Gifted and Talented - Melville Senior High School

Gifted and Talented Program

The Gifted and Talented teaching team at Melville understands the need to challenge students and consistently look for innovative ways to engage the gifted learner. The collaborative partnership between parents, teachers and other professionals ensures that students have the opportunity to extend their skills and knowledge in a highly supportive environment.

Classes provide a stimulating environment that encourages teamwork, motivation and engagement, and offers challenges outside the classroom, so students have opportunities to develop higher-order thinking skills through activities promoting creativity, collaboration and cooperation.

The Gifted and Talented Selective Entrance Program is a rigorous and challenging academic program where students study an extended and enriched curriculum of Mathematics, English, Science and Humanities (MESH subjects) together as a class group from Years 7 to 10.

Students have opportunities to partner and collaborate with universities, not-for-profit organisations, and businesses. These engagements are often in highly collaborative or competition-based environments.

Support for students in the Gifted and Talented Program continues into Senior School, where Year 11 and 12 Gifted and Talented students’ progress is tracked and monitored while opportunities are provided to prepare students for their selected individual pathways post-school.

Applying for the Gifted and Talented Program at Melville

The Gifted and Talented applications process is done externally through the Gifted and Talented Selective Unit (GTSU). Please visit the Gifted and Talented page for further information.

Applications and testing take place when your child is in Year 6. After applying, your child must sit the Academic Selective Entrance Test (ASET) in Year 6. This is organised and run by the Department of Education and Melville SHS is a testing venue each year. Successful applicants will then have a choice of Gifted and Talented Selective Schools once they receive their marks. Students may attend a school of choice, even if not in the local intake area.

The offer process is explained in the video How the offers process works – Gifted and Talented program.

Top Up Testing – Applying for the Gifted and Talented program in later years

Students who have already commenced secondary school and wish to apply to the Gifted and Talented program must follow the same application process and sit the Department of Education ‘top-up testing’ for entry the following year. For example, a student in Year 8 may sit the testing for entry into the Year 9 program.

For information regarding release of ASET scores, preferences and offers, please contact the Gifted and Talented Selection Unit Department of Education Gifted and Talented Program.

School Tours

For further information or book an upcoming school tour, visit enrolments.

Apply for entry in 2026

View key dates and application guidelines

Subjects

This subject will extend students’ problem-solving capabilities and allow them to see the applicability of Mathematics in abstract reasoning while also clarifying the applications of their studied topic in the real world. Our program is specifically designed to nurture and develop the problem-solving capabilities of gifted students, empowering them to conquer real-world challenges through mathematics. By integrating practical applications of mathematics, the program equips students with the skills they need to make a tangible impact in fields like engineering, finance, and technology.

Students are provided with the opportunity to participate in competitions and extension activities such as Numero, MATHS Empowering Girls, Australian Mathematics Competition (AMC), Have Some Fun, Murdoch Careers Incursions, and Bebras Computational Thinking Challenge (CSIRO).

Our English program immerses gifted students in the realm of literature, nurturing a love of reading while honing their creative and critical thinking abilities. We inspire students to explore diverse perspectives, develop their own voices and unravel the complexities of language and storytelling. Students will develop their analytic abilities and their creative potential, setting them on a path to become perceptive readers, eloquent writers and critical thinkers.

Students in the GAT program will gain access to exclusive extra-curricular events and competitions such as Book in a Day, Future Problem Solving (FPS) International Writing Competition, as well as writing workshops held at Murdoch and Curtin University.

In Science, gifted students will enjoy an enriching experience with exposure to an enhanced curriculum with exciting experiments and topics to uncover. This course will stimulate students’ curiosity about the natural world and foster their engagement with the intricacies of the human body, ecosystems, chemical reactions, and the universe’s building blocks in the form of atoms. Students will participate in STEM-based activities such as coding, robotics and engineering, which are huge growth areas for future employment. Students will be prepared to study upper-school Biology, Human Biology, Chemistry and Physics in the coming years.

Gifted students will have exclusive access to the National Science Week Quiz (RACI), Big Science at Murdoch University, Seek Out Science Workshops with Murdoch, Scitech Incursions, and the WISE Women Murdoch Excursion.

Gifted students in HASS will investigate many aspects of our shared world and human history and build their sense of civic duty by understanding how our world functions economically and politically. Through engaging scenarios, students apply critical thinking and problem-solving skills to address pressing global issues, becoming agents of positive change in their communities and beyond.

Students in GAT HASS are provided with many extension opportunities and excursions such as exploring local wildlife habitats, United Nations Youth Forum, Premier’s Anzac Tour, Mock Trials and an Interactive Waterwise Experience.