High Potential and Gifted Education

Waratah Public School excels in public speaking!

We are excited to celebrate Yuvin, who has been named the Hunter Inter-Schools Public Speaking ES1 WINNER!

Representing WPS at the State Finals today at Hillsborough Public School, Yuvin delivered an outstanding speech about Space and proudly took out first place.

Congratulations, Yuvin — we are so proud of you. What a superstar!

Waratah Public School student competes at State level

Ryan is an outstanding student who consistently strives for excellence in all areas of his learning. We are incredibly proud of his remarkable achievement in representing our school at the State NSW Premier’s Spelling Bee. His reflection captures just how meaningful and memorable this experience was, and it is wonderful to see his love of learning shine through.

"I have participated in the Spelling Bee for three years, and I made it to the State Finals this year. It was a very nerve wracking  experience but I still did it. It turned out to be amazing and I made it to the third round.
I needed to beat 220,000 people to get to this stage and it turned out that I could do it.
It was very hard to get there, but I practiced and got myself there. All of the other people were amazing at spelling as well, and I'm just relieved to have done that all myself.
I think that if you really try to put yourself to the challenge, you could also get to that stage. " - Ryan

The Tournament of Minds Team 2025

The Tournament of the Minds team delivered confidently in Spontaneous and Language and Literature team challenges. They were awarded excellence for

Group Thinking Processes: The Journey

Effective use of time

Creative movement

Evidence of teamwork

"The students’ response to this group challenge reflected their enjoyment of the experience and the skills they developed.

I liked how everyone worked together and could express themselves with different things like dancing, acting, and art.

It was a great experience and I learnt a lot about teamwork and working together.

I would highly recommend this to students next year it is such a fun opportunity you get to get creative and put your skills to use. There are so many different roles in the team, there is something for everyone.

It is a great experience for everyone to learn and cooperate with each other. "

Exceptional Sporting Skills at State

We are proud to share that Macey has once again qualified for State Athletics in shot put — marking several consecutive years of reaching this exceptional level of competition.

This sustained success is a testament to Macey’s dedication, talent, and hard work.

Congratulations, Macey — we are incredibly proud of you!

Community Choir Performance

On November 13, the WPS choir performed at the opening of the Wishing Tree Appeal at our local Kmart store. Students did an amazing job and were commended for their performance.

Enrichment Class

Our school offers Stage 3 (Year 5&6) students the opportunity to be placed in an enrichment class for their last years at Waratah. Students are assessed using a range of processes including testing, parent questionaires and teacher evaluations.

In this class, the students are offered access to an enriched program and some specific additonal activities in order for them to develop their interests and skills while still completing Stage 3 curriculum content.

Leadership Candidates

Every November our Year 5 students nominate themselves for School Leadership. The process is challenging and ends with candidates speaking to the entire school about what skills and qualities they have to bring to a leadership position.

Throughout the year, many of these children also take on roles throughout the school as part of the future leaders program. Preparing to be great leaders and energetic community members.

Maths Olympiad

Students from our enrichment class compete in the Maths Olympiad. This is an inter-school competition that has been specifically designed to stimulate and challenge high potential and high achieving students in Years 5 and 6.

It provides an opportunity for students from around Australia and New Zealand to compete as part of a team while striving for individual excellence. It is a prestigious and highly regarded competition that has been running in Australia since 1987.

Game Changer Challenge

Students from Waratah Public School proudly joined the Game Changer Challenge as the Wild Waratahs, representing our school with creativity, passion and purposeful thinking. Using design thinking, the team set out to tackle a real environmental issue within our school. With sustainability as their focus, they worked collaboratively to ideate practical solutions that could make WPS a cleaner, greener place for current and future students.

In the second stage of the competition, they brought their ideas to life by developing a prototype and presenting a polished video pitch. The Wild Waratahs showcased how young people can help build a sustainable future by rethinking how resources are used and how waste can be reduced within their own community. The experience empowered the team to see themselves as changemakers, leaving a lasting impact that goes far beyond the competition.

Premier's Debating Challenge

Debate fosters public speaking skills, confidence, logic and teamwork skills. Every debate in the challenge is a one hour preparation debate. Teams do not know the topic or which side of the debate they are on until one hour before the debate starts. Once the preparation time is up, three speakers from each team take turns to speak, with a fourth teammate helping out during both preparation and the debate

This year our Debating Team were highly successful. They competed with a range of other school across our area and were crowned Zone Champions 2025.`

Hunter Dance Festival

Hunter Schools Dance Festival presents the works of over 2000 NSW public school students from Kindergarten to Year 12.

The 4 day festival highlights the range of styles explored through the study of dance in public schools. These performances are underpinned by creativity, confidence and respect for one another fostered by their dedicated teachers.

Hunter Dance Festival