Eye on Adelaide

Massada College's educational philosophy states that every child should be encouraged to reach to his/her potential. As part of this objective, Massada College aims to provide a Gifted and Talented programme within the range of facilities available to the school. This is achieved in the classroom by all staff using an open-ended programme, allowing each child to progress through the work at his/her pace. Teachers constantly monitor the students' work to ascertain whether the child is performing at a level commensurate with his/her abilities.

The College prides itself in a Gifted and Talented Children programme that has become widely recognised as a leading programme in the State, and our staff are often invited to speak on the programme to other teachers and principals.

The Gifted and Talented Children's programme began in the school in 1990 under the guidance of Ann Matison (member of staff and president of the Gifted Children's Association of South Australia) and the then principal, Mr. Michael Gordon. At its inception, all staff undertook two 1 day in-service sessions as well as a further 2 hours run by Dr. Abraham Tannenbaum. Since then, staff have continued to attend courses with the Gifted Children's Association or attend two-day conferences on Gifted Children. One member of staff undertook Gifted Studies as part of her Special Education studies.

The Gifted and Talented Children's Programme relies on the early identification of the children's abilities and each child's abilities are assessed when s/he starts at the school. This is done by speaking with the parents, teacher observation, researching the child's interests, listening to the child's friends, assessing the work that was completed in the previous school (where applicable), assessing the standard of the work completed at Massada, and standardised testing. Although, in some cases the testing is arranged privately by parents who present a letter of reference for entry into the College, the College assesses each child from year 1 up with a range of standardised attribute tests. Assessment is a continuous process and the Slosson's test is only one form of standardised testing used.

Extension activities are run by Ann Matison and Dennis Southern (the year 6-7 class teacher and a committee member of the Gifted Children's Association of South Australia). But more importantly, throughout the entire academic programme no barriers are set. Children can extend as far as they can go. The school also encourages early entry for those who are ready so that children are grouped with their mental age peers. This is made even more possible because of the composite classes.

Children can accelerate within their own classroom in a variety of subject areas including:

Maths - where they work through modules and process maths at their own pace. At times, children are identified as being ready to move onto a new concept and a small group is then taught the next concept while the rest of the class continues with individual work. Time is structured within the timetable for Problem Solving. vertical grouping is also encouraged by timetabling all maths in a block and allowing the transfer of students to more appropriate metal age grouping.

Hebrew - where they work at their own pace and some extension Hebrew and religious studies is provided by taking the stronger children out twice a week during the Hebrew/religious studies time. When the extension children remain in their home class, there is a lot of peer teaching where groups are matched to provide a native speaker in each group.

Jewish Studies - where extension groups exist at the higher levels. In these extension groups children do textual studies and analysis. The addition of Mr Michael Levin from Israel in 1998 has accelerated the development in this area.

Reading - where each child takes a book that is mental age appropriate. This means that each classroom has a wide range of books at all times as does the library.

Social studies - where a lot of individual project work is conducted. A topic will typically begin with a brainstorming session to first determine what the children already know.

Language - where there is a heavy emphasis on individual work through journal writing and process writing.

There is a Thinking Skills programme throughout the school.