PEAC

Teacher: Ms Janica Ringwood

Beachlands hosts the Primary Extension and Challenge (PEAC) program, a part-time withdrawal program for upper primary school Year 5 and 6 students in public schools.

Programs focus on:

  • social interaction with gifted and talented peers
  • intellectual rigour and challenge
  • pursuit of excellence
  • development of higher order process skills
  • in-depth investigations of real problems
  • open-ended activities which encourage choice and negotiation
  • opportunities to interact with practising experts
  • students working at their own pace
  • self/peer evaluation and reflection of performance

Our Mission

Extend & Challenge

Our mission is to uncover the true potential of our students, develop their gifts and talents, provide them with new ideas and inspiration, and support them to succeed and thrive with confidence.

Identification

PEAC is a part time supplementary program for students in Years 5 and 6. Students are identified as suited to participation in the PEAC Program through testing in Year 4.

All public school students in Year 4 are provided with the opportunity to be assessed for suitability for the PEAC program. Parents may request that their child be excluded from the testing process by notifying the school in writing.

The Gifted and Talented Selection Unit in Central Office is responsible for coordinating the state-wide test schedule, compiling and distributing test materials and distributing student results through Regional Offices.

Regional Assessment Coordinators manage and coordinate test material distribution, collation, record-keeping and the return of answer sheets for marking on behalf of schools.

The tests were developed by the Australian Council for Education Research (ACER). The marking, scoring and data management are handled by an external independent agency.

Test administration is conducted by school staff.

Regions are responsible for managing the pool of students identified as suitable to PEAC through the test process, with each selected student meeting defined criteria.

PEAC selection test

Verbal Reasoning (VR), comprised of 25 multiple-choice items and two item types: Reading Comprehension and Reasoning by Analogy.

Mathematical Reasoning (MR), comprised of 25 multiple-choice items of two item types: Mathematical Reasoning and Abstract Reasoning.

It is important to make fair and consistent interpretations of the data. There are three measures used in selecting students who are suited to PEAC participation:

  • The Total Percentile
  • The Verbal Reasoning VR Percentile
  • The Mathematical Reasoning MR Percentile

The 46 public schools in the Midwest education region have 7,746 students and are a mixture of coastal and inland schools, ranging from a few hours driving to a few hours flying, from Perth. A total of 54 Year 5 and 6 students within this region participate in PEAC in 2024.

The PEAC students in the region are split into major PEAC centres where students from particular regions would access their PEAC program. The main PEAC centre for the Midwest is located at Beachlands Primary School. Other PEAC centres are located within host schools, which are decided upon each year based on student numbers.