The Secretary
Senate Employment, Workplace Relations, Small Business and Education
References Committee
Suite S1.61, Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600

E-mail:	eet.sen@aph.gov.au

27 February 2001

RE: Submission to the inquiry into the education of gifted and talented children

The purpose of this submission is to provide information on the current visual arts programs for gifted and talented secondary students in Western Australian government schools. We also include commentary under the three main terms of reference. 

We endeavour to provide all students with a program that is both equitable and available to all regardless of socio-economic background. However there other factors which affect equitability (see submission). We believe many of these can be addressed by the implementation of the 1988 Senate Inquiry Recommendations. 

We hope this year’s Committee possess the vision and foresight to see the value of our gifted and talented students and wish them every success in their venture.

Yours sincerely,

Ms. Jamie Arkeveld				Mrs. Cassandra Manning
Special Art Coordinator				Special Art Coordinator
Balcatta Senior High School			Kalamunda Senior High School
Poincaire Street					Cotherstone Road
BALCATTA 	WA	6021				KALAMUNDA  WA	6076

SENATE SUBMISSION TO THE INQUIRY INTO THE EDUCATION OF GIFTED AND TALENTED CHILDREN

Special Art Programs in Western Australia
Since the early 1980’s, Gifted and Talented programs in the Visual Arts have run in three State Metropolitan High Schools in Western Australia: Kalamunda, Applecross, and Balcatta. They admit somewhere between 15 and 40 students per year into the year 8 program. The expectation is that the students remain in the program until graduation in year 12. Due to varying circumstances a certain percentage leave the program during the course of the 5 years. 

These are state funded visual arts scholarship programs. The funding covers tuition by artists on a Saturday morning and consumables, but not camps or excursions. The students attend the normal school program during the week, although they may select extra art units during that time.

(i) The Identification of Gifted and Talented Children in the Visual Arts
Currently information on the Special Art Program is distributed to all state and private primary schools through district offices and the Education Department. Interested students then apply directly to the school of their choice. This is followed by an interview and testing process, run by the Special Art Coordinator. The interview includes the submission of a folio of artwork, and the testing involves a series of art tasks run over three days. Results of this process are calculated to a final score. Students are ranked and the top 25 - 35 offered a placement for the following year.

There are a number of concerns with the identification of children gifted and talented in the visual arts:

•	Only about a third of all primary schools have access to a visual arts specialist. Most primary teachers are generally not visual art specialists and may have limited experience in the field of assessing and selecting children who are gifted and talented in the arts and guiding them to the correct channels.

•	Without access to visual arts specialist, primary school students may also not have the opportunity to produce artwork that could be used to identify them as being gifted and talented in the arts.  This impacts most noticeably during the interview part of the selection process when applying students are asked to submit a folio of work.      

(ii)Equitability within the Special Art Program
As a scholarship program, special art funding is reliant on the number of students within the program, with funding for tutor’s wages and equipment / consumables available from The Education Department. The annual cost per student is between $60 and $100. The concerns for children from low socio-economic and rural areas are:

•	Attending interviews and testing is difficult for students from remote and rural areas. Many applicants do not have the means of attending interviews and testing and therefore cannot qualify for the program. The majority of those who apply from remote/rural areas do not make the interview or testing. There is also the obvious difficulty of housing their child for the duration of the program.

•	As Visual Arts Specialists are present only in a small proportion of Primary Schools, students who have not been taught by teachers trained in the Visual Arts have a distinct disadvantage over those who have. A large proportion of art in Primary Schools is negotiated around the “core” curriculum and often used as a “time filler”. This does not make for challenging curricular. Students who have not had rich Visual Arts experiences in their formative year are denied the opportunity of developing their potential within this field.

(iii)Links between attainment and socio-economic distribution

It is noticeable and disappointing the proportion of application by students from low socio-economic areas is low.  For these students, when they do apply and qualify, remaining in such programs for it’s entire duration is uncommon, as many need Saturday mornings for part time work.

 
Recommendations:

•	A provision for specialist visual arts learning is made accessible to all primary school students. With the introduction of the Frameworks Curriculum in 2004 all learning areas (including the arts) will be provided for students. Currently we can only assume that visual arts teaching within this framework will still be the realm of non-specialist primary school teachers unless the Education Department makes provisions otherwise. Therefore it is necessary to provide all primary school students with access to Visual Arts Specialists at least on a shared basis with others schools within the district.

•	Provisions for the housing/transportation for students in remote or country areas including the duration of interviews and testing in the form of a scholarship or special subsidy.
 
•	Scholarships to provide funding for housing / transport for students from low socio-economic / rural / remote areas for students who qualify for the program.
 
•	Provisions are made for the professional development for primary school teachers in the identification and guidance of gifted and talented students in all learning areas.

•	Funding for greater links with feeder schools and Universities that offer Visual Arts Courses is made available

To add to this however, there are the extremely urgent needs for the immediate support of primary school teachers in low socio-economic areas. The high proportion of students to staff needs to be addressed before staff can cover the most basic curriculum. This leaves little chance for staff to give the 10% of gifted and talented students in their class opportunities to reveal themselves.