The PEAC Program - North Metro PEAC

PEAC Years 5 & 6

The PEAC program provides opportunities for talented students in Years 5 and 6 to:

socially interact with other gifted and talented children;
enjoy an intellectually rigorous and challenging program;
interact with practising experts;
develop higher order process skills and in-depth investigation skills;
work on open-ended activities which encourage choice and negotiation; and
undergo self/peer evaluation and reflection of performance.

Selection for PEAC is conducted in Year 4 and is based on results from a state-wide testing process.

Course Content

Courses for students are designed according to the interest of students. Their interests are regularly being surveyed and new courses developed, where possible, based on these findings. Some popular courses are repeated due to their demand and a balance across the curriculum is sought when determining the content of the courses.

Find out about our Courses

PEAC Rounds

PEAC Courses are offered in 3 rounds each year, running between 10 and 11 weeks each round. In their first round, Year 5 students complete the Introduction to PEAC (ITP) course and thereafter choose from all courses available. Year 6 students may choose from all courses available in all 3 rounds.

Course Selection

Enrolment is made via the Course Enrolment System on the PEAC website. At least one course preference needs to be entered however it is recommended that students enter four preferences to increase their chance of being placed into a course.

Courses may only be completed once.

There are 6 rounds of courses over the 2 year program (including the initial ITP course) and students will have a chance to reapply for most courses, if not previously placed in this course. All courses are designed to be engaging and to develop critical and creative thinking.

Course Placement

Each round of PEAC Courses over 850 students are sorted and placed into approximately 50 courses.

The primary goal of the sorting process is to place ALL students into one of their preferred courses.

The computer-based sorting program works through the students’ preferences to get all students placed into a course. We encourage students to be open and flexible to new learning opportunities, even if they are not placed into their preferred course.

Program Participation

Students learn alongside their intellectual peers at PEAC centres on a part time basis, usually one morning or afternoon each week during school hours. Limited online courses are also available for regional students and for metropolitan students unable to attend a PEAC centre.

The PEAC program is designed to offer students the opportunity for academic extension. While this proves to be advantageous for most of our students, we recognise that it is not always the best fit for all students.

As PEAC is an optional program, if a student breaches any of the requirements or acts in a way that prevents others from achieving the requirements of the course, action will be taken. Upon consultation with the parents and school administration, and after the participant has received guidance and instruction on how to comply, the participant may be removed from inclusion in the program, either temporarily or permanently.

All decisions regarding breaches and subsequent consequences will be made by the program coordinator. PEAC will continue to offer support in a way that better suits the student, for example, by assisting the student’s home school.

Student Portfolios

Students are encouraged to maintain a portfolio of work completed during the PEAC Program. The portfolio is provided to each student at the Introduction to PEAC course and they are expected to hand in the completed portfolio to the PEAC teacher at the beginning of each course. The portfolio serves the following purposes:

provides a record of the student’s PEAC career in Years 5 and 6 as it is updated at the end of each PEAC course;
provides an ongoing record of attendance, achievement and progress;
provides students with a document that they can share with parents, teachers and other interested parties;
useful to encourage dialogue about participation and performance in the PEAC program;
provides formal assessment and performance information in forms such as the Record of Course Achievement and course rubrics;
provides peer and self-reflection information; and
stores course certificates.

The PEAC Learning Journey

The curriculum rubrics for PEAC courses are designed around the Western Australian Curriculum General Capabilities of critical and creative thinking, personal and social capability and selected learning area content.

1. Critical and Creative Thinking

Critical & Creative Thinking Skills

Students develop capability in critical and creative thinking as they learn to generate and evaluate knowledge, clarify concepts and ideas, seek possibilities, consider alternatives and solve problems. Critical and creative thinking are integral to activities that require students to think broadly and deeply using skills, behaviours and dispositions such as reason, logic, resourcefulness, imagination and innovation in all learning areas at school and in their lives beyond school.

2. Social Management

Social Management

Students develop personal and social capability as they learn to understand themselves and others, and manage their relationships, lives, work and learning more effectively. The capability involves students in a range of practices including recognising and regulating emotions, developing empathy for others and understanding relationships, establishing and building positive relationships, making responsible decisions, working effectively in teams, handling challenging situations constructively and developing leadership skills.

3. Learning Area Content

PEAC courses include content from a variety of learning areas depending on the theme of the course. Content Descriptors are drawn from Year 6 – 9 syllabi. Approximately 40 courses are on offer each round, providing a wide range of choice in a variety of learning areas.

Record of Course Achievement (Reporting)

The Record of Course Achievement (ROCA) provides a summary of each student’s achievement in their selected PEAC courses. Records of Course Achievement are provided at the end of each course and can be used to indicate the development of thinking skills and capabilities across a two-year period. PEAC courses are designed to extend and challenge gifted and talented children and provide opportunities to demonstrate achievement at a level well above that associated with chronological age. Assessments are made in the context of expectations of each course rather than those associated with each student’s current year level.

The Record of Course Achievement has two main categories for assessing achievement: Social Management and Critical and Creative Thinking. The achievement levels for Critical and Creative Thinking Skills are taken from the General Capabilities in the Western Australian Curriculum. This assessment tool provides a framework to monitor the progress and development of each student’s thinking skills. During each course students receive a rubric providing descriptors of each level of achievement to guide their progress.

Download a sample Record of Course Achievement