High Potential and Gifted Education
Opportunities at Port Hacking High School
At Port Hacking High School, high potential and gifted education is how we teach in every classroom, every day. Many students have high potential, and we help that potential to grow into something powerful. We spot readiness early using evidence-informed practice, then lift pace, complexity and precision so every student knows their next step.
Clear pathways connect learning in class to stretch beyond it, from our Year 7 Extension Class and Community of Schools enrichment to the Port Academy in Football and Dance. The aim is simple, every learner is known, challenged and supported to grow.
Our high potential and gifted education opportunities
Our students engage with HPGE education in the classroom, in our school, and across NSW.
Targeted at students from Years 7–10, the Academy identifies individuals who show advanced skills, performance capability, and motivation in Football and Dance. Selected students will participate in an enriched program with professional coaches and instructors.
The school’s goals and aspirations for the extension class are focusing on the intellectual and creative domains to meet the diverse range and interests of our students.
In Term 3, as part of our Community of Schools Program, students from Yowie Bay P.S., Gymea P.S., Gymea North P.S. and Miranda P.S. nominate students to participate in an enrichment program run by Port Hacking High staff to develop their skills across multiple domains.
Why choose us for your high potential or gifted child?
Recognising potential and developing talent
Our teachers find potential and nurture our students to be the best they can be.
Tailored lessons
Each student has different abilities. Teachers respond to each student’s ability by providing extra challenges and extension activities to keep learning exciting and engaging.
Rich opportunities and activities
Students can take part in opportunities to develop their talent in the arts, sport, leadership and more.
Opening doors to wider experiences
Our students can participate in a wide range of state-wide opportunities that aim to extend and enrich student potential.
What is high potential and gifted education?
High Potential and Gifted Education (HPGE) is how our school supports students who demonstrate advanced learning abilities or the potential to achieve at high levels.
Our approach to High Potential and Gifted Education ensures students are identified early and provided with learning experiences that challenge, extend and engage them.
We do this through:
- effective teaching strategies like enrichment, extension and acceleration
- tailored support during lessons that stretch, challenge and inspire
- access to a wide range of opportunities both within and beyond our school.
Help for your high potential child
If your child shows signs of high potential, contact us. We can share how our HPGE support can guide their learning journey.
Student opportunities and activities
Discover the opportunities our students have at our school.
Learning
Find out about our approach to learning and supporting students to progress
- At Port Hacking High, HPGE lives in everyday practice. Teachers use evidence to identify learning needs, then lift pace, complexity and higher-order thinking with explicit teaching, strong feedback and visible learning routines. Differentiation is expected, so students see clear goals and next steps.
- From 2026, our Extension Class begins in Year 7 and grows each year. It focuses on the intellectual and creative domains, uses project and inquiry-based learning, real-world problem solving and compacted curriculum so students can accelerate where ready, then go deeper.
- Talent grows in community. We run a Year 5 HPGE Enrichment Program with our partner primary schools, building pathways through team-building, STEM challenges and forensics in our labs.
- On campus, students find rich stretch and support: academic help through initiatives like homework clubs, and a vibrant co-curricular life in bands, choir, dance, drama, debating and public speaking. These sit alongside targeted literacy and numeracy work and a whole-school focus on feedback, questioning and data-informed practice.
- For students with high potential in the physical domain, our Port Academy (Football and Dance) offers professional coaching, strength and conditioning, video analysis, wellbeing education and mentoring, aligned with school timetables to keep learning first.
- When students need stretch beyond school, we match goals to the right statewide opportunities, then bring the learning back to class. Many step into the Premier’s Debating Challenge to build logical argument and confident speaking, or the Premier’s Spelling Bee to sharpen vocabulary and attention to detail.
- Performers audition for Schools Spectacular, state and regional drama and dance ensembles, and state music ensembles such as State Wind Orchestra and State Choirs, growing discipline, expression and ensemble awareness.
- Sport is a strong pathway too, with the Premier’s Sporting Challenge and the Representative School Sport pathway across CHSSA enabling trials at zone, regional, state and national levels.
Help for your high potential child
If your child shows signs of high potential, contact us. We can share how our HPGE support can guide their learning journey.