YEAR 4 student Milly Murphy of St Anne's Central School, Temora, this year joined other gifted and talented students at the University of NSW for a holiday enrichment program.
The university's program, GERRIC, runs twice a year and is open to students with an IQ of 125 or above, those who have achieved results within the top five per cent of the State in a standardised test, or have been recommended by their principal to attend.
Milly's mother Janet said the program provided an environment where Milly could be with other students as intelligent as her.
"She loved it. She really felt like she fit in," she said.
When it comes to keeping Milly challenged and inspired, Ms Murphy says she bears a large portion of the responsibility.
"It has to be my priority to see her needs are met," Ms Murphy said.
"Schools are trying to meet the needs of every child and they are already pushed for time, resources, and quality teachers and that's why I don't think we can leave it all up to them."
Ms Murphy said she would like to see more resources for parents about how to best meet their gifted child's needs.
"There are real gaps in resources for parents like me, particularly in the country," she said.
"Living in a rural area makes it difficult to access the services that are available in the city."
Ms Murphy said one possible way the community could bridge the gap that currently exists would be to approach gifted education like rural medicine.
"We could be thinking about how isolated patients access medical services: via video link and online check-ins," she said.
"I wish there was also some funding that was directed into helping country kids get to these type of programs.
"Milly is one of six children so getting up to Sydney for us was costly and time consuming."
She said regional universities such as Charles Sturt University and the University of New England could help by running programs of their own.
