Gifted and Talented Program 2025
Applications Due Date
Applications close at midnight Friday, 9 August 2024. Please use the following link to complete the application process and payment required to register your child Edutest - Parent
Selection Test Date
The Bentleigh Secondary College Gifted and Talented Entrance test will be onsite Wednesday, 14 August 2024 at 9.00am – 12.00pm in the Year 7 Precinct.
Our Philosophy
To provide opportunities for the development of 21st century skills and the capacities young people need to lead creative, satisfying and productive lives. We aim to ensure students have access to both stimulating curriculum and extra-curricular activities which broaden and deepen their experience and value personal effort and excellence.
Program Goals
- To provide an educational environment to enable highly able students to develop to their full potential.
- To develop high-level written and oral skills.
- To engage students in their learning and encourage them to become lifelong learners, developing resilience and optimism
- To provide an environment that encourages divergent thinking. Students will be encouraged in the development of originality, fluency, flexibility and elaboration.
- To promote critical thinking and reasoning abilities eg. inference, deductive and inductive reasoning, analogies and evaluation.
- To create independent learners, who will be extended by teachers using a wide range of teaching strategies and learning technologies
Opportunities to Excel
Students in the Gifted and Talented program are given a range of opportunities to excel, including:
- Accelerated studies in VCE
- University Enhancement to maximise ATAR score and increase opportunities for tertiary study
- Inquiry Based Learning programs
- Music performances and tours
- School production
- Sports Academy
- Interschool sport
- Community service
- Mindfulness Meditation
- Sustainability programs
- da Vinci Decathlon
- Maths, Science and Geography Competitions
- Debating
- Enrichment excursions
Program Structure
Students gain entry into our Gifted and Talented Program through a selection process. A selection test is held for students in Year 6 each year. The selection process will also consider recent school performance reports and the Year 5 NAPLAN results.
Outstanding students will be offered a position in the program. In addition, anyone interested in taking a tour of the school can do so via the following link: College Tour
The program differs substantially from our mainstream program with a clear focus on maximising the academic potential of each student. It is an expectation that GAT students participate in the Music Instrumental Program from Year 7 to 9. When students from the Gifted and Talented Program graduate to the senior school they have developed the foundations to ensure that they gain maximum ATAR scores to increase their opportunities for tertiary study. Various opportunities will be open to students in the senior school. These include early access to VCE units, extra units at VCE level and tertiary enhancement studies.
A Common Question - Can a student sit the same test for more than one school?
Yes they can, however an online registration form and payment must be completed for EACH of the schools you choose. Payment is made online at the end of each application.
Gifted and Talented Program