Teaching high potential students: differentiation, enrichment and motivation
Understand how gifted learners think, compare how France, Finland and Denmark support them, and leave with differentiated activities that turn ability into achievement: an Erasmus+ week in Bordeaux.
Plan your Erasmus mobilityInclusive education course for teachers · Part of our Erasmus+ teacher training courses in Bordeaux
High potential is not a guarantee of success. Many gifted students get bored, hide their abilities or quietly disengage, precisely because the pace and depth of ordinary lessons were not designed for the way they think.
In this Erasmus+ course in Bordeaux, you will explore the cognitive and socio-emotional characteristics of these learners, compare the arrangements developed in France with European models such as Finland and Denmark, and design your own differentiated activities. Teaching high potential students becomes a concrete practice: enrichment, extension and acceleration strategies you can apply in your classroom the week you return.
Why a course on teaching high potential students?
- Ability does not protect: without adapted teaching, high potential students are at real risk of boredom, underachievement and even dropout.
- Development is asynchronous: a student can reason years ahead of their age while their emotional and social skills follow another rhythm.
- Profiles are heterogeneous: there is no single gifted student, and strategies must respond to very different ways of learning and behaving.
- Differentiation benefits everyone: enrichment, extension and acceleration techniques raise the level of challenge for the whole class.
- It is an inclusion issue: high potential students have specific educational needs, and meeting them belongs to inclusive education.
The course draws on how European education systems actually organise this support, documented by Eurydice, the European Commission network on national education systems.
From French arrangements to European models
One of the strengths of this week is comparative: you will analyse how different countries answer the same question, and build your own scheme from the best of each.
- The French approach: classroom adjustments, specific programmes and the institutional framework for students identified with high intellectual potential.
- Nordic models: how Finland, Denmark and other European systems embed challenge and flexibility for advanced learners in ordinary teaching.
- Your own synthesis: a support scheme adapted to your school, combining what works across these systems with your local constraints.
What you will learn about teaching high potential students
What you will be able to do after this course
Explore the course in detail
- Understand the characteristics and specific needs of students with high intellectual potential.
- Analyse the support arrangements in place in France and in other European countries.
- Identify teaching strategies adapted to the heterogeneity of high potential profiles.
- Design pedagogical tools that foster the engagement and flourishing of high potential students.
The week alternates analysis and production: you study each theme with colleagues from other countries, compare what your systems do, then immediately turn it into activities for your own students.
- Structured theoretical input on high intellectual potential.
- Comparative analysis of European support arrangements.
- Real case studies and exchange of experiences.
- Collaborative design of adapted pedagogical tools.
- Continuous formative feedback throughout the week.
This course is designed for teachers of any subject who have, or suspect they have, high potential students in their classroom and want to move beyond intuition to structured strategies.
It also welcomes trainers, educators, headteachers, school leaders and administrative staff involved in inclusion policies. You do not need any prior specialisation: the course starts from the fundamentals of high intellectual potential and builds towards a plan for your own context. A minimum A2 level is required, the course can be delivered in the language of your choice, and groups of 10 to 16 mix roles and countries.
| Day | Theme |
|---|---|
| Monday | Understanding high potential. Morning: cognitive and socio-emotional characteristics of high potential students. Afternoon: analysis of practical cases and exchange of European experiences. |
| Tuesday | Provision in France and in Europe. Morning: overview of French arrangements, adjustments and specific programmes. Afternoon: comparison with European models such as Finland and Denmark. |
| Wednesday | Differentiated teaching. Morning: enrichment, extension and acceleration strategies. Afternoon: workshop, designing differentiated activities adapted to high potential students. |
| Thursday | Engagement and creativity. Morning: fostering motivation and preventing disengagement and dropout. Afternoon: workshop, creating tools that develop creativity and divergent thinking. |
| Friday | Implementation and transfer. Morning: structuring a support scheme in your own school. Afternoon: project presentations, institutional action plan and Europass certification. |
As a host organisation for Erasmus+ teacher training in Bordeaux, we support you at every step of your mobility.
Before your mobility
- Needs-analysis questionnaire and review of your teaching context
- Self-assessment of your current practices for supporting students with specific needs
- Preparatory resources on the theoretical foundations of high intellectual potential
- Learning Agreement, Quality Commitment and Erasmus+ KA1 application support
After your mobility
- Final course evaluation and support for your Erasmus+ reporting
- Certificate of attendance and Europass Mobility document
- Access to shared teaching resources
- An action-plan template for supporting high potential students in your school
Rethinking how you challenge your brightest students takes distance and comparison, and the setting matters: Bordeaux offers the calm, stimulating environment this course needs.
- A step back: leaving your own school makes it easier to question routines and design a genuinely different scheme.
- European perspective: teachers from across Europe compare how their systems support gifted learners, during your Erasmus+ mobility.
- Inspiring setting: a UNESCO-listed city whose quality of life supports a week of analysis and creative design.
- Accessibility: high-speed rail and an international airport make Bordeaux easy to reach.
Target audience
Whatever your subject, this course on teaching high potential students is aimed at teachers, trainers, educators, counsellors (educational and career), school psychologists, headteachers, school leaders and administrative staff, in primary, lower secondary, upper secondary, vocational and adult education, with a minimum group of 10 and a maximum of 16 participants.
Erasmus+ funding: how it works
Teachers, trainers, headteachers, school leaders and other education staff can apply for an Erasmus+ KA1 grant, so your institution may cover travel, board and lodging, cultural activities and the fees of this teaching high potential students course through the grant. This course is part of our Erasmus teacher training courses in Bordeaux.
The course is priced to fit within the Erasmus+ grant, with a range of options so you can balance comfort and quality while staying within it.
Erasmus+ quality standards
As a host organisation based in Bordeaux (OID E10260484), we comply with the Erasmus+ quality standards for course providers: transparent objectives and learning outcomes, needs analysis before the course, active and participative methodology, and full documentation for your national agency.
What is included in the course
Official Erasmus+ validation
To ensure the recognition of your teaching high potential students course, we provide all required European certification and Erasmus+ compliance documentation:
- ✓ Europass Mobility: Official recognition of your professional development and teaching skills.
- ✓ Quality Commitment: Full compliance with Erasmus+ quality standards.
- ✓ Final Certification: Official certificate of attendance with training hours.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, this course is fully eligible for Erasmus+ KA1 mobility funding, which can cover travel, accommodation and the course fees depending on your project.
Yes. Many high potential students are never formally identified, and some hide their abilities or underachieve. The course helps you recognise their needs in everyday classroom situations, and the differentiation strategies you design benefit your whole class, identified or not.
No. Formal identification belongs to psychologists and specialists. This course focuses on what teachers can do: recognising educational needs, adapting your practices to the diversity of profiles, and designing enrichment, extension and acceleration activities that help these students thrive.
One-week sessions run monthly, extendable up to four weeks, with 20 hours per week from Monday to Friday. You receive a certificate of attendance and a Europass Mobility document, with full Erasmus+ compliance documentation.
You may also be interested in
Explore the other courses of our inclusive education category:
- Inclusive classroom strategies
- Social emotional learning and anti-bullying
- Neuroscience and educational practice
Erasmus+ teacher mobility in Bordeaux
Turn high potential into real achievement
Join this teaching high potential students course with Erasmus+, compare European approaches with colleagues from across the continent, and go home with differentiated activities and an action plan your gifted learners have been waiting for.
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