Top performing southwest QLD NAPLAN schools revealed in last 5 years

Dalby Christian College and Charleville School of Distance Education are the top performing NAPLAN schools in South West Queensland. See the full list here.

Chloe Cufflin

@chloe_cufflin

3 min read

November 29, 2022 - 5:00AM

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An independent analysis of five years of NAPLAN results has revealed the schools which consistently performed the best in the Year 5 and Year 9 tests between 2017 and 2021.

Over that five-year period, Charleville School of Distance Education, in Charleville, had higher Year 5 yearly results than any other school in southwest Queensland, scoring an average of 2596.8 each year.

Dalby South State School in Dalby was the second best for the region with an average score of 2538.8, while Dalby Christian College in Dalby was the third best with an average score of 2515.3.

The top performing Year 9 school was Dalby Christian College, in Dalby, where the average yearly result was 2918.0 over the five years.

Our Lady of the Southern Cross College hard at work in the classroom.

Border Rivers Christian College in Goondiwindi was the second best for the region with an average score of 2905.7, while St John’s School in Roma was the third best with an average score of 2863.8.

To determine how each school performed between 2017 and 2021, their average scores for each year were combined and the yearly average found.

Special schools, schools with fewer than 20 students enrolled in either year, and schools that did not report any results for NAPLAN subjects in either year were excluded from the analysis.

There seems to be a common strategy among high performing schools in terms of NAPLAN results, with four southwest school’s agreeing on the importance of reinforcing the basics.

Miles State High School Principal Josette Moffatt said their strong focus on numeracy and literacy skills throughout junior and senior schooling has played a big role in achieving high results.

Miles State High School Principal Josette Moffatt.

“There’s no magic bullet or special preparation,” Ms Moffatt said.

“A big part of our curriculum is to ensure literacy and numeracy is front and centre - they are the two foundations that underpin everything.

“We know how important it is that kids are proficient in literacy and numeracy, because it’s when they fall behind and struggle that they disengage with the curriculum because they don’t have the tools.

“We have an extensive three tier support system in place. Tier 1 is the learning that happens in our regular classroom, Tier 2 is when students start to struggle so we ramp up and Tier 3 we double-ramp up!

“Students come in as young adolescents and exit as adults.

“We have had a 100 per cent QCE rate for many, many years now. It’s the hard work of our teachers and the maintaining of these two underpinning foundations which allows students to pursue their careers.

Dalby Christian College Principal Marie Skerman.

Dalby Christian College Principal Marie Skerman said their school shared the same focus on numeracy and literacy, but something they rely on is using data to track students progress.

“We have a skills-based program in primary school with a heavy emphasis on numeracy and literacy skills,” Ms Skerman said.

“Because we are a prep to Year 12 school, the majority of students continue their senior schooling with us and they can keep building on what they’ve learnt in primary.

“We use data a lot to analyse students’ results and identify their weaknesses and strengths.

“We work in small groups of students and address their weaknesses to support them and catch them up to where they’re meant to be.”

Both Bell State School and Charleville School of Distance Education, which ranked number 1 for Year 5 results in the region, said there was no special recipe to their high results.

“Our teachers and home tutors teach the Australian Curriculum and do not prepare for the NAPLAN tests. It is very low key in our school,” Charleville School of Distance Education Principal Jenny Swadling said.

The figures were independently compiled from the Federal Government’s MySchool website.