Extra-Curricular Activities

• A first class Instrumental Music Program
• An award winning choral program
• A comprehensive Outdoor Education Program for P to 7
• Chess Club
• Junior Rotary
• Debating
• Swimming Club
• Robotics
• Year 7 Sustainability Project
• Mandarin Chinese Classes
• Interschool sport for Years 4 - 7
• Optiminds
• Maths Tournament
• Bardon Young Writers
• Year 7 Volleyball in the Primary Schools Cup

Enrichment Program for Gifted and Talented

students.

 

The Gap State School provides an enrichment program for Gifted and Talented students.

This Enrichment Program aims to complement all other curriculum programs within the school. It provides diverse extension and enrichment activities for individuals and/or groups in the Year 1 – Year 7 classrooms.

 

Objectives:

• Develop higher order and creative thinking abilities.

• Provide diverse learning experiences

• Develop students’ gifts and talents.

 

Strategies:

Activities are planned to complement class themes as per year levels.

The groups work on higher level thinking on the class unit themes using skills such as Six Thinking Hats, Creative Thinking skills (Fluency, Flexibility, Originality, Elaboration, Curiosity and Complexity), Thinker’s Keys, Blooms Taxonomy and Multiple Intelligences.

 

Outcomes:

Through their participation, the students further develop their abilities and self-confidence as well as obtain a strong sense of individual and group achievement.

How are the students selected?

Classroom teachers select highly able students who fit most of the learning characteristics below:

• Learn quickly and readily

• Recall facts and basic concepts easily but may become frustrated and bored if learning pace is too slow

• Have a broad general knowledge.

• Think quickly with advanced understanding

• Make sense of patterns and relationships

• Reason analytically and critically in complex ways

• Use advanced vocabulary and express ideas clearly and fluently

• Avid reader

• Leaders - take responsibility for self and others

• Curious about how and why things work

• Put unrelated ideas together in new and different ways

• Strong imagination

• Show a capacity to be independent and self-sufficient

• Kids who ‘bubble up’ - keen to learn and are creative

 

 

The OptiMinds Challenge

What is Opti-Minds? Opti-Minds is a creative problem-solving program for teams of participants from Preschool to Adults in Queensland. Students are required to solve demanding, open-ended challenges from one of the following categories: Language Literature, Science Engineering and Social Sciences.

 

Here at The Gap State School, students nominate themselves for the OptiMinds Challenge with great success. Last year, out of six teams entered, our school was awarded

the Brisbane Region Winner in the Language Literature section (for the second consecutive year) and two Honours in the Social Sciences categories.

 

As long as the students are committed and enjoy team problem solving and a whole lot of fun, no students are excluded.