Gifted Advanced and Accelerated Learning

Valley View Innovation School - A school for Gifted, Advanced and Accelerated Learners!

Valley View Innovation School specializes in gifted and talented and advanced/accelerated education.

If you have a bright, engaged child, you may wonder if they are gifted. Gifted kids have special abilities, traits, and talents —some realized, some not yet. All children thrive when given enrichment opportunities to nourish their busy brains and insatiable curiosity. Oftentimes, gifted students need support for social, behavioral, or learning issues, too.

Students who have been identified as "gifted" or demonstrate advanced academic skills, will be eligible for an advanced or accelerated plan. Typically, gifted children show extreme potential for high achievement in different academic or creative fields. These students often require different teaching methods or special programs to meet their academic and social needs. High achievers do not necessarily have to be gifted, and gifted students are not always high-achieving. Gifted students perform well on aptitude tests, but they often have unique learning styles. High-achieving students perform well on school exams and are what we typically think of as “good” students.   If you think your child is gifted or a high achiever, this may be the school for them!  

What does the school day look like?  
We believe, and research clearly documents, the benefits of keeping gifted students together for at least part of the school day, in their areas of academic strength.   

Instruction involves acceleration, enrichment, and attention to affective (social-emotional) needs. Instruction is based on various formal and informal data to assure that the needs of the students are met.
 

Will my child need to be screened?  
Our Gifted and Talented identification process will include a robust body of evidence: parent input, behavioral observations, achievement data, and cognition assessments. Students will not need to be screened to attend Valley View. However, families will be asked to complete a survey regarding their interest in the Gifted and Talented screening process. We will work closely with families to determine if the program at Valley View matches the needs of their children. No single piece of evidence permanently qualifies or disqualifies a student's identification as gifted.     

Academically advanced students and gifted students require as much instructional time and energy as other children. Knowing the strengths and challenges of each child allows us to appropriately group students to maximize learning.  

In Mapleton, all children in 2nd grade are screened to identify those who are gifted.