Global Environments

An interdisciplinary unit for a Year 6 class with a gifted cluster

Please note: Pre-testing needs to occur as there may be students who have high potential and high interest in this topic, but who may not be identified through current school procedures or programs. Pre-testing requires a response that shows understanding and mastery of one of three questions e.g., How is survival of living things affected by physical conditions of their environment? Describe an example of a sudden geological change or an extreme weather event and how it has affected an environment on Earth?  Explain an example of an interaction and connection between people, places and environments.

 

The focus of the unit is on developing student understanding through a study of the world’s cultural and physical (including that of its indigenous peoples), and how this connected to diverse environments.

 

A creative and engaging multi-disciplinary group activity is located at the end of this unit and this will extend the learning content, processes and products.

 

Unit designed for a Year 6 class with a gifted cluster

 

Content description

 

  • (General) A student understands that the growth and survival of living things are affected by physical conditions of their environment (ACSSU094)

 

  • (Extended) A student understands and can describe that the diversity of the growth and survival of living things are affected by physical conditions of their environment, including human interactions.


  • (General) A student can articulate what sudden geological changes and extreme weather events affect Earth’s surface (ACSSU096)


  • (Extended) A student can articulate what sudden geological changes and extreme weather events affect Earth’s surface and can investigate and compare major geological events such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis in Australia, Asia and around the world.

 

  • (General) Identify and explain how analytical images like figures, tables, diagrams, maps and graphs contribute to our understanding of verbal information in factual and persuasive texts (ACELA1524)


  • (General) Select, navigate and read texts for a range of purposes, applying appropriate text processing strategies and interpreting structural features, for example table of contents, glossary, chapters, headings and subheadings (ACELY1712)


  • (General) Use a range of software, including word processing programs, learning new functions as required to create texts (ACELY1717)


  • (General) Construct and use a range of representations, including tables and graphs, to represent and describe observations, patterns or relationships in data using digital technologies as appropriate (ACSIS107)


Elaborations


  • Scientific understandings can assist in natural disaster management to minimise impacts to restore a balance to environments


  • Connecting that one natural disaster can lead to another e.g., earthquakes causing tsunamis


  • The impact that people of diverse cultures have upon the environments in which they live


Critical and Creative Thinking


  • Pose questions to clarify and interpret information and probe for causes and consequences


Strategies for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learning


  • Investigate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s knowledge of the physical conditions necessary for the survival of certain plants and animals in the environment


  • Story sharing: locating and sharing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s cultural stories that provide evidence of geological events


  • Dreamtime stories about the formation of Australia


  • Creating new knowledge by understanding the diversity and connections to the environment of different cultures and how they compare to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s connection to country


  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people may wish to investigate their own culture’s approach to the survival of living things more deeply and bring new knowledge to their mob


  • Guest speakers/experts from various professions and countries with expertise related to living things and their environments, and/or through personal experience with sudden geological changes and extreme weather events. These people can share their stories.


  • Sustainable land practices in Aboriginal culture

 

Key Concept: Interdependence

 

Lesson 1

 

Content: Familiarisation with world geography and the location of countries in relation to Australia. An exploration of mapping and its symbols.


Process: Assess prior knowledge – in groups (gifted cluster grouped together), students complete a blank map of the world adding major features e.g., capitals, river systems, equator, tropics etc. Once prior knowledge is exhausted, use computers or atlases to check accuracy and add remaining countries. Identify the mapping symbols that are the common requirements of a map – title, key, labelling, border, directional arrow, scale etc. Why and how did these develop?


Discuss location of countries in relation to Australia using compass directions.


Product: Students (in self-selected groups – no size limit) use atlases to draw a huge outline of a country of choice on asphalt. Using drama and body skills, students become the main features inside the map outline e.g., body shaped like a building for cities, bodies in a line for a river.  Students should be able to name features. Give students a sheet with half of a country (using different countries) drawn on it. Students use computers to find the other half and draw it. Add landforms and major features.

 

Differentiation:  Generating – collaboration to share knowledge and ideas

                           Attribute listing – geographical features and mapping tools

                           Explore countries and features on Google Earth - explain how it works.

                           Extending concepts from Australia to the world

     Questioning: What features shown on our maps can change and how might they change

     e.g., cities grow, rivers flood or change course.

     What if we had no maps?

     What other types of maps are there and how do they work

e.g., treasure maps, topographical maps, astronomical charts, GPS’s, geo-caching.

 

Lesson 2

 

Content: How the position of a country impacts on climate/weather and how that in turn, impacts on the environment and on the culture of population.

