Sunday, 20 March 2011

Welcome to the GATE WAY!

Welcome to the first post on 'The GateWay'!

When surfing the web about gifted and talented education it soon becomes clear that there are dozens if not hundreds of definitions out there. Not to mention the use of many confusing and often off-putting technical terminologies.  With no 'one' definition the difficulty then lies with how to determine who is gifted and or talented?

When thinking about the term "gifted and talented" at Muritai School we try to look for students who show and provide evidence of high performance capability in areas such as:
  1. General Intellectual Ability
  2. Specific Academic Ability
  3. Creative Ability
  4. Social-Emotional Characteristics (i.e. heightened self-awareness)
  5. Leadership Ability
  6. Psychomotor Characteristics (Sports, Art, Music) 
This is not to say that every student exhibiting such characteristics will be labeled as gifted. What the above characteristics do well though is provide teachers with a framework to reflect on their students differing capabilities and specific learning needs as not all students learn in the same way, at the same pace or at the same level.

Gifted and Talented education at Muritai is about knowing your students so that they can create and deliver learning experiences that enable children to be able to:

'pursue personal excellence, seize opportunities, value people and try to be the best that they can be.' 
  
If you have time I recommend you watch the movie "I am Gifted" that I have added below. It takes a quick look at gifted and talented through the eyes of the child.



WHO TO CONTACT IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS

At Muritai School we pride ourselves on our 'open door' policy and encourage you to make contact with us at any time. If you have any questions or concerns please contact your child's teacher. The best way to do this is to send them an email (surname@muritai.school.nz) or you could phone the school on 04 5628409.


For prospective parents feel free to contact Andrew Bird the school Principal:
Email   -   bird@muritai.school.nz
Phone  -  04 5628409.