This year the New Zealand Centre for Gifted Education (NZCGE) is combining their annual global Blog Tour with a Walk the
World for Wellbeing Challenge. Bloggers from across New Zealand are joining with well-known educators and researchers in
gifted education from Australia, Canada, Jamaica, Scotland and the United States to share how they believe the community
can cater for the wellbeing of those who learn differently, who have intense emotions, who feel extreme pressures and
who sometimes feel they don’t fit in. Meanwhile, to promote that wellbeing is holistic and walking is good for the mind
and body, gifted children and their whānau and friends are being encouraged to sign up for the Walk the World Challenge
and see how many places we can collectively visit in a week.
“Since the start of this year has been so challenging and restrictive for so many, we wanted to encourage an outdoor and
extended whānau focus for Gifted Awareness Week,” states Deb Walker, CEO NZCGE. “To date we’ve been thrilled with the
uptake. More than 200 have registered and only half are students, the rest are whānau, friends, past-pupils, teachers
and interested community members.”
Amongst those signed up to walk is researcher Professor Françoys Gagne from Montreal, Canada and Dr Viviene DeKoro,
coordinator of Jamaican Gifted Awareness Week, both excited about sharing their views and adding their walking totals to
the groups. “If we walk about 65,000,000 steps we will apparently have walked around the world,” claims Walker, “though
I certainly hope we get a few more joining us in that case!”
Gifted Awareness Week 2020 runs from 15-21 June 2020, and this year the theme is “Wellbeing - a no limits approach!” The
is organised by NZCGE, with collaboration from the New Zealand Association for Gifted Children and giftEDnz, the
professional association for gifted education. These are three nationwide charities in New Zealand solely devoted to
supporting gifted learners of all ages.
More information about Gifted Awareness Week and how to join the Walk the World for Wellbeing Challenge can be found on
the shared Gifted Awareness Website and NZCGE Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/nzcge/The New Zealand Centre for Gifted Education
The New Zealand Centre for Gifted Education was founded in 2014 to meet the educational and social needs of gifted
children. Known best for its One Day School MindPlus programme, it also offers Small Poppies and Gifted Online
programmes. NZCGE provides services in Northland, Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Rotorua, Hutt Valley, Wellington,
Christchurch and Wakatipu, and has locally funded centres delivering its programmes in Taranaki, Lincoln,
Mid-Canterbury, Dunedin, and Invercargill. For more information about NZCGE, please visit our website: