NAPLAN year 5 results:The state’s top schools revealed

Public schools with and without opportunity classes,high-fee private institutions and Catholic schools in affluent areas have dominated the top 100 schools in the latest year 5 NAPLAN results.

While advantaged schools made up more than 90 per cent of the top performers,dozens of schools across NSW have defied that trend to punch above their weight in reading,writing and maths results.

St Johns Park Public near Cabramatta scored above-average results in 2022 year 5 NAPLAN tests. Pictured (L-R):Spencer Nguyen,Olivia Tangi,Chloe Tran,Principal Dianne Donatiello and Aedan Ly.

St Johns Park Public near Cabramatta scored above-average results in 2022 year 5 NAPLAN tests. Pictured (L-R):Spencer Nguyen,Olivia Tangi,Chloe Tran,Principal Dianne Donatiello and Aedan Ly.Rhett Whyman

TheHerald assessed NSW schools by their average year 5 NAPLAN scores across five domains tested in 2022,and compared results based on a school’s socio-educational advantage.

The analysis considered ICSEA scores,a measure of a school’s level of advantage,and was developed to enable fair comparisons of results between schools. Of about 1800 schools that reported year 5 results,theHerald has looked at a selection of the top performers.

Several schools including Maryland Public,Harrington Street Public and Seven Hills Public out-performed schools with students from some of the most advantaged backgrounds.

St Johns Park Public in south-west Sydney beat several high-fee private schools including Wenona,Pittwater House and The King’s School.

St Johns Park school,which has 95 per cent of students with a language background other than English,showed above-average literacy and numeracy results compared with pupils of similar socio-educational backgrounds.

Principal Dianne Donatiello said the school had “worked incredibly hard” to lift results,with improvement in reading,writing and grammar in the past four years.

“We hold high expectations for all our students and dive deep into assessment and test score data to see areas that need improvement,” Donatiello said.

“Every five weeks,across each grade,teachers look at the results of literacy and maths tests,tasks and assessments tests to compare how students have performed. We also have specialist teachers who had to work with small groups of students that need support in certain areas.”

“Our main objective is to try to improve results for every student,” she said. “NAPLAN is just one test,but we do look at the results to track trends in performance.”

Former chair of NSW Education Standards Authority Tom Alegounarias said those schools that have a sustained and consistent approach,focused leadership and believe in their capacity to make a difference generally perform well.

“Clearly we need to examine carefully what high-performing schools are doing to improve results,” he said.

Analysis of NAPLAN results has repeatedly found only slight differences in scores between public,private and Catholic schools and these differences disappeared once a student’s family background was taken into account.

University of New England research released last year reached the same conclusion for primary students’ performance,except that year 5 students in public schools performed slightly better in numeracy than those in Catholic schools.

NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said the results vindicated the $900 million the government had spent on small group tuition after months of learning loss due to COVID-19.

“The data is clear – despite the challenges of the last few years and myths peddled by Labor,NSW public schools are moving forwards,” Mitchell said.

“These results are thanks to the hard work of our students and teachers ... supported by strong focus on literacy and numeracy through our landmark curriculum reform.

“Through our School Success Model initiative,we look at what high-performing public schools are doing and share their evidence-based approach with other schools,to raise standards across the board,” she said.

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Lucy Carroll is education editor of The Sydney Morning Herald. She was previously a health reporter.

Nigel Gladstone is an investigative journalist at The Sydney Morning Herald.

Christopher Harris is an education reporter for the Sydney Morning Herald.

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