 

Process: Discuss factors that create weather conditions. Show pictures, video clips etc. of extreme weather events., Discuss where this currently might be happening. How is this weather event affecting the living and non-living things? Why do different countries have different climates? Lessons in latitude and longitude, contour (how to show height), proximity to oceans. Play a modified game of ‘Battleships’ on paper using degrees of longitude and latitude to consolidate concept.

 

Product: Interdependence Boxes: each student chooses a specific region of a country e.g., Daintree Rainforest, volcanic regions in NZ, Sahara Desert. Students put six clues in a box from their chosen geographical region without stating the location of region. Students share their clues with the class, from hardest to easiest. After each clue, the class can attempt to guess where the region might be. Suggestions for inclusion: map showing country and area where region is located, short information text on how the climate impacts the environment e.g., rainfall in the rainforest, pictures and description of the human inhabitants of the region, a description and/or images of the culture of the inhabitants and how the weather impacts that culture and living things. Further suggestions include clothing of the Inuit, a model or video clip of an insect, reptile or animal from the region and how it has adapted to the climate, a sample of an artwork showing region and climate, food of the region and why that food is dependent on weather and location, a description of the religion and how it intertwines with the weather and landforms, a short PowerPoint showing features of the environment of the region, a short text on the economic circumstances of the inhabitants and how the weather has impacted on these, architecture or dwellings of the inhabitants and how climate has been taken into consideration in the design, longitude and latitude of the region, a natural disaster that has occurred in the region and how the inhabitants are mitigating for future events and finally, any other examples of the interdependence of the people, land and climate.

 

Differentiation: Student choice

                           Integration across disciplines

                           Transfer of knowledge

                           Open-endedness

                           Questioning: deep questioning and deep thinking will be engendered by the

                           Interdependence Boxes

 

Lesson 3


Content: The diversity of global environments. Some examples of global environments include geo-thermal, deserts, polar, tundra, reefs, altiplano, mountains, plains, atolls & islands, canyons, foreshore, rainforest, wetlands, forests, harbours, grasslands, rivers, food bowls, rock formations, lakes, marine, (rift) valleys etc.

 

Process: Brainstorm and describe different global environments. Use the global environments from the Interdependence Box activity as a springboard.

 

Product: In pairs or singly, locate and name an example of each global environment from the list on a world map. Introduce the word ‘biome’. Map Australian landforms – rivers of all states, seas & oceans, capes, mountains, deserts, reefs, lakes, valleys, rainforests, wetlands, rock formations, bays, islands, national parks etc. Using varied technologies, such as Mapmaker, students research an environmental issue associated with some of these biomes. Study the scientific understandings that could assist in environmental management to minimise impacts and restore a balance to these environments. Probe for causes and consequences.

 

Differentiation:  Analogy

                Using controversy and provocations to problem solve

                           Generating – brainstorming

                           Questioning: What is an ecosystem?

     What does an ecological balance look like in the various environments?

     Can one be harmed by an environmental management action even if one benefits overall.

     Why is the Simpson Desert (or landform of choice) located where it is? Why isn’t it located elsewhere?  

     What biome are you most like and why (analogy)?

 

Lesson 4


Content: The impact of geological changes and extreme weather events on global environments and how these events are measured.


Process: Brainstorm the types of disasters that result in changes to the environment (e.g., tsunamis, volcanoes, earthquakes, cyclones, fire, flood, drought, global warming). How are these events measured (e.g., Richter scale, Beaufort scale, coastal tide gauges, Volcanic Explosivity Index). What inventions have increased scientific knowledge about natural events that cause rapid changes at the Earth's surface?  Investigate a natural disaster or environmental tragedy. What global environments were affected and how? Invite a member from the emergency services to speak on the strategies for dealing with a specific natural disaster. Invite a geologist to discuss landforms, tectonic plates or geological events.


Product: Choose a global environment or biome that has experienced a natural disaster. Students can work singly, in pairs or in groups to create a news broadcast describing what happened, the impact on the environment and on the people, the response by emergency services and others and the long-term consequences and changes. Various perspectives can be considered: emergency crews, TV news team, victims etc.


Differentiation:  Scrutinising underlying ideas

                           Connections to real-life purposes and contexts

                           Skills of search

                Questioning: How could this disaster have been prevented?

     What detection systems already exist and how can they be improved?

     (STEM task) How could people work with nature to help restore environments after disasters?


Lesson 5


Content: Investigate the cultural diversity of the local area

 

Process: Break students into 4 groups (mixed ability) and investigate the cultural diversity of the class, school, local area and state. Use student generated surveys and data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics to locate this information. Invite a statistician to make this subject child-friendly with reference to the ABS.

 

Product: Representatives from each group report their findings to the class using computer-generated graphs and tables. Ensure everyone has a role. The gifted cluster then compares and analyses the results from the class, school and local area with the state data, and answers the question: Do results from the class, school and local area mirror the state’s cultural diversity and if so, how?  While the gifted cluster is working on the analysis, the rest of the class can be identifying the natural and built environments that help the survival of the community. How might each cultural group interact with the places in the local environment? Both groups report back to the class.

