In GEP from primary through to secondary school (essentially, the whole programme). Interesting issues brought up in the ST letters.

From a personal point of view, it was an interesting experience, and I’m very glad and grateful for it. Some quirky classmates, quite some click, and quite a number of opportunities given, academically. In that sense, I consider myself more a graduate of the programme than my respective schools, as we were always quite segregated from the main cohort (different teachers, different classes and joint programmes with the other GEP centres rather than our schoolmates). At the same time, the differences are less than what people might think.. Oh, and there were as well some social/ estrangement/ segregation issues that did emerge, along with some antagonism on the part of some non-GEP teachers and other schoolmates, which didn’t help, since it led to further separation of the GEP cohort.

On the whole though, it was a well-intended move and programme, with some success. As I said, having been through the whole thing, I’m very grateful for it gave me, as well as the people I’ve met through it.

Objectively, I think more could still be done in gifted research, as well as research on gifted education. More significantly, at the time that I went through the programme, there was a great emphasis on the expected academic requirements of such students. The emotional and social components of giftedness/ gifted children did tend to be entirely ignored and/or not addressed.