Gifted and Talented

ANGELA FOULDS-COOK

Head of Gifted and Talented

Year 7-Year 12

The Senior School Gifted and Talented Program continues to flourish with a talent development vehicle of clustering, extension and enrichment classes, and accelerative options to those boys whose potential is on a trajectory towards being translated into performance. An emphasis on the needs of the individual student drive the provisions for each boy. Positive catalysts are purposefully put in place to extend and build the gifted student’s academic and social and emotional experience such as; teachers who have completed Professional Learning on how to effectively teach gifted and gifted learning disabled students, the explicit teaching of emotional intelligence and the adoption of a growth mindset, acceptance of the diverse nature of learning and leadership skills, and close collaboration with parents, teachers and the Additional Learning Needs Team to produce dynamic ALN plans for those who are identified as twice exceptional. These examples among many approaches are researchbased provisions that aim to give the Gifted TSS boy the best chance of transforming his gifted potential into performance over time. Mrs Angela Foulds-Cook and Mrs Jasna Poeszus continue to make a positive contribution to the wider community. They presented at the International Conference on Gifted on the topic of social and emotional wellbeing as it is embedded in the TSS G&T program, and Mrs Foulds-Cook took part in a Gifted research forum held at UNSW.

Withdrawal classes also make up one aspect of the TSS G&T program and the Year 7 classes have focused on learning about how their brain learns efficiently and how their thoughts, feelings and actions can affect the self-efficacy of their learning. Science, Maths and Year 7 core teacher Mr Matthew Slattery became involved in teaching the Year 8 G&T and he explored the concept of ‘Energy’, ‘Growth vs fixed mindset’ and ‘Sharing an idea’. While exploring ‘Energy’ the students were encouraged to think creatively and take risks in their design of a mechanical system to best harness the power of the wind. Students were also tasked with ‘Sharing an Idea’ within the theme of ‘upsetting the balance’. The boys presented varied and interesting topics in a format similar to TED talks such as; how women are betrayed in video games, the subjects taught at school, whether sport should attract government funding as opposed to science or medicine, and on race issues. Among a wide variety of topics the Year 9 G&T withdrawal class have concentrated on how to learn and revise efficiently as the content and subject load increases throughout their senior years. Year 9s explored strategies to increase the level of their creativity and how to think like a genius by examining Da Vinci as a model producer of innovative inventions and ideas. Protecting the emotional life of gifted teens has also been a strategic focus this year. The boys have been taught multiple relaxation and wellbeing strategies and where and how to seek support, culminating in Year 10 G&T students participating in the Generation Next Mental Health and Wellbeing Day held at Bond University.

The Year 10 G&T elective saw presentations on a wide variety of topics, for example, Financial Fitness, The Importance of the Ocean, Positive Psychology, How Fitness Impacts Success, to name a few, and the students were able to benefit greatly from the wisdom of a variety of guest

speakers. An important innovation to the Year 10 G&T program saw support for the national focus on STEM subjects with the introduction of the Griffith University Griff INfotech “Introduction to Programming”. The students under the tutelage of Mr Keshlan Chinia and supervision of Mrs Foulds-Cook have learnt how to code using the Java Programming Language. They completed Griffith online units and attended a lecture day at the Gold Coast campus, where the students were taught some of the more challenging programming problems and were given an informative tour of the gaming and robotics studios. These boys look well on the way towards being awarded this university course in Year 11, and some may continue on to the next course, “Introduction to object-oriented programming”. A few of these boys also went over to Year 5 Prep classes to teach basic programming and spread the message that coding is a very important 21st century skill to master.

The Senior School Honours program for those boys across Years 8-10 who achieve an A- or better in particular subjects was undertaken with gusto this year. Many boys completed extension projects in Business, History, English, Drama, Robotics, Crest Science projects, Chinese, French, Library, Java Programming and Maths this year, and some were awarded admission into the Honours Society for completing eight projects at an impressive A standard. These projects will be displayed by faculty in the Innovation Corridor located under the Arch of Honour. TSS Gifted and Talented and Honours students continue to be supported with a strong program encouraging them to engage with unique learning opportunities. Our aim is to help these unique boys to flourish both academically and socially, so that they can use their gifts to make a difference within our TSS community and beyond.

YEAR 7 GIFTED AND TALENTED

SEATED ROW: MRS A.M. FOULDS-COOK, S.G. LEDINGHAM, N.O. OXLEY, M.W. BUCKLEY, N.N. PHILLIPS, J.H. HARDY, Z.E. CIROCCO, K.H. HERFT, MR. B.T. GOLDBURG SECOND ROW H.A. BENNETT, P.J. WOLFENDEN, N. CROSS, S. LEE, N. PURZA-PAGE, Z.H. ROSSITER, F.D. SMITH, G.F. GIBSON, K.A. SCHLAPHOFF, J.C. CASTOR THIRD ROW L.S. COLE, K. KANEMURA, C.S. CAMPBELL, W.C. SPISICH, H.P. DEVANTIER, J.M. YUEN, B.J. COOK, V. GANGASANDRA, Z.R. NIXON ABSENT: J.P. BOX, H.J. JEANES-GRANT