 

Differentiation: Applying new skills and knowledge to a different context e.g., constructing and analysing

                          surveys, statistics

               Using real world problems from the local community

     Providing opportunities for students to learn advanced level content through mentoring

     (guest speakers) and enrichment provision

                Questioning: How does population growth affect environments?

     How can diversity in populations improve environments?

     What kinds of specific changes could occur in our class, school and local area? Elaborate.


Lesson 6


Content: Building deep understanding of cultural knowledge by investigating a group of indigenous peoples, including their unique customs and beliefs related to their environment.


Process: Help students develop an open-ended geographic question that provides the class with direction for an investigation or research regarding indigenous people. Negotiate clear criteria to guide students in their research. The question should promote analysis of the interdependency between the human world and the natural world.


Product: Students create a multimodal ‘tour’ of the lived experience of an indigenous group, (using a sequence of images and other multimedia such as music, voice-over, text, sound effects, film, interviews etc). Share with the class. At the conclusion of the presentations discuss how people around the world differ in their interactions with their environment.

 

 Differentiation:  Compare and contrast two indigenous cultures instead of one.

                             Expectation that some students will choose a lesser known indigenous culture to extend

                             themselves e.g., Sami over Inuit, Orang Asli, Hmong, Dayak, Okinawans, a specific

                            Aboriginal group e.g., Kamilaroi over all Aboriginal people

                             Choice – increases engagement

                             Questioning:  How have indigenous peoples adapted to their environment?

        Consider some of the challenges indigenous peoples face in maintaining:-

        their traditions, their way of life and their ability to look after their environment.

Give some examples e.g., Dayak.

                   What interconnections do we, as Australians, have with the indigenous peoples that have been studied?

 
Appendix 1


BIOME BAZAAR


Groups of four students will work through the activities below to create a biome, which will form a total learning environment in the classroom. Each group will choose a biome and set up a display in the classroom. Invite parents and other classes to share the learning, providing an authentic audience. Adequate time will be needed for students to set up their biome display.  As work is handed in at the end of each two-week period, evaluate and store the work for the ‘Bazaar’.

 

Due end of Week 2

  • Identification and a detailed written description of the biome


  • A map of the biome showing latitude and longitude, physical and political boundaries, built and natural environments, and other landmarks


  • An example of change that has occurred in the biome – presented as a series of art works or a flow chart


  • How human interaction has shaped the biome – presented as an infographic or timeline

 

Due end of Week 4

  • A report on what the biome needs to be ecologically sustainable including a section on the effects of climate change and the implications of this. Include possible resolutions


  • Identify the plant species that exist within the biome – to be presented as a book with a glossary or a chart with labels


  • Identify the animal species, both vertebrate and invertebrate, that exist within the biome. Describe them and evaluate the interdependency. Present as a diorama or a series of cards or a food web


Due end of Week 6

  • A mobile of a cultural group living in the biome with aspects of culture, including traditional clothing. On the reverse of each image state how this culture interacts with their environment


  • A letter to the editor, or signs for a protest march, from a fictional or real organisation that exists to protect this biome, arguing about a relevant issue


  • A cross sectional diagram of part of the biome


  • How this landform was formed presented as a poem or poster

 

Due end of Week 8

  • A plan of the biome setup for the display day – a drawing, setting-up procedures (who will bring what, who will do what, a plan for running the biome throughout the day)


  • An interactive activity designed to teach your audience about your biome


  • Any other aspects and inclusions you wish to add e.g., videos, photos, advertisements, collages, charts, sound effects, documentaries, models, pamphlets, book display, to create a total learning sensory environment

 

Post - event

With the students evaluate the plan and management of the biome, the information products and processes for themselves and for the needs of the particular audiences. Evaluate the learning.

 

Extension and enrichment / Homework Tasks

 

Rainforest

 

  • Make a chart that classifies creatures of the rainforest into omnivores, herbivores and carnivores.
  • Investigate the role and nature of detritivores.
  • Design a board game using fact cards on animals in the rainforest.
  • Examine the crucial role played by bats or birds in the rainforest.
  • Research the early explorers of the Amazon Basin.
  • Investigate a career to do with rainforests. Prepare a one-minute talk.
  • Who are Chico Mendes or Marina Silva and how have they contributed to protecting rainforests?

