Lincoln group establishes exciting options

Lincoln group establishes exciting options for their education community

The New Zealand Centre for Gifted Education (NZCGE) is thrilled to formally welcome a new community under their umbrella and congratulates the school leaders in the Lincoln community for their vision and determination to look at a variety of avenues for meeting the needs of their gifted children.

Spearheaded by Viv Butcher, principal at Lincoln Primary, the cluster of six full primary schools and Lincoln High School have made a commitment to group their like-minded, intellectually and creatively gifted students together each week and to provide professional learning opportunities for their staff and parent community.

“The community has welcomed an additional stream to our educational offerings. We are pleased to feel we can genuinely cater for more of our gifted students and acknowledge that the availability of specialist help [through NZCGE] has made the project more appealing, realistic and will have an additional positive impact in our own school environments,” says Viv Butcher.

Sean Bailey, the principal of Ladbrooks School, believes the programme will meet the specific needs of children who are divergent thinkers. “Being surrounded by like-minds will really un-tap some of these students often hidden abilities.”

From April 2015, the Lincoln cluster will offer their gifted year 4-10 students educational opportunities based on the NZCGE Curriculum and MindPlus Programme. This new cluster joins established New Zealand Centre for Gifted Education communities in Invercargill, Dunedin, Christchurch, Nelson, Wellington, Lower Hutt, Kapiti, Masterton, Rotorua, Hamilton, and across Auckland.

NZCGE will provide essential support with student selection, professional, learning and development, and curriculum support for the Lincoln cluster group, on an ongoing basis. Anna Meuli, NZCGE Consultancy Manager and Deb Walker, CEO of NZCGE, have been working with the Lincoln Cluster for the past 9 months and are looking forward to continuing to support development of the Centre n Lincoln and elsewhere in New Zealand.

“This establishment of the cluster reflects part of NZCGE’s goals, to help communities support their young gifted New Zealanders’ maximise their potential through access, recognition and support. We are keen to work with more communities in this way” says Ms Walker.

The New Zealand Centre for Gifted Education Ltd is a non-profit organisation with charitable status providing services nationwide in gifted education. For more information please go to www.nzcge.co.nz.

ENDS.

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