Taranaki strengthens support for gifted students

10 March 2016

Taranaki strengthens their support for Gifted and Talented students by becoming affiliated with the New Zealand Centre for Gifted Education.

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

Spearheaded by the Taranaki Gifted Community Trust, a cluster of schools 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 TGC Trust has been working tirelessly over the past 12 months to bring NZCGE’s MindPlus programme to Taranaki. We are incredibly proud to have established a cluster of contributing schools in the region and to have secured the partnership with the NZCGE. Their support, guidance and experience has been crucial to our success. To offer social and emotional support alongside the academic challenges for our Gifted and Talented has been of great importance to us and the MindPlus curriculum provides learning experiences that are deep, challenging and allows them to understand themselves as gifted learners while being with like-minded peers,” says Katja Eager, Chair of TGC Trust.

According to Kay Crofskey, principal of Welbourn School, “Gifted children need opportunities to work and socialize with like-minded others.  It is very exciting that Taranaki now has a MindPlus Day School option available to offer our gifted and talented students and their families. The partnership with our school cluster and the Taranaki Gifted Community Trust, and with the  MindPlus curriculum and expertise through NZCGE, is a  very positive step forward for us .”

From the start of 2016, the Taranaki cluster will offer their gifted 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, Mid Canterbury, Lincoln, Christchurch, Wellington, Lower Hutt, Masterton, Rotorua, Hamilton, and across Auckland.

NZCGE will provide essential support with student selection, professional learning and development, and curriculum support for the Taranaki cluster group, on an ongoing basis. Anna Meuli, NZCGE Consultancy Manager and Deb Walker, CEO of NZCGE, have been working with the Taranaki community for the past 12 months and are looking forward to continuing to support the development of the Centre.

“This establishment of the Centre reflects part of NZCGE’s goals, to help communities support their young gifted New Zealanders’ to 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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