 

Polar

 

  • What is a food web? Draw a food web for the Southern Ocean.
  • Report writing – How are the Antarctic and Arctic regions the same and how are they different? Include maps, diagrams of landforms, graphs, tables etc. A large Venn diagram is an alternative product.
  • What makes Antarctica a unique continent?
  • People working alone in Antarctica enjoy the isolation. Do you think there is a difference between solitude and loneliness? Can you be on your own without being lonely? Explain.
  • Research one of the following people under the following headings: Birth & Early Life, Adult Life & Achievements

Robert Byrd. Asimov, Perry, Sir James Clark Ross, Douglas Mawson, Roald Amundsen, Robert Scott, Ernest Shackleton, Sir Edmund Hillary, Will Stegar, Ann Bancroft, Tim Bowden, Captain John Davis, George Hubert Wilkins, John Rymill,Philip Law, Edgeworth David, Dick Smith

  • There are no natural smells or sounds in the Antarctic (except for the wind). Write a poem to convey the feelings of isolation and the effect on the senses. (Can relate to isolation in general e.g., even in the middle of a city.
  • Why are the polar ice caps only at the poles?
  • Chart information from the Mawson weather station.
  • Describe the changes necessary to cover your location with an ice cap.
  • List five reasons the polar ice caps are important.
  • Why is Antarctica so cold?
  • What is the only direction you can travel when you are at the South Pole? Please explain.
  • How will the ozone hole affect the Antarctic food chain and you?
  • If Antarctica is a desert where does all the ice come from?
  • What is the Antarctic Convergence?
  • Create a map of how the world would look if the polar ice caps melted. Describe life using this scenario.
  • Why do icebergs float? Demonstrate and explain how this happens.
  • Since Antarctica is a perfect example of 'terra nullis', it doesn’t have a flag. Design a flag for Antarctica. Write why your design would be a good representation for the continent.
  • Design a travel brochure to make an Antarctic holiday irresistible to tourists.

 

Created by Lynda Lovett

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the AAEGT.

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They unleashed their voracious appetites for learning and discovery without inhibition. However, as with all initiatives, there were stumbling blocks along the way. Some came to regard the classes as “tall poppies” and, in response, we sought to provide additional professional learning around gifted education. Some staff expressed concerns about perceived equity, the impact on mainstream classrooms, and student social development: What happens if students only socialise with like-ability peers? Won’t struggling students lose peer tutors? Education became the key — watering and nurturing both the program and our staff with a constant stream of research, resources, and professional dialogue to slowly shift hearts and minds. Seven years on, more than 200 children have moved through the Challenge Class program. While it remains very much a work in progress, we have learnt and grown considerably. The key lessons we have taken from the journey revolve around transparency, communication, flexibility, and ongoing development. A clear and transparent process for selection and ongoing monitoring is essential to ensure that staff at all levels understand the purpose, goals, and processes driving the initiative. Understanding not only what decisions have been made, but why they have been made, is critical. This requires a dedicated team to guide the process and communicate decisions clearly to staff. A common misconception is that the classes are formed solely on academic ability, when in reality they are based on “fit,” not “status.” To succeed, the classes also need to remain flexible: flexible in the way students move in and out of the program, flexible in curriculum delivery, and flexible in assessment practices to genuinely meet student needs. They must also communicate their purpose with empathy. The name Challenge Classes was originally chosen to emphasise challenge in pace and complexity rather than ability, and to encourage the development of grit and perseverance, often missing in some of our most gifted students when left unchallenged. However, this has not always been interpreted as intended, and it remains something we continue to reflect on — do the classes need a label at all, or can they achieve their purpose without one? Finally, ongoing development for staff — and, where necessary, parents — ensures that misconceptions and misinformation can be addressed professionally. As we know, gifted education is surrounded by substantial and often damaging myths. By addressing these openly, we create opportunities to build understanding first, and solutions second. To make this work, we have learned to listen carefully to the voices of our gifted students, as well as to the voices of staff, ensuring that everyone’s needs are acknowledged and individual differences are valued. After planting these seeds for change and growth, we have come far in our learning journey, though there is still more to learn. We are proud of what we have achieved and of the difference we have made in the lives of the many gifted learners we have had the privilege to support. Like successful gardeners, we have learned that observation, patience, experimentation, and a willingness to keep learning from the garden itself are the true keys to growth and success.

