Ireland's most gifted six-year-olds are studying architecture and engineering in a cutting-edge school for our most talented children.

At eight, they can enrol in classes on forensic science, medicine and law, while Japanese and war and conflict studies are on the curriculum for the country's smartest 12-year-olds.

Some 23,000 Irish children in this country are classed as gifted, with intelligence levels high enough to tackle veterinary science and psychology before most children have mastered reading and writing.

Harry Potter star Evanna Lynch, along with teenage internet millionaires Patrick and John Collison, are famous past pupils of the Centre for Talented Youth in Dublin.

The Limerick brothers became overnight web millionaires when they sold their fledgling software company for over €3m in 2008 when John was just 16 years old.

A new RTé documentary, Bright Young Things, follows Ireland's most gifted children as they struggle with the highs and lows of their extreme intelligence.

Dr Colm O'Reilly, from the Centre for Talented Youth Ireland, said almost all of the centre's graduates go to university.

He said: "We would have six-year-olds taking college-like courses like architecture or engineering.

"We provide classes at the weekend and in the summer in addition to their normal school.

"The biggest difficulty with a gifted child is they are not being academically challenged enough.

"Almost all our pupils would go on to college. We're not trying to create child geniuses but we want people who are bright to do the best they can.

"Currently in the school system there aren't any opportunities for them except for this programme in our centre.

"Ireland probably caters for its gifted children poorly compared to other counties which have programmes running in schools."

He said past pupils of the school, which has been running since 1992 in Dublin City University, are beginning to make their mark in the world. "Patrick Collison, who won Young Scientist of the Year, and his younger brother John, were pupils here. They sold their internet company last year," he said.

"Evanna Lynch, who was in Harry Potter, was in our school and she is extremely academically gifted.

"We would have a lot of people lecturing in universities now. They are only starting now to make their impact.

"Almost all the pupils would go to
college and most of them would study high-point courses like medicine and courses like theoretical physics, which are hard to get into, as well as two-subject arts degrees."

Pupils at the school have gone on to enrol with elite students from around the world at Harvard, Yale and Cambridge universities.

Gifted Irish children have also flown out to attend the famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In the documentary, 15-year-old Gavin Tucker tells of his dream to go to Cambridge University to study medicine at the age of 16. The student skipped from 3rd year into 5th year and still managed to achieve 10 honours in his junior certificate this year.

"My brain is like a little voice. I'm not schizophrenic. But it nearly is like a little voice in my head and when I ask it a question it comes out with the answer," he said.

'Bright Young Things' will be shown on RTé One on Tuesday, 9 November at 10.15pm