High potential and gifted education

Narrabri High School creates a supportive and stimulating environment where high potential and gifted students can thrive and develop into confident, capable individuals. Our program offers potential selective high school students the high academic standard they are seeking, but in a setting which is co-educational, socially cohesive and community focused.

• Our school follows the explicit teaching where we foster critical thinking and problem-solving strategies providing opportunities for abstraction, inquiry, and curriculum depth​.
• Our classes have structured peer collaboration and reflection where strengths-based feedback and goal setting are part of learning process.
• We provide supportive learning environments that enable exploration and self-assessment creating a safe learning environments that encourage confidence, risk-taking, and perseverance​.
• Classes have differentiated tasks that adjust pace, complexity and higher order thinking​ followed by formative assessment to monitor growth and adapt learning​

Our school recognises that every student is individual, and we provide flexible and diverse opportunities for students to explore and grow their strengths outside the classroom.

• All our students, including high potential and gifted students, are encouraged to take on leadership roles through student representative council leadership, mentoring programs and peer coaching and leadership of major events including ANZAC, Remembrance Day and NAIDOC assemblies.

• In our Narrabri Accelerated Athletes Program (NAAP), students who are identified as an athlete that competes at a high level (Representative, State, etc) are supported through participation in high level physical activity with leadership pathways and collaborative learning and a feeder group are supported to aspire to this level.
• Our Visual Arts students have many opportunities to engage in enrichment through excursions and workshops. Students are involved in excursions to galleries, viewing traditional and contemporary artworks and are encouraged to contribute to local exhibitions. In addition, they extend their own practice through field trips to record new and varied experiences and meet with talented artists from a variety of medias.
• Talent in the Creative Arts is celebrated and extended through in music and drama, supported by a student stage crew who run sound, lighting and production at the annual MADD Night and other productions throughout the year. Our highly talented students engage in events such as Narrabrite, parent evening and community events as required.
• Students excelling and interested in Agriculture and Science participate in local enrichment opportunities offered by the school, CSIRO, Universities, and have included Evoke Ag and the AMGEN practical investigation in which they create a transgenic species in the laboratory. Students have been highlighted in the Science and Agricultural areas and have consistently produced strong results each year.
• Peer support training began for students in Years 9 and 10 in 2025 and selected students were supported in developing goals and building healthy friendships with opportunities to improve their communication skills through listening, questioning, and giving and receiving feedback, ultimately building their emotional intelligence, and establishing themselves as role models to younger students within the school.

• Our students continue to participate in many competitions including gala days, combined high schools knock out competitions and selection through to zone, regional and state carnivals.
• Narrabri High School participates in Science VALID Testing, ICAS Competitions, Evoke Ag, Hospitality events, leadership Events, ISTEM Competitions and Da Vinci Competition. Let’s Hang It, Narrabri Eisteddfod, Orbi Space, Agricultural competitions.
• Through excellence and innovation students have also been nominated or successful for the UNE Let’s Hang It Art Prize, World Science Challenge participants, Debating, Chess, Regional and State Sporting Achievements, Evoke Ag State Winners, Science and Engineering Challenge Finalists, Agricultural Show Champions, Extracurricular opportunities including the Rural Fire Service Young Volunteer of the Year and the Young Cadet of the Year.