I Got Lucky... Other's Don't

May 15, 2026
A note before reading: This piece touches briefly on a period of depression and thoughts of self-harm, shared as part of one person's lived experience.  I’m gifted… apparently. 99.8% percentile. A few years ago, I did a test that informed me of the news. The whole world of giftedness began for me when trying to better understand the struggles my kids were having at school. Questions like “why are they like that” of course leads to an inevitable microscope placed upon yourself as the parent. In hindsight, knowing what I know now, giftedness seems obvious. But as a kid, I was not only completely ignorant to the idea but surrounded by classrooms where such a notion drew unwanted attention to yourself. I grew up in a relatively low socioeconomic area. At school, lessons were mostly an inconvenience. I remember once explaining to somebody in year 3 that my favourite time in class was during exams when it was raining outside. Some thought it weird, I guess because of that I may have questioned if it was too. Otherwise, school was about footy. Before school, morning tea, lunch, and then sprinting home the second the bell went. I only remember random snippets from primary school; one of my teachers’ obsession with lollies, the giant plastic mats with dishwashing liquid and hoses on the last day of the year, the goofy way a friend bolted out of a classroom one afternoon… I remember distinct events like they were yesterday, but generally it was mostly a blur and uneventful. I got along with pretty much everyone, but everyone was more of an acquaintance than a friend, except for one friend which you would describe as being close. High school wasn’t much different. Lessons again felt more like an inconvenience that interrupted sport. One of my Year 9 report card comments was: “He relies too much on his ability.” It sat beside a row of A’s. I only remember it because my parents found the report recently and handed it back to me. As an adult and knowing what I know now, it was part of the overall “ooooohhhhhh” realisation moment. Looking back, I cruised through school academically and never really learned how to study. Things came easily enough that I could get away with doing very little, and because of that, I never developed much discipline academically. Sport, cars, friends, footy, avoiding bullies - that was where my energy went. I did have one friend through high school who, in hindsight, I suspect was also gifted. I’ll call him Pete. There was a similarity in how we thought. We’d bounce between ideas, projects, plans and random interests. Pete had a knack for fixing or inventing things. We couldn’t afford a CD player in the car, nor keep replacing the eight D-sized batteries for his portable stereo, so he rewired the back of it with a cigarette lighter plug to draw 12 volts directly from the dash. We sat the stereo on the back seat and thought it was brilliant. Pete’s room was always littered with gadgets, wires, half-finished projects and things pulled apart to see how they worked. We stayed close throughout high school. Then I started university. I enrolled in a degree that, in hindsight, should have fascinated me. But something was wrong. For the first time in my life, what was being taught wasn’t just sticking. Worse still, I wasn’t interested. I’d sit through lectures feeling detached, then head off to training or skip classes entirely, figuring I’d just read the notes later and I’ll remember, and it’ll be fine. But I wasn’t fine. First semester was a scrape through. Second semester was littered with fails, withdrawals and subjects barely passed. I had no idea what was happening or why it was falling apart. Admittedly, I felt lost. I withdrew from university at the end of the first year. Over the next four years I worked full-time while studying part-time, accumulating pieces of numerous different degrees before eventually giving up altogether. Being part time, the lighter subject workload allowed things to “stick” a little better. I had no real direction, no real motivation, I watched my friends finish their degrees and start their careers. I felt like I had missed the starting gun and was left floundering. Slowly depression crept in. I joined the Army Reserves hoping that maybe doing something completely different might shake me out of it. It didn’t. Then, within the space of two months, the toys went out of the pram. I broke up with my girlfriend of four years, quit my job, walked away from the Reserves, and bought a one-way ticket to the other side of the world with no money behind me. Once through customs, I lived off baked beans and tomato soup, sleeping on floors, couches, and occasionally under large bushes in a park where nobody would notice me. My parents would have helped if they knew, but I made sure they didn’t. I didn’t want anything. I didn’t want a career, didn’t want to travel, didn’t really want to work. I just felt flat. There wasn’t much thought of self-harm. Sure, it came up as an option, but the response to that was simply: “That’s pointless as I won’t be around to enjoy the problems it solves.” Days turned to months. And then one night, one magical night, I had a night out with some old school friends who were also out that way. One of them days later dragged me to play rugby again. I later joined a rugby club and made new friendships with the team who had no idea how much of a turning point they had provided. I landed a job not long after and eventually enrolled in another degree. This time, a degree that I was intrigued with. I developed an interest in a career and found a desire to expand my education. For the first time in my life, I sat in a classroom excited about what I might learn. The first time. Ever. I was 25. Again, I thought it weird… who gets excited about learning something? Apparently, most people. I have since come to realise that the learning itself had never been the problem, rather the problem was that somewhere along the way I’d disconnected from it entirely. Nobody had ever really explained how my brain worked, nor noticed that cruising through school wasn’t necessarily the same thing as thriving. Due to this, the compounding effects (in my opinion) seem to have led to a loss of challenge, loss in direction, underachievement… you could include a loss of identity. In time I returned to Australia a very different person. Education wise, I then had two degrees (completed this time). I then also ran into Pete again in my late 20s. This time that connect wasn’t there with (as I later found out) him battling an opioid addiction which later manifested to a glass pipe. As it turns out, he too was lost post high school but encountered a different path. I deeply lamented on what might have, or rather, what should have been for him. Today, more and more is being learnt about gifted children and how to support them properly. It would be incredulous to suggest that all Pete’s problems stemmed from being a gifted person without support… but was it? We’ll never know. I do sometimes wonder what difference that understanding might have made for both him and me. What if somebody had pulled me aside and explained why interest and engagement mattered so much, or why coasting through school wasn’t a good thing without challenge? What if someone had challenged me properly before I disconnected from learning altogether? Maybe I would have achieved more. Maybe not in the end. But I suspect those six years after high school could have been far happier or fulfilling ones. I don’t really see my story as a warning about giftedness and what may occur if awareness or actions are not put in place. Plenty of people have had far harder journeys than mine. Rather, if anything, I see it more as an avoidable near miss. I got lucky. Others don’t.

