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What types of support can schools develop to supplement classroom instruction?

Schools can create many other opportunities for gifted students in addition to offering support in a differentiated classroom setting. Possibilities range from relatively simple individual programs, such as afternoon study groups, to more complex approaches that involve the school as a whole.

Even selected individual opportunities can be very helpful and important—these include, for example, offering special all-day courses, encouraging students to take part in competitions and helping them prepare for them, or offering them the opportunity to take additional elective courses in lower and upper secondary school. Although somewhat more elaborate to organize, more complex models have a greater impact. Positive experiences have been reported, for example, with “pull-out programs” at elementary schools, where gifted and high-achieving children leave their regular classes one day a week and are supervised together by a teacher while working on advanced projects. In addition, the “revolving door model” originating from the USA has proven successful, allowing students to utilize the school’s various learning opportunities with great flexibility by temporarily leaving their learning group and participating in certain instructional units in other courses, higher grades, or—as in the case of pull-out—in a group specifically created to work on projects. For older students, the school can provide support in organizing a school year abroad or in beginning an early university study program.