High Potential and Gifted Education

At Marsden High School, students are expected, and supported, to perform to their full potential. They are provided with explicit teaching and differentiated learning experiences to enable them to perform at their best. At the same time every student is expected to apply diligence and sustained effort to their studies, and to do their best to maximise their results.

It is a well established fact that students with high intellectual potential are typically at risk of underperformance if they are not challenged to achieve. In simple terms this means they need an environment in which they are challenged to work at a more complex level; at a faster pace; at a greater intensity; and with potentially greater volume of work than is typically expected of their age-peers.

Specialised curriculum provision for high potential and gifted students addresses their specific learning needs such as:

We aim to optimise the growth and achievement of high potential and gifted students across all domains of potential, through evidence-based talent development opportunities and differentiated teaching and learning practices, all of which are underpinned by the NSW Department of Education’s High Potential and Gifted Education policyopen_in_new.

Marsden High School offers a range of specialised programs for high potential and gifted students:

For highly gifted students, curriculum compacting, mentoring and acceleration may be implemented in certain circumstances.

Pinnacle Program

The Pinnacle Program is a Year 7 and Year 8 program that offers extension activities to high achieving, gifted and talented students.

We care about each of the students enrolled at our school and set out to nurture them and prepare them for the wider world. With this is mind, the Pinnacle program was created to extend and challenge gifted and talented students in order to maximise their learning outcomes. Our goal is to prepare students for the future, by giving them the skills they need for the future, e.g., critical thinking, communication, collaboration, creativity, life and career skills, media literacy and technology skills.

All staff have been trained to differentiate programs to enrich student learning via Project Based Learning. In addition, teachers of Pinnacle classes undertake collaborative professional learning to ensure current research is embedded into teaching and learning programs.

It is critical that gifted and talented students be given appropriate opportunity, stimulation and experiences to develop their potential. Our program offers these opportunities across all subject areas.

As a part of the Pinnacle program, students are given the opportunity to:

Year 7 2025, Pinnacle application formopen_in_new

Information on the High Potential and Gifted Education Program 2025 can be found here.open_in_new

Horizon Program

Horizon is Marsden's talent development program for academically high performing students in years 9 and 10. The Horizon program aims to stimulate higher order learning by exploring contemporary, relevant issues within a multi-disciplinary framework.

Students will experience an innovative approach to learning instruction that focuses on key skills for success on the modern world know as the five C's:

The Horizon program incorporates the following subjects:

Students follow the same curriculum as their year level, with tasks that demand higher order thinking skills, and will be expected to produce work of exceptional depth and complexity.

As a part of the Horizon program, students are given the opportunity to:

Students must apply for each year of the program - i.e. in Year 8 for the Year 9 program and in Year 9 for the Year 10 program.

For more information on the Horizon program and to apply for the 2026 program, please review the High Potential Flyeropen_in_new and the HPGE Application Formopen_in_new

The closing date for 2026 Horizon applications for existing Marsden students is Monday 10 November 2025 by 9:00 am. Students new to Marsden High School after this date may be invited to apply for the Horizon program if places are available.

Whole school high potential and gifted opportunities

Marsden High School also offers a range of whole school high potential and gifted opportunities, in addition to the programs listed above. We implement evidence-based programs, practices and procedures so that high potential and gifted students’ specific learning needs are identified and catered for.

The school staff includes a range of specialist teachers, including music, drama and languages teachers, to cater for high potential and gifted students across a range of domains.

The collaborative planning process enables the creation of differentiated learning programs which support the needs of HPG students. There is a strong focus across the school on promoting creative and critical thinking and rich and open-ended tasks, through the widespread use of project-based learning.

Intellectual Domain

English

Maths Enrichment

HSIE

Science

Support Unit

General

Create & Physical Domains

Dance

Drama

Music

Visual Arts

TAS

Sport