PRIMARY EXTENSION AND CHALLENGE (PEAC) / TALENTED & GIFTED (TAGS)

Esperance Primary School provides ongoing teaching and learning opportunities to cater for academically gifted and talented students, to better meet the individual needs of these students. Students are provided with additional learning programs, outside of their normal classroom, which are designed to motivate and challenge their thinking and learning.

Programs are run by teachers and offer a diverse range of learning opportunities including; photography, robotics, poetry, engineering, digital technologies, literature and language. The courses offered reflect on the needs of the students at Esperance Primary School to further extend their learning from the classroom environment. The program is well supported, with 8 different staff, reflecting the expertise and passion that our staff have for maintaining and strengthening PEAC/TAGS opportunities at the school.

CRITICAL & CREATIVE THINKING

The integration of Critical and Creative Thinking as a general capability into all subject areas is vital to teach students how to develop a range of responses adding complexity to their ideas and responding with a well thought out solution. As a 21^st century learner, students also need to be employable. Real world problem solving is a key component to many occupations in today’s technology driven environment. Inspired by problem solving challenges and seeing the advantage students who have developed creative thinking skills have, Esperance Primary School has developed a process that can be used and adapted by all staff in a wide range of learning activities to improve the problem solving skills of students of all ages and abilities.

The term-long Critical and Creative Thinking program identifies 60-70 students from Years 3-6 with academic excellence in creativity or the ability to excel in a team environment. We focus on teaching different strategies and skills that students can use to solve challenging problems. Students work in a collaborative setting to share their thoughts and ideas with other students, selecting a solution from a range of ideas, further developing the complexity of the idea with deeper discussion and presenting the idea to an audience to develop their confidence in articulating their thoughts. The program identifies very closely with the Tribes agreements and is complimentary to the environment teachers at our school are already embedding in the classroom.

TOURNAMENT OF THE MINDS

Tournament of the Minds has been a part of Esperance Primary School since 1992. The real world benefits of this time intensive program give Esperance Primary School students a platform to demonstrate academic excellence. Students are selected at the end of the Critical and Creative Program in term 2 to form a team of seven students who then go on to compete at regional, state and even national levels against other primary school teams from around the world. More about the Tournament of the Minds program can be found here: https://www.tom.edu.au

Esperance Primary TOM History

1992
State Winners, Math & Engineering
1993
Certificate of Commendation, Math & Engineering
1994
State Winner, Math & Engineering
1995
Did not compete
1996
State Winner, Language/Literature
State Winner, Social Science
Special Creativity Award
1997
Honours (top 15%), Math Engineering
Honours (top 15%), Language/Literature
1998
State Winners, Social Science
1999
Honours (top 15%), Social Science
Honours (top 15%), Language Literature
2000
Honours (top 15%), Language Literature
Honours (top 15%), Social Science
2001
State Winners, Social Science
State Finalist, Social Science (Year 4/5)
National Honours (top 3), Social Science
2002
State Finalist, Language & Literature
State Finalist, Social Science
2003
State Winners, Social Science
State Winners, Maths/Engineering
National Winners, Social Science
National Winners, Maths/Engineering
2004
Honours, Language & Literature
State Finalist, Maths / Engineering
State Finalist, Social Science
State Winners, Social Science
2005
State Finalist, Social Science
State Finalist, Language & Literature
Honours (top 10%), Maths & Engineering
2006
State Finalist, Language & Literature
Honours (top 10%), Maths & Engineering
State Winners, Language & Literature
National Honours (top 3)
2007
Regional Comp
Honours (top 15%), Social Science, Team 3
(Teams were not represented at State finals)
2008
State Finalist, Language & Literature
State Finalist, Social Science
National Winners, Social Science
National Honours (top 3), Language & Literature
2009
State Finalist, Social Science
2011
State Winners, Social Science
Australasian Pacific National Champions, Social Science
2012
State Winners, Applied Technology
Australasian Pacific Honours, Applied Technology
2013
State Winners, Language & Literature
Australasian Pacific Honours, Language & Literature
State Winners, Social Science
Australasian Pacific Honours, Social Science
2014
State Winners, Applied Technology
Australasian Pacific Finalists, Applied Technology
State Final Honours, Language & Literature
2015
State Winners, Social Science
Australasian Pacific Finalists, Social Science
State Final Honours, Applied Technology
2016
State Winners, Applied Technology
Australasian Pacific Honours, Applied Technology
State Finalist, Honours Social Science
2017
State Final Honours, Maths & Engineering
State Final Honours, Social Science
2018
State Final Honours, STEM
State Final Honours, Social Science
2019
State Final Honours, Language & Literature

2021
State Winners, Social Science
International Winners, Social Science