Toowoomba NAPLAN results 2023: Mount Tyson State School, Fairholme College top years 5, 9 scores

A small public school and one of Toowoomba’s most elite colleges have been named the big winners from the 2023 NAPLAN results for years 5 and 9. Check out the full list here:

Having one of Queensland’s best year 9 NAPLAN results isn’t that surprising for Fairholme College’s Jaye Ross — to her, it’s a natural consequence of the school’s approach to learning.

“It’s good news for our students and families (but) it’s not completely surprising,” the head of middle school at the college said.

“We don’t sit around thinking how we can do well in NAPLAN — doing well in it is a consequence of everything we do, what we do in the classroom and out of it.”

Year 9 students at the elite institution recorded Toowoomba’s best secondary school result in the 2023 National Assessment Program for Literacy and Numeracy, topping the list of 23 schools with available data in the region.

Fairholme’s average year 9 NAPLAN score across the five categories (reading, writing, spelling, grammar and numeracy) of 602.8 was inside Queensland’s top 50.

The Glennie School was the second best for the region with an average score of 598.6, while St Joseph’s College was the third best with 594.4.

Fairholme also topped Toowoomba in 2022 for both years 5 and 9 tests.

Ms Ross said she saw the result as a vindication of Fairholme’s standards, noting teachers didn’t emphasise NAPLAN.

Fairholme College year nine students on NAPLAN testing day.

“At Fairholme, we put little emphasis on it — whether it’s NAPLAN or their exams or assignments, they take it all seriously,” she said.

“We don’t put huge amounts of time into NAPLAN specifically, it’s about creating good natural learners.

“We have a strong learning culture – it’s important to students, parents and teachers that learning is valued and doing your best is really a given.”

The 2023 results have also depicted a stark contrast in outcomes between public and private schools, particularly once kids reach secondary education.

Private school students scored nearly 50 points better on average than their government school counterparts, reflecting national trends that found Australia’s poorest students were as much as five years behind the richest.

However, Toowoomba year 9 students performed better than the average for the entire state, scoring 563.3 compared to Queensland’s 551.1.

Toowoomba’s 10 best performing secondary schools for 2023

Fairholme College: 602.8

The Glennie School: 598.6

St Joseph’s College: 594.4

Concordia Lutheran College: 592.0

St Ursula’s College: 591.0

Highlands Christian College: 590.2

Toowoomba Christian College: 585.6

Toowoomba Anglican School: 583.0

Toowoomba Grammar School: 581.6

Mary MacKillop Catholic College: 578.4

Small public school tops Toowoomba year five NAPLAN

A state government school of about 50 students has outshone some of Toowoomba’s most prestigious colleges in the year 5 NAPLAN results.

Mount Tyson State School’s average across the five categories of 541.6 was the best out of more than 60 schools across the Toowoomba region, and good enough for 27th across the entire state.

The Glennie School was the second best for the region with an average score of 530.4, while Ming-De International School in Westbrook was the third best with 523.6.

In a similar trend to secondary schools, Toowoomba year 5 students at private colleges did on average nearly 30 points better than their public counterparts.

Toowoomba year 5 students did slightly better than the Queensland average.

To determine how each school performed in 2023, the scores for all five test subjects for the student cohorts in years 5 and 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.

Toowoomba’s 10 best performing primary schools for 2023

Mount Tyson State School: 541.6

The Glennie School: 530.4

Ming-De International School Toowoomba: 523.6

Highlands Christian College: 520.0

Toowoomba Anglican School: 517.0

St Saviour’s Primary School: 514.2

Toowoomba Grammar School: 513.6

Fairholme College: 512.8

Mater Dei Primary School: 507.6

Middle Ridge State School: 502.2