Narrator

This video provides a brief introduction to the High Potential and Gifted Education Evaluation and Planning Tool, also called the EP Tool. The tool was designed to support effective implementation of the High Potential and Gifted Education Policy.

This video covers the EP Tool’s purpose, structure, and key features. A second video, Part 2, contains a step-by-step guide for those who want to look more closely at the interactive functions of the tool, and provides a worked example. The EP Tool provides a framework where you can document evidence, self-assess to create a focus and then plan a course of action. Consider it almost like a workbook where everything is in one place. Development of the EP Tool has involved a lengthy consultation process. Feedback along the way has ensured it is user-friendly and encourages alignment with existing school priorities and department support.

The purpose of the tool is to support schools to effectively implement the High potential and gifted education policy into school planning. Page 2 of the EP Tool includes an introduction, which contains some important background information about the High Potential and Gifted Education Policy. This includes the additional support available for school leaders and teachers to help with implementation. You'll also notice links on this page. This is a common theme throughout the EP Tool.

Many of the suggested sources of evidence, as well as courses of action and planning, align with existing departmental support and resources to make it easier for schools to implement the HPGE Policy for their own context. On the contents page of the tool, you'll see that there are 2 sections clearly distinguished by colours. The evaluation section in blue and the planning section in yellow. Also, note the way the content is structured with the High Potential and Gifted Education Policy statements at the centre. These are the statements which drive the tool. The overview describes the structure of each part of the tool, starting with the evaluation and planning sections. The page also contains a discussion on how to use suggested sources of evidence, and how the planning section is aligned with the 5 key actions, as well as the 4 domains of potential that are covered under the policy. Finally, the overview details how the EP Tool aligns with the School Excellence Framework and the High Potential and Gifted Education Policy.

The evaluation section of the tool is clearly denoted in blue and aligns to the ‘evaluate’ key action. It asks schools to evaluate procedures, programs and practices, as well as student growth and achievement. These inform school planning and implementation of the High Potential and Gifted Education Policy. Schools should use the clear step-by-step guide to navigate the evaluation section. To give schools a clear overview, the self-evaluation summary auto-populates. At the end of the evaluation section, there is a summary page where schools determine the step of where to next and identify policy points to focus on.

After the evaluation section, we move into the planning section, denoted in yellow. The planning section includes the other 4 key actions that support implementation of the High Potential and Gifted Education Policy. These key actions are, ‘collaborate’, ‘assess and identify’, ‘implement’, and ‘build capability’. The High Potential and Gifted Education Policy is a comprehensive document, and schools will need to implement it in entirety over time. It is expected that schools use this EP Tool to decide on one or two statement points to focus on to begin with – and this is the role of the planning section.

Similar to the evaluation section, schools can use the step-by-step guide to navigate the planning section. The planning section concludes with the summary page where schools can choose policy statement points of focus, highlight key research, and align their course of action with other school priorities. Schools will find these pages useful as they include the ability to attach files as evidence. This may be helpful for external validation evidence and school planning.

If you would like a more in-depth explanation, there is a Part 2 video, which goes through some user-friendly features, and the interactive functionality of the tool. It walks through a guided example of the tool for one of the policy statement points.

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Narrator

The High Potential and Gifted Education Evaluation and Planning Tool, (also called the EP Tool) was designed to support effective implementation of the High Potential and Gifted Education policy.

The EP Tool enables leaders to evaluate current evidence and data to plan for policy implementation. The tool can be used to document baseline data and to continue monitoring progress of policy implementation over time. Throughout the planning cycle, the tool can be revisited at any time.

This is the second video in a two-part series supporting the High Potential and Gifted Education Evaluation and Planning Tool. Before watching, it is recommended you view the ‘Part one – introduction and overview’ video. This video is a step-by-step guide to using version 3 of the tool. It covers the EP Tool’s interactive functions. It models an example of one policy statement point being completed for both the planning and evaluation sections. Pause the video as often as you like to test the features for yourself. As you view this video, it is recommended you have a copy of the tool at your disposal. Please ensure you have version 3 with the light blue cover.

All staff can engage with the High Potential and Gifted Education Policy and contribute to the evaluation process for effective implementation. There are a range of ways school leaders can use the evaluation section of the tool. For instance, one way is to divide the policy statement points among the different teams in the school. For example, different stage or faculty groups might focus on one specific statement point and gather the evidence for that statement point and then share back to the leadership team. The leadership team may decide to give staff a choice as to which policy statement point they are responsible for gathering evidence for. This allows staff to focus on the policy statement point that resonates more with them. Alternatively, staff can choose which domain of potential to gather evidence for self-assessment of current school programs and practices. Some teams may already be in place tasked with gathering evidence across the school, and they can be utilised to focus on relevant policy statement points.

Let's take a closer look at the tool, making sure it is version 3 with the light blue cover. Here is the contents page. There are quite a few user-friendly features to point out. You'll see the two colours of blue and yellow on either side of the page, blue for evaluation, and yellow for planning. This is an easy way to tell what section of the tool you are in.

