Marsden High School

Telephone02 9874 6544

Emailmarsden-h.school@det.nsw.edu.au

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: 

  • Set S.M.A.R.T goals at the beginning of each term and review them with teachers at the end of each term

  • Play an active role in the creation of their personalised learning plans 

  • Participate in the HPGE retreat camp off site for three days

  • Complete an enrichment project in Semester 2 two develop their creative and critical thinking skills 

  • Participate in extracurricular excursions: 

    • Year 7: Codecamp

    • Year 8: DigiEd Claymation workshop

Year 7 2025, Pinnacle application form.

Information on the High Potential and Gifted Education Program 2025 can be found here (PDF 274KB) .