Enrichment Programme

Nayland College Enrichment Programme

At Nayland College, our goal is for students to be inspired and empowered through learning programmes which respond to, and build upon, students’ strengths, interests, gifts and talents.

We pride ourselves on providing a comprehensive, customisable, cross-curricular, responsive Enrichment Programme for our gifted and talented students.

Identification Process

If your child has special strengths or talents in the areas of Maths, Science, English, Social Studies, lateral / divergent or out-of-the-box thinking, they may like to participate in our Year 8 Enrichment Programme assessment session on 17 November 2023. 

Students take part in a series of short written assessments focused on English and Maths skills, as well as ‘out of the box’ questions and team challenges. 

The results from this session help teachers to better understand students’ strengths, and therefore how to design learning programmes that respond to and cater for their individual learning needs and aspirations.

This assessment may also help us to identify students who may wish to, or be invited to, be extended further in specific areas of their skills and strengths, such as extension Maths and Science classes, through additional targeted enrichment sessions as opportunities arise, or via short module courses, such as ‘Launch’, below.

Whether or not a student participates in the Enrichment Programme assessment session, students’ strengths and gifts are also identified by classroom teachers over the course of the year via other assessment measures such as PATs, AsTTLe, formative subject assessments, and observations of behaviours and interests / talents in connection with our Gifted and Talented identification register. This process has been designed in relation to research into gifted education provided by the Ministry of Education https://gifted.tki.org.nz/.

Young people can be gifted or talented in many different ways and in many different areas. Key areas of strength can be grouped into the following categories:

  1. Academic refers to learners with exceptional abilities in one or more of the New Zealand Curriculum learning areas.
  2. Creativity refers to learners with abilities to problem-solve using innovative thinking and productivity.
  3. Expression through the visual and performing arts refers to music, dance, drama, and visual arts.
  4. Social/Leadership refers to learners with qualities which enable them to act in leadership roles.
  5. Expression through physical/sport refers to learners with excellent physical abilities and skills, as evidenced through sport and/or health and physical education programmes.
  6. Culture-specific abilities and qualities refers to those valued by the cultural or ethnic group of learners, including traditional arts and crafts, pride in cultural identity, language ability, and service to the culture.

Specific cultural indicators for Māori rangatahi giftedness may also fall under:

  1. Manaakitanga: (generosity – honouring, caring and giving mana to people thus maintaining your own)
  2. Whanaungatanga: (family values - relationships)
  3. Kaitiakitanga: (care taker / guardianship of knowledge, environment and resources)
  4. Rangatiratanga: (ranga – to weave, tira – a company – leadership that inspires unity)
  5. Mātauranga: (knowledge – intellect, thinking skills, wisdom, education, learned, studious)
  6. Ngā Mahi a Rēhia: (Recreational Pursuits - physical and artistic performance)
  7. Tikanga: (approved etiquette – correct behaviour, truthful, proper, respectful ).
Picture by Tim Cuff 17 March 2021 - Nayland College prospectus and website imagery, Nelson, New Zealand

LAUNCH!

Students who have been identified through our Enrichment Programme assessment session and / or via our Gifted & Talented identification process will be invited to take part in Launch - our project based learning module

IOS (INSTITUTE OF SPORT)

Students who have particular strengths / gifts in the field of sport may wish to take part in the Year 8 Institute of Sport (IOS) testing session also held in November.

Senior school & beyond

Students who are accelerated through Mathematics at Nayland College and take NCEA Level 3 Statistics in Year 12 have the opportunity to focus on Scholarship Statistics in their Year 13 year. Those students who take NCEA Level 3 Calculus in Year 12 have the opportunity to focus on Scholarship Calculus and/or Math199 (a first-year university course run by the University of Canterbury) in their Year 13 year.

Many of the students who do choose to take Math199 at Nayland College enjoy the academic rigour of a very engaging, university-level course and embrace the challenge. Support is provided by the University of Canterbury, and students get a small glimpse of what courses look like beyond secondary school.

When taking a level 3 subject, students can opt into the New Zealand Scholarship assessment as an extension of level 3 material. Historically, the science department has offered support with scholarship chemistry, physics, biology and earth and space science through tutorials outside of class time. 

Students that accelerate in science and complete a level 3 subject in year 12 may have the option of taking university courses in Year 13 by correspondence through Victoria University, such as Chemistry 114. This is a trial option available from 2023.