YEAR 8 GIFTED AND TALENTED

SEATED ROW: MRS A.M. FOULDS-COOK, F.M. LANE, C.J. HANRAHAN, T.J. WRIGHT, A.R. MILLS, J.T. SMITH, M.J. LAMBIE, T. FUJII, MR M.G. SLATTERY. SECOND ROW: A.H. TIMONEY, M.J. WOOD, B.G. KELLY, T.A. SCOTCHMER, S.P. STEVENS, M.K. MANLEY, R.E. MURPHY, N.L. NEAL, J.B. WALDEN, A.A. KITCHIN, C.R. SELBY, C.D. LOCKETT ABSENT: B.S. BOTTING, S.J. BOWEN, E.J.COCHRANE, H.J.DIGHT, W.J. GAULT, S.R. GIBSON, R. KIM, D. LIU, T.H. MCCORMACK, B.A. OWEN, T.P. OXENFORD, D.M. ROBERTSON, S.C.THOMPSON, A.H. URBAIN, B.P. VERTULLO, J.F. WARE, C.J. WILSON

YEAR 9 GIFTED AND TALENTED

SEATED ROW: MRS A.M. FOULDS-COOK, J. BOLTON, A.J. BETTLES, C.T. CORBETT, T.J. NICHOLSON, J.R. DWYER, S.A. VAHIDY, S.H. MCMATH, T.D. EDMUNDS, T. ZHU, MR. B.T. GOLDBURG SECOND ROW: H. CHEN, C.J. DOUYERE, J. MARIANI, M. JIANG, K.B. FIELDER, T.C. WRIGHT, F.M. BAILDON, E.M. MAHON, B.T. FUNNELL, X.J. DOERR, W.O. TIMONEY, T. ZHANG, C. SCOTT, F.J. DONALD ABSENT: D.R. CONNOLLY, T.H. FUHRMANN, H.T. KNUDSEN, J.E. KRAVCHENKO, C.J. PILCHER, C.TRAN

YEAR 10 GIFTED AND TALENTED

SEATED ROW: MRS A.M. FOULDS-COOK, J.A. ROGELJA, M.P. VERTULLO, J.L. DWYER, MR. B.T. GOLDBURG SECOND ROW: J.P. HUTCHISON, T.A. TREMAIN, A.M. NELSON, F.B. FOULDS-COOK, H.E. GREEN, O.A. BUTLER ABSENT: T.J. SHERLINE HONOURS SOCIETY

SEATED ROW: MRS A.M. FOULDS-COOK, J.G. GRAY, MS J. INGLIS SECOND ROW: T.O. EDMUNDS, J.A. ROGELJA, R.A. MCCULLOUGH, F.B. FOULDS-COOK, V. NEDUNCHEZHIAN

YEARS 8, 9 AND 10 HONOURS

SEATED ROW: MS J. INGLIS, J.F. WARE, A.J. BETTLES, M.J. LAMBIE, D.P. CLOUGH, C.J. HANRAHAN, L.G. RUTHERFORD, W.J. GAULT, MRS A.M. FOULDS-COOK SECOND ROW: J.T. SMITH, C.D. LOCKETT, A.A. KITCHIN, W.O. LAYT, E.J. COCHRANE, C.T. GRAY, B.A. OWEN, F.M. LANE, T. FUJII, J.G. GRAY THIRD ROW: R. KIM, J.D. BAKER, A.H. TIMONEY, M.H. TSE, B.D. VIVLIOS, F.A. SMITH, M. FREEMAN, Y.S. BENZENATI, T.D. EDMUNDS FOURTH ROW: J.A. BRUNSKILL, T.J. RIGBY, O.A. ROBB GLADWIN, F. CHEN, J.L. DWYER, K. JO, D. LEVENDAKIS, D. BURTON, J.G. RUTHERFORD, E.J. VAN DER VEGT, K.A. RUTHERFORD, H.P. WALLER, S.I. ANDARAWEWA, A. JUMAILY, J.L. ATTHOW FIFTH ROW: O.J. HALL, H.E. GREEN, D. LEON, Y.L. YANAKA, F.B. FOULDS-COOK, P.N. MURTAGH, M. NOSKOV, O.S. DENNIS, O.J. SHERRAH, T.J. SHERLINE, C.J. MURPHY, J.P. HUTCHISON, J.A. ROGELJA, K.M. BARRY, J. SHIN SIXTH ROW: J. BOLTON, L.X. ZHENG, A.J. RIDGWAY, R.A. MCCULLOUGH, J. MARIANI, H.E. MARTIN, K.K. BLIGH, K.B. NEWITT, H. FRENCH, L.A. CHESTERMAN, B. RADEL, V. NEDUNCHEZHIAN, T.A. SCOTCHMER, J.W. FULTON, D.J. HUMMELSTAD, H. CHEN, B. BOTTING SEVENTH ROW: K.B. FIELDER, J.H. JOHNSTONE, W.J. KEMP, S.A. MOFFAT, A.M. NELSON, O. GALLAGHER, J.A. HESLOP, M. MCCARTHY, H. KADDATZ, R.C. GALL, M. HARRIS, S. GIBSON, M.M. LOVETT, J.R. MATTHEWS, J.E. CHAPMAN, T.D. OXENFORD, H. ELISHAV ABSENT: S.P. MCMENAMIN, M.H. ROBINSON J.K. ROTHERAM, S. VAHIDY, L. SAMPSON