Inspire – High potential and gifted education
At Earlwood Public School, we celebrate the diverse talents and abilities of our students. Our Inspire program is dedicated to identifying and nurturing high potential and gifted learners across creative, intellectual, physical, and social-emotional domains.
We tailor learning pathways that include enrichment workshops, creative problem-solving challenges, leadership opportunities, and extension activities in subject areas. Students are encouraged to pursue their interests and passions, participate in competitions and projects, and collaborate with peers and teachers in a supportive environment.
We work closely with families to ensure individual strengths are recognised early and every student is given the opportunity to grow, thrive, and achieve their personal best.
Why choose us for your high potential or gifted child?
Recognising potential and developing talent
Our teachers find potential and nurture our students to ensure every student has the opportunity to thrive at our school.
Tailored learning
At Earlwood Public School, teachers provide tailored lessons and extension activities to challenge and engage students based on their individual abilities. This approach aligns with the NSW Department of Education’s High Potential and Gifted Education Policy, ensuring every student’s strengths are recognised and supported.
Rich opportunities and activities
Students can take part in opportunities to develop their talent in the arts, sport, leadership and more.
Supporting your child at school
Working with the school helps create a positive learning environment which helps your child achieve their potential. Our students can participate in a wide range of opportunities that aim to extend and enrich student potential.
What is high potential and gifted education?
Inspire – 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 students engage with HPGE education in the classroom, in our school, and across NSW.
At Earlwood Public School, HPGE is embedded in everyday practice. Many students demonstrate high potential, and we actively nurture this potential to ensure every student has the opportunity to succeed and flourish.
- Differentiated tasks that adjust pace, complexity and higher-order thinking.
- Formative assessment to monitor growth and adapt learning.
- Advanced learning pathways, including accelerated or compacted content.
- 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.
- Opportunities to take on lead roles in physical demonstrations or team strategy.
- 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.
Every high potential and gifted student is unique and we provide flexible and diverse opportunities designed to address their individual needs.
- Debating
- Robert Hardy public speaking competition
- Primary School State Debating Championships
- Coding club
- Academic competitions
- Critical thinking workshops
- Number crunches
- Puzzle club
- Music ensembles
- Digital visual art club
- Creative writing group
- PSSA sports teams and competition
- Junior and Senior dance troupe
- Peer mentoring
- Student leadership eg SRC, environmental (green) team, sport house leaders, library monitors and Year 6 leadership team.
- Wellbeing programs
- Participation in whole-school inclusion and wellbeing initiatives.
Our students participate in a wide range of statewide programs to extend and enrich student potential.
- The Premier’s Spelling Bee promotes our students’ vocabulary development and attention to detail in competitive settings.
- APSMO Maths Olympiad
- The Premier’s Debating Challenge helps our students to build logical arguments and confidence in public speaking.
- Premier’s Multicultural Public Speaking
- Metropolitan South and Metropolitan South and West Public Speaking Competition
- Participation in music ensembles eg community of schools for band.
- 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.
- Premier’s Reading Challenge
- Create performing arts showcase - choir, band, dance and visual arts.
- Leadership grows through SRC, mentoring and peer coaching, Green team, Year 6 student leadership and primary dream and lead conference for our leaders of tomorrow.
- Support for high potential and gifted students is available statewide through the NSW Department of Education. We assist with entries, preparation, and reflection to ensure that every experience contributes to ongoing learning.
Student spotlight
Explore, Elevate, Excel
Premier's Spelling Bee
Congratulations to Charlotte and Aydin who will be representing our school at the Regional Premier's Spelling Bee Finals!
Festival of Choral Music
Congratulations to Curtis on his selection to perform with the Arts Unit Public Schools Symphony Orchestra.
Performing Arts
Congratulations to our Stage 3 girls on their successful auditions for Create 2026.
EPS Soccer Stars
Congratulations to our dedicated soccer players who have represented the school at the Wiley Park Zone and Sydney East Boys Football Trials. Through hard work and commitment, they have elevated their skills and shown true sportsmanship. We are excited to see them compete alongside the region’s most talented players and wish them continued success!
EPS Soccer Stars
Congratulations to our dedicated soccer players who have represented the school at the Wiley Park Zone and Sydney East Boys Football Trials. Through hard work and commitment, they have elevated their skills and shown true sportsmanship. We are excited to see them compete alongside the region’s most talented players and wish them continued success!
SE Cross Country
Congratulations to these students who represented both the school and the zone at the Sydney East Cross Country Championships. We wish them every success as they compete with some of the strongest runners from around the region.
Sydney East Region Oz Tag Trials
Amelia and Madison represented our school and the zone at the Sydney East Region Oz Tag trials. The combined zone team placed 4th on the day.
Congratulations on this impressive achievement!
NSW State PSSA Swimming Championships
Aiden (Year 6) represented Earlwood Public School at the NSW State PSSA Swimming Championships by Aiden . In a highly competitive 11 Years Boys field Aiden applied himself with distinction as he paced up and down the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre (SOPAC) in three events. He recorded the following results:
- 10th in the 11 Years Boys 50m Breaststroke
- 12th in the Senior Boys 200m Individual Medley
- 14th in the 11 Years Boys 50m Backstroke
Congratulations Aiden on a fine effort in the pool!
