Charters Towers School of Distance Education and St Joseph’s Catholic School, The Strand take top spots in NAPLAN rankings
The principal of a Townsville beachfront primary school said it was a ‘nice surprise’ to learn they were named the top school in North Queensland’s NAPLAN results for 2024. Check out the interactive map of every school in Queensland >>
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A Townsville primary school by The Strand and a distance school in Millchester have taken out the top places for high school and primary school results in North Queensland.
Charters Towers School of Distance Education and St Joseph’s Catholic School, The Strand, have been named North Queensland’s top performing NAPLAN schools in 2024.
An independent analysis of newly released 2024 NAPLAN results has revealed the schools that performed the best in the Year 5 and Year 9 tests.
St Joseph’s Catholic School, The Strand, in North Ward, had the best primary results compared to any other school in North Queensland, with the Year 5 cohort scoring an average of 528.4.
On hearing the news St Joseph’s Catholic School, The Strand’s Principal Timothy Ham said it was rewarding to be named number one in North Queensland.
“It’s really rewarding considering the hard work that our teachers do and our students, but it’s been a whole team approach to get to that point,” he said.
“We’ve been getting really good results for a number of years now, but this was a nice surprise.”
Mr Ham said literacy was the building block of every subject that would help students in all aspects of life and learning.
“Our targeted program for literacy begins in Prep and continues all the way through school,” he said.
Assistant Principal of Pedagogy and Learning Julie Wallace said the results emphasised their strong focus on professional development to ensure teachers were well-equipped to teach literacy and numeracy.
“Our emphasis is ensuring that students have the best opportunities and that they learn in a way that’s actually been proven to benefit them,” she said.
“It’s every single teacher, every single school officer and staff member. Everybody makes a difference at our school.”
“It’s a great reward for out kids at the end of the year.”
Townsville Grammar School in North Ward was the second best primary school for the region with an average score of 523.8, while The Cathedral School of St Anne and St James in Mundingburra was the third best with an average score of 515.6.
The top-performing secondary school was Charters Towers School of Distance Education in Millchester, where the average result was 605.0. Townsville Grammar School in North Ward was the second best for the region with an average score of 600.8, while Annandale Christian College in Annandale was the third best with an average score of 596.6.
Townsville Grammar School was the best-performing school overall for North Queensland for a third consecutive year in a row, coming second in both the Year 5 and Year 9 results this year.
To determine how each school performed in 2024, the scores for all five test subjects for the student cohort (Year 5 or Year 9) were combined and the average found. Special schools, schools with fewer than 20 students enrolled, and schools that did not report any results for NAPLAN subjects were excluded from the analysis.
The figures were independently compiled from the Federal Government’s MySchool website.
North Queensland’s 10 best performing primary schools for 2024
1. St Joseph’s Catholic School, The Strand: 528.4
2. Townsville Grammar School: 523.8
3. The Cathedral School of St Anne and St James: 515.6
4. Southern Cross Catholic College: 508.4
5. Riverside Adventist School: 505.6
6. St Joseph’s Catholic School, Mundingburra: 504.4
7. Charters Towers School of Distance Education: 501.0
8. Annandale Christian College: 501.0
9. Belgian Gardens State School: 486.8
10. St Clare’s Catholic School: 485.6
North Queensland’s 10 best performing secondary schools for 2024
1. Charters Towers School of Distance Education: 605.0
2. Townsville Grammar School: 600.8
3. Annandale Christian College: 596.6
4. The Cathedral School of St Anne and St James: 592.8
5. Southern Cross Catholic College: 581.4
6. Burdekin Christian College: 570.8
7. St Margaret Mary’s College: 563.2
8. Ryan Catholic College: 560.2
9. Gilroy Santa Maria College: 559.2
10. St Patrick’s College Townsville: 556.8
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