At CAC, approaches to meeting the needs of highly able students follows a Talent Development philosophy. This means that while we work to provide appropriate levels of challenge to students who already demonstrate advanced achievement, we also provide opportunities to nurture and develop strengths and talents of every student. Finding creative ways to meet those needs, whether that’s through acceleration, differentiation or something else, is what CAC does.
Just after school finished in June, 19 CAC students made a trip to Beijing to compete in the World Scholar’s Cup Global Round, along with around 3,300 other students from 50 different countries around the world. It was an incredible trip and all the students were fantastic ambassadors for CAC and represented Egypt with pride, hosting a very popular booth at the Scholar’s Cultural fair, while two of our students carried the Egyptian flag in the closing ceremony. The World Scholar’s Cup involves four very rigorous academic events across six different subject areas and includes debate, persuasive writing, the Scholar’s Challenge exam, and the Scholar’s Bowl.
This year we’ll continue to provide academic enrichment opportunities to as many students as possible, including World Scholar’s Cup for middle and high school students, Tournament of Minds for elementary students, National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and Math Olympiad, as well as many different options across the three divisions.
Submitted by Selena Gallagher
The Challenge and Enrichment program at CAC is guided by a passionate educator, Selena Gallagher. Selena is a contributor in the new Handbook of Giftedness and Talent Development in the Asia-Pacific, she is a founding member of the Highly Able Collaborative as well as being the co-author of “Serve the Need, Not the Label”. CAC is very lucky to have Selena’s enthusiastic support for all our students.
Selena Gallagher with CAC students in Beijing 2019
