Celebrating Gifted Awareness Week 

15 June 2026

Celebrating Gifted Awareness Week  

Gifted Awareness Week is held annually in New Zealand to honour the legacy of pioneering researcher Professor George Parkyn (1910-1993). In 1948 Parkyn authored New Zealand’s first volume on gifted children and their educational needs: Children of high intelligence, a New Zealand study).   

Throughout his life, Parkyn advocated for a deeply child-centred approach, arguing that every child is a unique individual whose abilities, interests, and needs must be recognized and accepted. He was a keynote speaker at the first World Council for Gifted and Talented Children Conference, held in London in 1975.   

As part of the Gifted Awareness Week celebrations, we have put together a short quiz people might like to use with their teams or to test their own knowledge! You can download the short quiz here.

And for those working with gifted learners, we highly recommend the toolkit for Learning Support Coordinators which is available here: Supporting Teachers of Gifted Learners – A Toolkit for LSCs.  

Gifted learners possess unique abilities, strengths and ways of thinking that require specialised support and understanding within the educational system. The toolkit provides a robust starting point that for recognising, understanding and supporting gifted and twice-exceptional learners in your educational setting.