FUTURE OF LEARNING

Gifted & Talented World Conference

In early August three of our staff were invited to present at the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children (WCGTC) Conference. This virtual conference, with the theme Developing the Future of Gifted Education, is a biennial event, giving thought leaders in gifted education around the globe the opportunity to share their ideas.

Churchill Fellow Desilee Tait, with 30 years’ experience working with gifted and talented students, is Coordinator of our K-12 Gifted and Talented program. “We were so pleased to be able to share what we are doing here at Loreto Kirribilli.” Desilee opened the presentation with an overview of the Gifted and Talented policy at Kirribilli, explaining how the policy is updated annually.

“Professional development of our staff is crucial to the success and sustainability of the program. So we are very proud to say that 93% of our staff have completed the ‘Mini-COGE’ Certificate in Gifted Education from UNSW."

Desilee is passionate about the Loreto Academic Mentor Program (LAMP). “LAMP has been at the school for 12 years. We started with one mentor, we now have 30 - 40 mentors on our list. These mentors are authentic models for those highly gifted students … the extension work goes above and beyond the curriculum.”

Marisa Virtich, Senior School Gifted and Talented teacher, presented an overview of the many and varied extracurricular opportunities for students in the Senior School. “We build on the Junior School’s Philosophy program by participating in the Ethics Olympiad. This helps students learn to think rigorously for themselves... the judges are university lecturers from all around the world.

“We also compete in the Da Vinci Decathlon ... we have the Year 9 elective subject Thinking and Advocacy, a particularly effective course for girls who need to be highly challenged. We have Future Problem Solving, where we have reached the international finals for the second year in a row, and a Creative Writing course for Years 7 and 8.”

“The CH@LK Gifted & Talented page is our media platform page for students and parents to have a look at everything that is available.”

Peta Jauncey, Junior School Gifted and Talented teacher, expounded on the Gifted and Talented program in the Junior School, specifically the study of Philosophy. “Philosophy develops skills in thinking and reasoning, speaking and listening skills, and critical thinking skills. We begin every class with the ‘Rules of Philosophy’: listen to other people; respect other people’s ideas; it’s okay to disagree, but you must do it with respect; and there may be more than one or no right answer. The girls come into each lesson prepared to think.”

Congratulations to our Gifted and Talented educators, showing the world how Loreto Kirribilli responds to the needs of our exceptional students.

Our school goal is to respond to the needs of students within the mild to profoundly gifted range through effective student identification, tracking of student data, and differentiated learning strategies to ensure learning growth.