Inspire – High potential and gifted education

At Condell Park High School, HPGE is embedded in everyday practice. We are committed to recognising and nurturing high potential and gifted students, ensuring every student has the opportunity to thrive at our school.

• Our supportive classroom environments promote a sense of belonging and encourage risk-taking, creativity and collaboration.
• Groups are flexibly organised for collaboration and presentation, students take lead roles, and feedback is strengths-based with clear goals and self-assessment.
• Students engage in tasks that promote choice and authenticity, while developing critical and creative thinking​ through cross-curricular projects.
• When evidence shows a need for more, students are extended and have the opportunity to access advanced pathways.
• We measure impact, not anecdotes, through student work, reflections and progress checks.

Our school recognises that every student is an individual, and we provide flexible and diverse opportunities for them to explore and develop their strengths beyond the classroom. All our students, including high potential and gifted students, are encouraged to engage in the ongoing opportunities made available to them.

• Ongoing physical domain growth opportunities - Condell Park High School entered the State European Handball Competition for the first time ever in 2025. After a slow start, getting beaten comprehensively by French International School Lycee Condorcet 12-4, we then went unbeaten for the rest of the tournament, defeating schools with established European Handball programs such as Chatswood HS and Killara HS. We then took out the final against Lycee Condorcet, beating them comfortably 9-4 to become NSW State Champions at our first attempt.

  Off the back of our victory at the State Championships, we were invited by the Australian Junior European Handball coach to attend the Open State Titles to watch NSW vs Victoria and participate in a training session. With European Handball to be involved in the Brisbane Olympics in 2032, this is an opportunity for the organisation to scout young talent. We took 17 students to this event, with the aim of also entering a female team in the state tournament in 2026.

  Our elite students have the opportunity to work with the neighbouring primary school to serve as coaches for their PSSA teams. Students from Year 11 and 12 participate in this initiative, coaching teams in soccer, basketball and netball. Students are making strong connections with the young primary students, building their social-emotional domain skillsets.

• Opportunities for students to develop their social-emotional domain of potential are ongoing and referenced in the fortnightly wellbeing lessons. Self-awareness of strengths, self-regulation, and goal-setting within our collaborative learning environments help students build social-emotional competencies, such as self-efficacy and resilience. Students are always encouraged to engage in the Student Representative Council and in mentoring and peer-coaching programs, as well as the leadership of major events including ANZAC Day, Remembrance Day and NAIDOC assemblies. Students have led connections with community, leading food drives, cancer awareness events and R U OK activities.

• Highlighting their potential in the intellectual domain, students have expressed their concerns for real-world issues through the composition of their own environmental poems and complementary multimodal videos. Project-based learning is evident in extension tasks, such as adapting classic texts, using flipped classrooms to engage peers in new topics and designing a visual aid to teach peers about the lives and times of influential 20th-century figures. Beyond the classroom, English students have had opportunities to participate in the Premier's Debating Challenge, poetry competitions and the Annual CPHS Spelling Bee.

• Students’ intellectual potential is challenged as the Chess Club opens its doors every Thursday at lunch. It welcomes students from all levels, ranging from beginners to advanced. These students are provided opportunities to enhance and showcase their chess skills under strict, timed conditions and in competitions, culminating in a chess tournament to compete for the title ‘CPHS Chess Champion’.

• The HSC Mentoring Program provides targeted support, weekly workshops and drop-in opportunities for students to build their academic confidence and skills.

• STEM embeds skills from the creative and intellectual domains. The skills involved are highly interlinked and essential for innovation and problem-solving in the modern world. Opportunities to explore STEM pathways are extensive and include the Universal Robotic Challenge, CSIRO Partnership, face-to-face Division and Simulator Challenge. Girls in STEM have entrepreneurial opportunities, which places them in an advanced standing when pursuing career pathways.

• Talent in the arts is celebrated and extended through creative domain growth opportunities, such as music ensembles, choir and drama performances, showcasing students’ natural abilities in imagination, originality and creativeness. In our Creative Arts subjects, students engage in hands-on learning across Music, Visual Arts, Visual Design, Photography, Digital Media and Ceramics, developing problem-solving and critical-thinking skills with an embedded focus on using digital media software and technology to support artistic self-expression in a collaborative and experimental environment. Students have also engaged in experiential learning through the Senior Symposia at the Seymour Centre and through live viewing of drama performances.

• Our students perform at local primary schools and the Youth Rock Statewide competition. This offers students opportunities to perform live, gain industry feedback, showcase original compositions and gain recording and production experience.

We provide access to local, state, and national competitions and events to help students explore and extend their potential and talents.

• The Premier’s Debating Challenge helps our students to build logical arguments and confidence in public speaking.
• Our STEM Enrichment Partnerships with industry and universities deepen our students’ intellectual curiosity while developing innovation and collaboration.

• The Premier’s Sporting Challenge promotes whole-school participation in physical activity with leadership pathways and collaborative learning. Students reflect and share their learning, so experiences build knowledge and character, contributing to their own identity and that of their school.