- Taking action to have needs met.
The Link groups allow these thinkers to have the opportunity to experience an inclusive environment. The groups have approx. 15 students.
Diana Hayman runs this programme, if you have any questions please feel free to email her on firstname.lastname@example.org