High potential and gifted education

Nowra High School has a proud tradition of academic excellence, and outstanding sporting, cultural, and creative and performing arts success, all of which is dedicated to helping every student reach their full potential. Our commitment to high-quality teaching and active student engagement ensures that student achievement remains at the heart of everything we do.

Nowra High School supports our high potential and gifted students with a range of embedded activities as well as our enrichment stream, designed for high high-achieving students who are motivated, conscientious and demonstrate an outstanding commitment to academics.

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 with advanced learning needs.

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.

Our high potential and gifted education opportunities

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. We continue strengthen opportunities so that all students can be enriched, extended and supported to learn in and reach their full potential. Throughout the year we support our students through domain-focused enrichment activities, student-led programs, academic competitions, and opportunities to ground their learning and understanding in real-world experiences.

In our classroom

Differentiated tasks that adjust pace, complexity and higher-order thinking.
Formative assessment to monitor growth and adapt learning.
Explicit teaching of critical thinking and problem-solving strategies.
Opportunities for abstraction, inquiry, and curriculum depth.
Tasks that promote choice, authenticity, and critical and creative thinking including cross-curricular projects.
Flexible grouping for collaborative ideation and presentation.
Differentiated movement tasks and skill refinement in PDHPE.
Targeted learning goals for coordination, agility, and control.
Supportive learning environments that enable exploration and self-assessment.
Strengths-based feedback and goal setting.
Opportunities for leadership within the classroom.
Structured peer collaboration and reflection.
Safe learning environments that encourage confidence, risk-taking, and perseverance.

Across our school

Debating
STEM and coding clubs
Academic competitions
Critical thinking workshops
School musicals
Music ensembles
Visual arts and drama showcases
Creative writing groups
Sport squads
House competitions
Performance-based movement groups
Peer mentoring
Student leadership (SRC)
Wellbeing programs
Participation in whole-school inclusion and wellbeing initiatives.

Across NSW

The Premier’s Debating Challenge helps our students to build logical arguments and confidence in public speaking.
Our STEM Enrichment Partnerships with industry to deepen our students’ intellectual curiosity while developing innovation and collaboration.
Southern Stars is an iconic performing arts event that celebrates the talents, diversity and creativity of students from across South Coast NSW public schools.
Participation in regional and state drama ensembles promotes character exploration, storytelling and expressive freedom for our Stage 5 high potential and gifted drama students.
Participation in music ensembles hones our students’ musical skills, discipline and ensemble awareness.
The Premier’s Sporting Challenge (PSC) promotes whole-school participation in physical activity with leadership pathways and professional learning.
The Representative School Sport Pathway and PSSA and CHSSA events enable our students to trial and compete in sports at regional, state and national levels, fostering discipline, commitment and collaboration.
Participation in state-wide dance ensembles develops our high potential and gifted Stage 5 dance students’ technical skills, performance presence and physical expressiveness.
Our mentoring programs connect our students with trusted adults including school alumni to build confidence, motivation, and interpersonal skills.