Here you can see the policy statement points are front and centre of the tool and drive the tool throughout. The most relevant School Excellence Framework domains and themes have been aligned with these policy statements. This will assist with self-assessment to find existing evidence of High Potential and Gifted Education Policy implementation. This is quite deliberate. It is the High Potential and Gifted Education Policy that you are being asked to implement and the tool's purpose is to support effective implementation. Also note the user guides for the evaluation and planning sections on pages 6 and 47, with a summary section on page 42, and course of action on pages 45 and 63.

Navigating to any page is simple. Simply click on the page number, say page 11. When you want to return to the contents, click the navigation arrow at the bottom of each page and this allows you to navigate the tool with ease. Let's look at a policy statement point more closely, say 1.3 in the evaluation section and review the user features in the tool.

Each policy statement point is aligned to the most relevant SEF theme and this is where the work has been done for you. Let's look at one example. Each statement point has suggested examples of general evidence and domain-specific evidence examples. These are not an exhaustive list; but rather suggestions to assist with thinking about the possibilities for evidence you can use within your own school context. There are many links for you to access that have been taken from department and external sources, including the High Potential and Gifted Education web section which provides specific advice and support. The next page shows the relevant SEF themes for the policy statement point. There is a drop-down box for self-assessment against the SEF regarding your high potential and gifted students.

By examining your evidence and perhaps using some of the suggested evidence samples, a determination can be made about whether your school is at the ‘Delivering’ stage, listing evidence below to describe what was used to make that decision. However, your school might decide that they are at the ‘Yet to be determined’ stage as you believe that you may need time to further investigate your evidence, or you are yet to develop high potential and gifted programs, practices and procedures. Whether you believe you are at the ‘delivering’, ‘sustaining and growing’, or the ‘excelling’ stage, you can list evidence samples in the blue box provided.

Let's now return to the contents. Remember, we do this by clicking on the navigation arrow. Let's look at where all this information is collected. On the self-evaluation summary on page 42, the tool automatically takes you to the summary pages where the completed self-evaluations for each policy statement point have been automatically populated. This summary assists with where to direct focus for policy implementation.

We can see that for 1.1.1, this school has self-assessed implementation of high potential and gifted education at ‘delivering’, ‘sustaining and growing’ for each of the relevant SEF themes. If we look at some of the other policy statement points for this school, the tool provides a succinct summary of the self-evaluation to better inform decisions about ‘Where to next?’ and what statement points to focus on and plan for.

Let's go back to the contents page to easily navigate back to the self-evaluation – ‘Where to next?’ section on page 45. As a result of the evaluation summary results, users can determine what policy statement points will be a focus and answer the questions to determine, ‘Where to next?’ Schools can document why they have chosen this focus, how it aligns with other school objectives and priorities, and the evidence that they will use to monitor this. Evidence and other files, such as photos, can be attached to the EP Tool by using this attachment feature at the bottom of the page. This feature is particularly powerful as it enables you to keep all your evaluation evidence and planning examples in one place.

After completing the evaluation component of the tool and having decided on the policy statement points for focus, schools can go to the planning section to support implementation of these policy statement points. You can see that the tool begins with evaluation so that it can inform the planning decisions for policy implementation.

To get to the planning section of your chosen policy statement points, you actually have two options. Let’s explore these options by looking at the evaluation section for 1.3. Once you are in the evaluation section for a policy statement, a very nifty feature from here is that you can instantly swap between the Evaluation and Planning sections for this policy statement. You can do this by clicking the yellow or blue arrows beside the policy statement point heading without having to go back to the contents page. Or you can go back to the contents page to navigate around the document.

As you can tell by the yellow sidebar, we're now in the planning section of 1.3. We would recommend you choose only one or two policy statement points for your focus to begin with in your policy implementation journey. To begin with, these will be the only statement points that you will engage with in the planning section. Each planning section has a key action for focus, so that you can go to the relevant web section advice on this key action for further support. Each statement point in the planning section is accompanied by a succinct list of research. This research has been taken from the ‘Revisiting gifted education’ literature review, which is available on the High Potential and Gifted Education page.

To cater for the range of P–12 schools across New South Wales, all examples are of a general nature and like the evaluation section, these examples are only suggestions, they are not an exhaustive list. The general examples are organised to support you based on your prior self-evaluation, at ‘delivering’, ‘sustaining and growing’ or ‘excelling’. There are also domain specific-examples: Creative, Intellectual, Physical, and Social-emotional. You can see that links are again provided.

Once users have considered the suggested examples or those that they have created themselves, then the course of action summary on page 63 is the next step. Return to the contents page and navigate to Planning our course of action on page 63. Use these drop-down boxes to document the policy statement point or points for focus. Respond to the questions to summarise your plan, and attach further examples, documents or photos to store files in one place. This becomes a useful resource for External Validation evidence, or to support school plans.

Now that you've had a deeper explanation of the EP Tool, you're ready to use it to assist with planning and implementation of the HPGE policy. It is strongly recommended that school leaders who use the tool participate in professional learning. A two-day leader’s course is available where leaders can collaborate, share and engage in using the tool. This course includes research in how to lead change and gives access to the Attitudes and Teaching Practices survey.

More information can be found on the professional learning page on the HPGE web section. To submit feedback or contact the HPGE team use the email on the screen.

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