NSW PSSA Athletics Championships
We are incredibly proud of Liv from Year 6 for her remarkable achievements at the NSW PSSA Athletics Championships last week! Liv soared to first place in the long jump with an impressive leap of 4.52m, earning the title of State Champion! She also delivered a strong performance in the high jump, where she and seven other girls cleared 1.40m in a tight contest for third place. Liv finished 9th on count back.
Liv will now proudly represent NSW at the Australian Track and Field Championships in Canberra. Additionally, she has been selected for the AFL Sydney Swans Academy in 2026! What an amazing superstar!
We are all behind you Liv, cheering you on the whole way!
Primary School State Debating Championships
My journey in debating this year began with the initial trial at Bellevue Hill, where I competed alongside 40 other students. It was a challenging start, but it sparked my interest and pushed me to improve. After the trial, I was selected amongst five others to attend training sessions with some highly skilled debaters, where I learned a great deal about argument structure, rebuttal strategies, and effective speaking. These sessions helped me grow significantly as a debater. I later trialled again and, to my excitement, earned a spot on the final team representing the Sydney region. Now, I'm preparing to compete at the state championships in Mulgoa; a milestone I'm incredibly proud of.
Bonbon - 6F
Earlwood Public School is also very proud of Bonbon’s achievements and wishes him all the best at the Primary School State Debating Championships in November.
FIBA Invitational Basketball Tournament
Recently, Lucas from class 6F represented his team in an invitational basketball tournament organised by FIBA in Liuzhou, China, competing in the 10–12-year-old age group.
The team played five challenging matches against some of the highest-ranked young teams in the region. Before their first game, the players exchanged gifts with their opponents as a gesture of sportsmanship and respect — but once on the court, they showed no mercy.
In the opening match, Lucas’s team achieved a dominant 100–40 victory, with Lucas personally contributing one-third of the team’s total points. Building on that momentum, they went on to win three more matches, losing only once during the competition. Despite the setback, the players showed resilience and determination, anxiously awaiting the final results after the fourth match.
Their patience paid off — the next day, they discovered that they had secured the tournament championship, becoming the team with the most victories overall. The celebrations included cakes and a buffet, enjoyed by all after a hard-fought tournament.
As team captain, Lucas proudly brought the championship trophy home and now keeps it on display at his desk. Reflecting on the trip, he shared that the experience was unforgettable — from making new international friends and trying local foods to learning that giving your best effort always leads to success.
Congratulations to Lucas and the entire team for their outstanding achievement!
The World Scholar's Cup
Congratulations to Jayden who last week was the youngest competitor to take part in 'The World Scholar's Cup'.
Jayden and his team competed in 8 categories over the 2 days of competition.
Coming in 4th place overall means that Jayden will progress to the next round of the competition in Bangkok, Thailand in September.
We wish you all the best for the upcoming challenges and congratulate you on your dedication to learning.
NSW Jigsaw Championships
Congratulations to our state finalist in this year's NSW Jigsaw Championships.
The team placed 4th in the NSW Schools Division of the competition.
Sydney Southeast Symphonic Winds Ensemble
We are thrilled to congratulate Pennie, Charlotte (6F) and Lachlan (5/6C) on their outstanding achievement performing as part of the Sydney Southeast Symphonic Winds ensemble! Selected though a competitive audition process, these talented students joined over 100 young musicians from across Greater Sydney to form this concert band.
2025 marks the 31st year of the Sydney Southeast Symphonic Winds, a program renowned for nurturing musical excellence in NSW public schools. Their recent performance showcased not only their dedication and talent, but also the power of music to bring communities together.
Well done, Pennie, Charlotte and Lachlan!
Canterbury Bankstown Youth Art Competition (12-18 year olds)
'The theme of the art competition was ‘My Positivity Playlist,’ which wasn't about music but rather the things or hobbies that bring joy, happiness, and positivity. Since I love animals and nature, which make me happy, I created and submitted a digital artwork of a bunny with colourful flowers on its head, titled The Crown of Spring. I worked on it during lunchtime digital art technology lessons with Mrs Thomas. I was excited to win 1st place in the digital artwork category!
My piece will be on display at the Bankstown Arts Centre from Tuesday, 11 November to Saturday, 16 November.
I feel thrilled to have my hard work recognised.' - Written by Angelina 6MR
Congratulations to Angelina 6M on your fantastic achievement in digital art and for winning $80 in the art competition!
Premier's Spelling Bee State Grand Final
Metropolitan South and Metropolitan South, West Public Speaking Competition
On Tuesday, I had the Grand Final for Public Speaking. I got to this level by winning my stage at school and then winning the Network final.
First, I did my prepared speech on the topic "My biggest concerns for the future", which are the environment, technology and the cost of living.
Then I had to do an impromptu speech on the topic "Patience", where I spoke about persuading my dad to get a bike and he said to be patient. Once I got my bike, it felt like the best thing ever!
It was a great experience and I got free chips at the end!
Niko - 3/4D
Sydney East Boys Cricket Team member for the NSW State Boys PSSA Cricket Championships
Cheercon National Cheerleading Competition
Recently, Scarlett (Year 6) competed with her team at the Cheercon National Cheerleading Competition which was held at the International Convention Centre (ICC), Sydney. Congratulations to Scarlett on finishing in third place and achieving a bronze medal in the Novice Division with no mistakes recorded!
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