Gifted Awareness Week - Aotearoa New Zealand

15-21 June 2026

Looking Back to Move Forward

Looking Back to Move Forward invites Aotearoa New Zealand to reflect on what we have learned about gifted learners - and how we use that knowledge to shape a better future.

Across generations, gifted learners have shown us that ability alone is not enough. When their learning, social, and emotional needs are recognised and supported, they thrive and contribute meaningfully. When they are misunderstood or overlooked, gifted children can experience failure, frustration and sustained self-doubt.

As a nation, we regularly pause to consider where we’ve come from and where we’re heading. Gifted Awareness Week is an opportunity to do the same for our learners - to honour decades of research, lived experience, and advocacy, and to ask how we move forward together.

Because nurturing gifted learners isn’t about privilege - it’s about responsibility.

And the future doesn’t start tomorrow. It starts now.

Gifted Awareness Week is almost upon us!

WE NEED YOU! 

You are well-known advocates for our awesome gifted young people and their whānau. Your voice, experience, and support help create understanding, belonging, and opportunities for learners whose needs are too often overlooked.

This year, we invite you to stand with us as we celebrate 50 years of advocacy, learning, and progress in gifted education in Aotearoa New Zealand and applaud those who have advocated for our gifted youth over many years.

There are many ways to be involved:

• Invite your members and their families to check the NZAGC website (www.giftedchildren.org.nz) regularly during Gifted Awareness Week

• Link your website to the NZAGC website.

• Share stories and experiences with others

• Start conversations in your community or workplace

• Help raise awareness in your local community

• Encourage schools and organisations in your area to participate

• Share with us! What actions have you taken (or are planning) with your parents, your local schools, or in your community?

Your contribution matters

Together, we can honour the past, recognise the present, and help shape a future where gifted learners are understood, supported, and able to flourish. 

Because when gifted learners thrive, Aotearoa thrives too.