Identifying high performing students

At Ashfield Public School we use the term "high performing" to describe students who consistently achieve A or B grades on the Common Grade Scale (CGS). A high performing student has a strong understanding of the curriculum, readily undertakes challenges and applies their skills and knowledge to increasingly complex situations.

At our school, high performing students are identified by formal assessments. Scores from internal and external tests provide evidence that these students are achieving at high levels or exceptionally high levels of performance in English, Maths and other Key Learning Areas.

High performing students are also identified through observations made by teachers as they use explicit teaching strategies and provide targeted feedback. Working closely with students, particularly when exploring increasingly sophisticated content, teachers gain great insight regarding the ability of students who have advanced thinking skills and a capacity for accelerated learning.

Observations also help teachers to identify high performing students who are not yet achieving A/B grades. This can be due to various factors such as language background, learning differences, and gaps from previous schooling. Teachers will create individualised learning programs such as small group interventions, that support these students to achieve their potential at the expected level.

Identifying high performing students depends on consistent teacher judgement. There is no precise cut-off score or set of characteristics that marks a student as high performing. Using their professional experience and knowledge of the curriculum, teachers analyse and compare student assessment results and work samples to understand the degree of knowledge, skills and understanding possessed by an individual student.

When teachers identify high performing students, it will be observed that they typically have an advanced capacity to apply thinking skills across Key Learning Areas. For example, a student who is high performing in English will be high performing in History and Geography, as the literacy skills developed in English support engagement with the sophisticated content and texts in these subjects.

At Ashfield Public School we are committed to identifying and engaging high performing students in a curriculum that is challenging, interesting and motivating. It is expected that all students are given the opportunity to participate in learning experiences that extend their thinking through creative tasks that are purposeful and require problem solving.

Across-class and across-grade groupings provide students identified as high performing to elevate this learning by accessing more sophisticated content that requires more higher-order thinking and independent inquiry.