I Am

By Logan • May 15, 2026
We are very grateful to grade 8 student, Logan for sharing the below poem and artwork as part of Gifted Awareness Week. Logan reflects on what it can feel like to be a gifted young person. Reader note: Logan reflects on big themes including existential thoughts and death. We share it with care and thanks to his family.

What Gifted Students Taught Me Beyond the Classroom

By Hasan Talukder • April 28, 2026
Hasan A. Talukder Data & Enrichment Leader, Salesian College Chadstone, Melbourne. There is a quiet assumption in many schools that gifted students will just be fine. They do well in school, ask thoughtful questions, and often seem self-sufficient. But from my experience as a teacher and leader of a select-entry enrichment program, I know this assumption is one of the most damaging misconceptions in education. Gifted learners are not just a group of high achievers. They are complex, diverse, and often misunderstood. This is why the theme “ Varied Voices, Shared Future ” resonates deeply with me. Because the more I work with gifted students, the more I realise that their voices are not always loud, visible, or easy to interpret. One student I taught showed outstanding mathematical reasoning, far beyond his year level. But he had a hard time with reading and writing because of dyslexia. His results on paper did not always show his true ability. In a traditional classroom, it would have been easy to overlook his strengths. But when he had the chance to explain his thinking out loud and work on complex problems, his ability was clear. This made me question my own ideas about what giftedness looks like and reminded me that ability does not always show up in typical schoolwork. Another student, equally capable, presented very differently. He was clearly capable, but his engagement changed a lot. Sometimes he seemed withdrawn, inconsistent, or unmotivated. It would have been easy to think he was not trying. But behind this was a complicated family life and emotional stress that affected how he came to school each day. Helping him took more than just giving extra work. It took trust, patience, and a real effort to understand him beyond the classroom. As trust grew, so did his confidence and his willingness to join in and take risks in his learning. These experiences have taught me a simple but important lesson: Gifted education cannot be separated from the context of the learner. Gifted students may present through perfectionism, anxiety, avoidance, or inconsistency. If we focus only on achievement, we risk misreading these signals entirely. One of the most transformative aspects of my work has been seeing students outside the classroom, particularly through our Capstone Program , where students complete a two-week immersion experience in China. In the classroom, we often see students through structured tasks and academic expectations. But in China, those structures fall away. Students move through new places, meet different cultures, and experience History, Geography, and Politics as real life, not just school subjects. Visiting historical sites, seeing city and country life, and thinking about the world helps them connect what they learn to real life in meaningful ways. What struck me most, however, was not just the academic growth, but the sense of belonging that emerged. Students who were quiet in class found their voice. Others grew in empathy, leadership, and independence in ways I had not seen before. Friendships grew stronger, and a sense of community started to form. For many, this was the first time they truly felt connected, not just to their classmates, but to themselves as learners. As a teacher, this experience reshaped my understanding of my students. I started to see them not just as high achievers or underachievers, but as people dealing with complex challenges in their emotions, social lives, and learning. This changed how I worked with them in the classroom, making me more empathetic, flexible, and thoughtful. In our select-entry Biretta Program , we often say we should be data-informed, not data-driven. This is because data helps us see patterns, but it is students’ real experiences that give those patterns meaning. No single test, grade, or score can capture the full picture of any learner let alone a gifted one. The theme “ Varied Voices, Shared Future ” is not just about noticing diversity. It is about responding to it. It challenges us as educators to move beyond narrow ideas of giftedness and to create learning spaces that are responsive, inclusive, and human. When we truly listen to the different voices of gifted learners, including those who are twice-exceptional, those facing complex lives outside of school, and those who do not fit the mold, we do more than just support them. We help create a future where they are not only seen, but truly understood.

