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Page 4 of 8
Halton Catholic DSB
The HCDSB has recently established a plan to implement a spectrum of programming options for gifted learners. The ABC SEAC representative in the Halton Catholic Board reports on how flexibility in programming can greatly improve the opportunities available to gifted learners: "Halton Catholic is currently working towards extending the range of placements for Gifted (grades 5-8), and if we are successful, I believe we will become a "model" board (or at least significantly better than we were!). All five placement options are proposed. It is a bit premature to say that we are currently demonstrating "best practices", but I wanted to let you know what is in the works. Option 1 and 2 - regular classroom with various amounts of resource support Option 3 will take the form of a "gifted learning centre" that the students will rotate through .... the board estimates that the students will spend about 3 days per month at the gifted learning centre ... so more time total than what they currently get with the pull-out program (which is a couple of hours once/week, and only once every 3rd week with the gifted iSERT), and less disruptive since they will completely disappear from the home school for a few days and be able to really sink their teeth into an enrichment area .. in a classroom dedicated for gifted learners. Option 4 will be half day congregated (for core subjects), half day regular classroom (at same school as congregated class) Option 5 will be full day congregated. The new placement options will improved gifted education in HCDSB greatly. We have only had the pull-out program to date, which, though very "enriching", has been very limited, and the pull-outs cause significant disruption, especially for intermediate students. As for differentiation, compacting, acceleration, etc ... that is very dependent on the school, the specific teachers, and the parent involvement. For my own children I was reasonably successful in this regard, and my son was first subject-accelerated in a few subjects to ease the transition into a full grade acceleration, and then subject accelerated one additional year in Math. The teachers at our school were very good in aligning their class schedules (e.g. Gr. 5 math and Gr. 6 math) so he could just step next door for math. When my son was in Gr. 8 he took Gr. 9 math on-line and did this work at a computer in the Gr. 8 classroom (and at home). He had to complete the Gr. 9 math in the first "semester" which then left half a year when he had a math "spare" .. again the admin and teachers were great at allowing him to use this time to complete other homework, etc. So lots of flexibility and creativity in solving acceleration issues ... but these things certainly would not have happened had I not been as involved, or as persistent!"
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