GAPP

Box Hill High School Gifted and Academic Potential Program (GAPP)

A Select Entry Accelerated Learning (SEAL) Program

Box Hill High School is proud of its long tradition of offering an educational program that caters for the needs of gifted and talented students and is taught by experienced qualified teachers. Box Hill High School offers a Select Entry Accelerated Learning (SEAL) program where high-ability students complete an adapted curriculum from Years 7 to 10. This program is only open to students who meet our enrolment criteria.

The central aim of the Box Hill High School GAPP program is to provide educational experiences of an appropriate type and quality for that group of children identified through the selection procedures as having exceptional academic ability. These students are capable of high academic performance and will benefit from an accelerated and enriched learning program.

SEAL students undertake six years of secondary school, but complete Year 7-10 Victorian Curriculum in three years. Within Box Hill High School’s GAPP program, curriculum is adapted in a variety of ways to best meet the needs of high ability

students.

Curriculum is:

• compacted by removing unnecessary repetition
• telescoped by enabling students to effectively “grade-skip”
• enriched with content of specific interest to gifted students and content is studied to a greater depth, demanding the use of higher order thinking skills.

Content is:

• Abstract
• Complex
• Multidisciplinary
• Human issue-related
• Methodology-related.

Skills that:

• Focus on high-order thinking skills (create, evaluate, analyse)
• Are Open-ended
• Based on proof & reasoning
• Incorporate learning that is problem-based, inquiry-based
• Allow for freedom of choice in learning to build student agency
• Strengthen strategies to improve retention (mnemonics).

In their fourth-year, students begin their VCE program. Year 10 GAPP students can choose to undertake two Unit 1 and 1 VCE subjects. This allows these students to study a broader range of VCE subjects aswell the opportunity to access higher education studies (first year university subjects) through The Centre for Higher Education Studies (CHES) - 

Centre for Higher Education Studies (ches.vic.edu.au). 

Entrance into the Box Hill High School GAPP Program involves:

1. HAST testing distributed through ACER (Mathematical Reasoning, Reading Comprehension, Abstract Reading and Written Expression). Each test is designed to test ability rather than existing knowledge.
2. An Interview. The purpose of the interview is to identify the academic gifts of students that may be masked by other learning difficulties; it is the “twice exceptional” students who may underperform in mass testing situations. This might be based on the feedback from the primary school or prior psychological testing where reports have been provided to the school.

We are seeking students who have suitable high ability learning needs for this program - not necessarily students who are coached in test taking.

Testing occurs each year in Term 3. Please check the website home page for registration details.