A Mind Beyond Her Years

April 7, 2026
By Mary Grace Maquiniana Santos She walks through the world with wonder in her eyes, A mind that dances where imagination flies, At four, yet deeper than the years she’s lived, A soul so bright, with so much to give. Her questions bloom like stars in endless skies, Each thought a spark of sweet surprise, She reads with ease, as if she’s always known, In every word, her brilliance is shown. She moves to music with a graceful art, Each step and rhythm from her heart, She plays her songs so pure and true, A melody only she can do. With brush and colour, she creates her view, A world of beauty in every hue, Her art speaks softly, bold yet free, A glimpse of who she’s meant to be. Though time says four, my heart feels something more, Like I have known her long before, A bond that stretches past what we can see, A thread of love through eternity.

Unmasking missed identification

By Amanda Larkin • March 12, 2026
Amanda Larkin My mum was told in the 1980s that girls do not get ADHD. She did not believe them. Instead, she kept every medical report and school report. Thirty years later, those documents became the evidence I needed for a diagnosis that should have been recognised decades earlier. Reading those reports now, they practically scream twice-exceptional. Does not answer the question. Distracted. Could achieve so much more if she just paid attention. Wasting her potential. Wasting her parents' money on tutors and still only scraping through. Attendance dropping. There was no "school can't" back then. It was just called wagging. I spent most of my life believing I simply was not very smart. My ATAR equivalent was not high enough for university. I entered teaching through a side door, a non-direct pathway after a gap year, already convinced I was less capable than everyone around me. My brain did not work the way school expected. I could research for hours. Fall down rabbit holes of curiosity. Read endlessly. Learn constantly. But essays stayed unfinished. Deadlines slipped past. The Masters that began in 2003 never quite made it to the end. Crafts and projects piled in a shed with the moniker, “The Mausoleum of Lost Crafts.” Jobs lasted a few years before frustration and itchy feet set in and I moved on. For fifteen years of teaching, I masked. Every day felt like I was an imposter who was getting away with something. Like someone would eventually realise I did not really belong there. Then my children were identified as twice-exceptional. I did what I did best when I needed answers. I hyper-focused. I read everything. I researched late into the night. I learned how to advocate for them in systems that were not built to see them clearly. After fifteen years working with teenagers, I had already seen the pattern. I knew intelligence and school results were not the same thing. The research simply gave a name to what I had been seeing all along, along with the language and evidence to advocate for it. As I learned, I quickly started seeing my students differently too. The quiet ones. The frustrated ones. The ones who were bright but somehow never quite fit the expectation of reaching their potential. Then the advocacy part came quickly. It was not a lightbulb moment. It was a fierce need for justice. Justice for my children, justice for the students I had missed, and justice for future students so that they would never fall through the gaps on my watch. When someone mentioned that giftedness could be genetic, I laughed. Not a shy knowing giggle, but a deep-seated ironic chortle. The ADHD maybe. But giftedness? Not a chance. After the tireless nagging from supportive friends with kids like mine, I eventually agreed to an IQ assessment. When the results came back, I stared at the numbers in disbelief. How could that possibly be true? How could someone with those results have spent decades struggling to pass almost every formal learning experience she had ever had? Accepting that intelligence and school results are not the same thing was easy when I was advocating for children. Accepting that the same truth applied to me has taken far longer. It is still ongoing. Now I am learning something new. How to unmask. How to speak to myself with compassion. How to be authentically myself. My friends jokingly call me The Velvet Sledgehammer. An advocate who pushes back against systems that overlook the very learners they are meant to serve. My voice is varied, but it is far from rare. A girl who was unseen as a learner. A perfectionist. A people pleaser. A self gas lighter who believed she was below average on the smarts scale. This is why the theme of Gifted Awareness Week, Varied Voices, Shared Future, matters. Because giftedness does not always look the way we expect. Sometimes it looks like unfinished assignments. Falling attendance. Bright ideas that never make it onto the page. Sometimes it looks like a girl whose potential is written about in every report but never quite understood, supported and allowed to grow wings and fly. My future now is dedicated to amplifying those varied voices. The voices of our asynchronous, neurodivergent, gifted children so that they do not need to use their voices in order to be seen. That being seen is a given, not a privilege of luck or context. So that their varied voices are part of a shared future that is supported and understood long before they reach their forties and realise they were never the problem. A future where the narrow expectation of what giftedness is supposed to look like is a distant memory, replaced by recognition of the beautiful variety of gifted expression.

Back to school: From both sides of the desk

By Hayley Kuperholz • February 11, 2026
Some ideas for teachers and parents on how to support the back-to-school transition for young gifted children.

