Northern Tablelands MP Adam Marshall with Armidale City Public School students Caleb Moran and Singleton Heremaia yesterday.
ARMIDALE City Public School will next year become just the 17th school in country NSW to offer academically gifted and talented students specialised tuition, Northern Tablelands MP Adam Marshall announced today.
Mr Marshall was joined by Principal Matt Hobbs and Northern Tablelands Public Schools NSW Director Sue Brown to announce that an Opportunity Class would be established at Armidale City Public School, starting with an intake of 15 Year 5 students in 2016.
The MP said Opportunity classes catered for highly achieving Year 5 and Year 6 academically gifted and talented students who would otherwise be without classmates at their own academic and social level.
“These classes help gifted and talented students to learn by grouping them with other gifted and talented students, teaching them in specialised ways and providing educational materials at the appropriate level,” Mr Marshall said.
“Armidale has selective classes in two local high schools, Armidale High School and Duval High School, but has not, so far, had an opportunity class located anywhere in the Northern Tablelands.
“This is a very exciting first for education in our region.”
Mr Marshall said the class would begin 15 opportunity class places in 2016 and will progress to a Year 5/6 composite of 30 students in 2017.
“This will have far reaching benefits to our region’s students but also for staff at Armidale City Public who will gain from accelerated teaching and skills development,” he said.
“It also provides a clear pathway for the students onto the selective classes at either of the Armidale high schools.”
Mr Marshall said that with the addition of Armidale City Public School, there will be 76 public schools throughout NSW offering a total of 1,740 Year 5 places in opportunity classes next year.
Parents with children in government and non-government primary schools will be able to apply for places in the class online from the Department of Education and Communities opportunity class placement website at www.schools.nsw.edu.au/ocplacement from Monday, 27 April 2015, until Friday, 15 May 2015.
Students will be considered by a selection committee on the basis of school assessment scores for English and Mathematics provided by the current primary school combined with the student’s results on the Opportunity Class Placement Test.