Valuing gifted Victorian students

Do you have a gifted child who would benefit from an accelerated learning program at a government school in Victoria? Are you a passionate student who wants to be challenged throughout your secondary education?

The Academy of Accredited SEAL Schools (TAASS) is a group of like-minded Victorian Government schools that strongly value Gifted Education.

The Select Entry Accelerated Learning (SEAL) Program allows students to progress through their secondary education more quickly by providing challenging learning experiences that are more tailored to the needs of talented learners.

About the Academy

The Academy of Accredited SEAL Schools (TAASS) is a collective of like minded schools who strongly value Gifted Education in Victorian Government secondary schools. SEAL Academy schools offer engaging accelerated programs for their groups of gifted students. They meet regularly to share and learn from each others’ experiences of their gifted education programs. SEAL Academy schools offer their teaching staff an extensive professional development program in Gifted Education, and, through their networks, are able to source outstanding educators for their programs.

What is SEAL?

Victorian Government secondary schools have been operating specific programs at authorised schools for gifted students since 1980. These have been known as Select Entry Accelerated Learning (SEAL) schools. The Academy of Accredited SEAL Schools (TAASS) has been established to maintain this tradition to enable groups of like minded students to develop academically, socially and emotionally. The SEAL Academy follows Gagné's model for the definition of gifted and talented students.

Why accreditation?

The Department of Education in Victoria ceased accreditation of SEAL schools in 2014. Since then, the SEAL Academy has implemented its own accreditation scheme. SEAL Academy schools seek accreditation every three years by undergoing a thorough review process undertaken by independent educators. This ensures that parents and students can have confidence that SEAL Academy schools provide quality and leading edge programs to their group of gifted students.

Entrance exams & dates

To gain entry into the SEAL program of a SEAL Academy school, students must achieve high performance results in an entrance exam. Students who wish to undertake the SEAL program in a particular school year, must sit for the entrance test the year before. The entrance exam takes place at each school at varying dates – refer to the respective SEAL Academy school websites.

The student perspective

"SEAL work can sometimes put me out of my comfort zone and force me to think in critical and creative ways to complete set work. Living in a rural area means that there aren’t a lot of pathways outside of the standard ones. SEAL gives us a chance to discover pathways that most people don’t think of."

MadiYear 10 SEAL Student

Deborah Harman

TAASS Chairperson

Rod Williamson

Executive Officer

The committee and board

Meet the TAASS executive team

What some of our students have to say

"Attending a SEAL school has made school the best place in the world. Students the same as me—hooray!"

TomYear 8 SEAL student

"Having classmates who like the same things as me including reading Terry Pratchett has made school fantastic compared to my primary school."

AngelaYear 7 SEAL Student

"Being a SEAL student is a bit like the animal that shares its name: you grow a huge amount and are completely transformed in the first year of your (SEAL) life. It is an opportunity that can give you the best future available. It pushes you to your absolute limits and you (often!) have fun along the way."

ClassYear 7 SEAL class

"What I really loved the most from my change to year 7 from grade 6 was that I wasn’t the one who had finished all my work and had to help the rest of the class. In primary school I was constantly having no work to do because I finished a lot quicker than the other students. I live on a farm ... and SEAL presents many opportunities which is fantastic because living in a rural area often has its limitations."

Year 7 SEAL Student

"There’s a quote from The Little Prince that goes something like, “If you want to build a ship, don't tell people to collect wood and give them small tasks, but instead teach them to long for the sea”. In SEAL English we are being taught not only to long for the sea, but how to read the weather and how to co-operate with our fellow sailors. We are constantly diving into exciting new ideas, and learning that things are often different to what they first seem."

Year 7 SEAL ClassClass

MadiYear 10 SEAL student