Gifted & Talented Program

PROGRAMS

Secondary GATE Program and Academic Scholarships

We ensure gifted students are supported and appropriately challenged to develop their natural gifting into talents.

The SCBC GATE program ensure that gifted and high-achieving students are appropriately challenged and prepared for the future. Students are supported in developing their academic passions and talents through the three pillars of the program: Academic Extension and Enrichment; Project-based Learning and competitions and Academic Progress Management & Mentoring.

In an encouraging environment, students will develop a love of learning, a growth mindset, and resilience to respond to many challenges that life may throw at them in the future. Students will develop skills of leadership, critical thinking, collaborative problem solving, and other 21st Century skills essential for success in the contemporary global economy.

Students who receive an Academic scholarship will automatically be granted entrance into the Gifted and Talented Program, and placed alongside their peers who share similar abilities and capabilities for learning.

The Program offers opportunities for:

Placement into the top stream classes for their areas of exceptionality where programs have been tailored to build in more collaboration, problem-based, and project-based learning.
Partnerships with Universities and Industry.
Participation in projects that respond to student interests, engaging them in diverse areas of study, such as Sustainability, Engineering, Physics, Social Justice, the Arts, Coding, and Environmental Science.
Participation in a wide range of co-curricular extension opportunities, including the Australian Mathematics Competition, BrainBee Neuroscience Competition, Western Australia Debating League, Synergy Solar Car Challenge, WA Schools Hackathon, the Talented Young Writers’ Program, Tournament of the Minds, and various other national and international initiatives.

Students in the program will also have access to SCBC’s range of electives, allowing students to discover their talents and apply learning in an interdisciplinary manner.

Entrance to
the Program

Entrance to the Secondary GATE program is selective, and offers are awarded on the basis of performance in the Higher Abilities Selective Test (HAST) and other supporting evidence submitted in the application process that demonstrates giftedness. The HAST testing instrument has been created by the Australian Council for Educational Research and is used by over 100 Secondary schools across Australia and internationally.

Students who are in Year 5 in 2024 can apply for a 2026 intake. All other Secondary Year groups are welcome to put forward an Expression of Interest by emailing enrolmentssecondary@scbc.wa.edu.au.

How to Apply

Applications for Year 7/2026 entry to the GATE Program are now open. All applications for the GATE program are submitted online, via the Academic Scholarship Application Form.

Academic Testing: March 2025

Interview: May 2025

Intake Year: 2026

Apply today