A search for happiness

May 30, 2025
The constant search for wellbeing and happiness is one that might be familiar to many gifted families. Here is the story of one gifted child, and all that it took to find happiness. "We knew really early that they were gifted,” said their mother Deb. They actually taught themself to read at two and a half. But back then, I still didn’t actually know anything about giftedness.” "We had them tested before starting school and it came back that they were profoundly gifted," said Deb. "And that’s when the struggle started." Adding, “I think I called every school in our area. A few even admitted that they would not be able to cater for them”. The family decided on a school that said they could support gifted children. "We chose one that said, 'Yes, we can do this, we can do that.’ “We did have a lot of separation issues at preschool, and that was just an indication of what was to come. We didn’t realise at the time it was because they were so bored," said Deb. "They just didn’t want to go." To help with the separation anxiety, in term 4 of the year before they were due to start school, Deb's child went to school just a few mornings a week to help with the transition. After two weeks however, the inclusion teacher told Deb that they would need to go to grade 1 instead of prep as they were just so far ahead. So they commenced getting them enrolled in Prep full time for the remainder of term 4. Deb said, “The big problems began once they’d started grade 1. The teacher didn’t understand about their level of giftedness at all.” “We had kicking and screaming trying to get them to school because they were so disappointed that it wasn’t what they thought it was going to be,” she said “Even when they were doing the transition days in Prep, I remember they came home one day saying “I’m so stupid. I’m so dumb. I’m trying to talk to the kids about the periodic table, and they don’t want to have anything to do with it anymore because they’re past that now.” I had to explain that the other kids probably didn’t know what the periodic table even was’, Deb recalled. Throughout grade 1 Deb tried advocating for another grade skip. Further testing revealed they were working at a grade 3 level, so it was no wonder they didn’t want to go to grade 1, but the school didn’t want to do another skip, said Deb. “I was trying to work with them, offering to help any way I could, but it was like every meeting I went into they were straight on the defensive,” she said. “By the end of grade 1 we knew we weren’t getting anywhere, so we moved schools to an independent school with a philosophy that children’s class levels shouldn’t be dictated by their age,” said Deb. Deb explained that year two started out great at the new school. The teacher understood and she was a high school trained teacher so was able to extend them. At lunch times they were hanging out with year 10, 11 and 12 students (supervised in the library) so they were able to have conversations with older kids about their favourite subject - chemistry. However, half-way through year three the problems started again. “They got a new classroom teacher, who just did not get them, so it was back to refusing to go to school.” “I was standing outside the classroom for two hours trying to get them to go into the classroom,” Deb said. “At this point we had a discussion with Michele Juratowich, a gifted education consultant, who basically told me that I’m not going to find a perfect school for them because they don’t exist.” “The biggest thing Michele told me that I really took on board was that we needed a school with flexibility,” said Deb. “Michelle said that when you get to the kids that have IQs over the 140s they really need a school that’s flexible and willing to work with the family.” “So the school search started again!” “That’s when I had discussions with Capalaba State College. They allowed us to have a flexible arrangement where our child would attend school four days per week and then attend an external one-day program for gifted children.” Deb told us. It was then that Deb introduced their school principal to the lead educator of the one-day program. “The program eventually relocated to our school, and seeing the need and increasing numbers it eventually morphed into the current High Capacity program”. Once our child was in this gifted program they really started to take off. They were radically accelerated several years ahead in maths and science and were even able to do subjects with the high school classes. The timetabling was complicated, but the school always did what they could to make it work, and didn’t shy away from allowing them to accelerate through the subjects they needed much more challenge in. Then at the end of year 8, at 13 years old, they decided they wanted to sit the American College Board SATs for fun, where they essentially scored the equivalent to about an ATAR 89. This allowed them to actually enter some university courses. So at this point they applied to study a Bachelor of Science in Physics at the University of Southern Queensland and was accepted. They did a couple of subjects and did well, but unfortunately they didn’t like the online study, so at the age of 14 they transferred across to Griffith University, where they could study on campus. This they love! They still go to high school for the social development and having the opportunity to do elective subjects, and they go to university for their love of learning in their passion area, and they are enjoying the social interactions as well. For anyone reading this, thinking this all sounds so complicated! We asked Deb, why? What are the benefits? Her answer? – mental health. “The benefit is mental health – and that’s all we’ve always strived for,” said Deb. “They aren't bored by what they're doing now, whereas if they were still back in their year level we’d have that boredom, the behaviour and the school refusal. They would be miserable,” she said. “Our biggest goal is always happiness – are they happy?,” Deb said. Adding, “schools do have their own duty of care as well, to create well rounded students, and for gifted kids this isn’t going to be possible if their intellectual health isn’t being developed alongside their emotional health.” “These kids have this advanced cognitive ability, and most of the time their social / emotional ability is either age appropriate or years above as well,” said Deb. “We might not think it sometimes because they can come across as younger, but I realised they understand and take on so much more than we might realise and generally appear younger or more immature when they are trying to self-normalise or fit in with their age peers’, Deb explained. “That’s why allowing them to connect with both intellectual peers and social / emotional peers is so important,” Deb concluded.