Sunnybank Hills State School, Brisbane State High lead the way as 2021 NAPLAN results revealed

After missing a year due to Covid-19, NAPLAN results are back and a surprising school has taken top spot as the performances of all schools in Brisbane’s south are revealed.

After a year without testing due to Covid-19, the NAPLAN results for all primary and secondary schools in Brisbane’s south have been revealed.

New data has been released for the national testing, which includes reading, writing, spelling, grammar and numeracy categories across every second grade from Year 3 to 9.

Many schools across Brisbane’s south achieved impressive results with a surprising school taking top spot on the charts for primary schools in the area.

Sunnybank Hills State School was the top performing primary school in the region with a total score of 1059.8 across both Year 3 and Year 5.

Sunnybank Hills State School students Katie Bourke, Mason Huang and Elijah Robinson who are celebrating terrific NAPLAN results. Picture: NIGEL HALLETT

Sunnybank Hills State School principal Geoff Mill said high expectations and a strong focus on collaboration were the reasons for the school’s results.

Mr Mill also said the school had high expectations from prep for their students, with 40 per cent of their young learners expected to be able to write three sentences by the end of the year.

“Those expectations are what carry us through,” he said.

“The teachers believe in what they’re doing, they own the program, it’s not something they’ve got to do because it’s being driven down from above.

“We have very strong communication which leads to achieving the best for our kids.”

Mr Mill said the large multicultural school of more than 1500 students also had more than half its students coming from non-English speaking backgrounds.

“That’s an extra challenge, but our strong focus on learning has great support from our parent body,” he said.

“It’s important to build confidence in children, so that they know they can achieve.”

Anglican Church Grammar School's Centenary Library.

Brisbane State High School took the honours for the top performing secondary school, with a total score of 1248.2 for Year 7 and 9, and they were followed by Somerville House in second, Cannon Hill Anglican College in third, St Aidan’s Anglican Girls’ School in fourth and East Brisbane’s Anglican Church Grammar School (Churchie) rounding out the top five.

Churchie headmaster, Dr Alan Campbell, commended the efforts of students, teachers and parents for the school’s 2021 NAPLAN results.

“The school values the focused teaching of literacy and numeracy programs across the formative years of education, and teachers and parents work in partnership to support the students in these key foundations of learning,” he said.

Citipointe Christian College at Carindale achieved some impressive NAPLAN results. Picture: Richard Walker

Another one of the area’s top performing schools was Carindale’s Citipointe Christian College, who claimed second among primary schools with a total of 1044.6, and 14th in secondary schools.

Citipointe Christian College’s acting principal, Ruth Gravestein, said they celebrated the exceptional results as a community.

“We commend our students on their hard work and dedication and thank our staff and parents who have guided and supported our students’ learning,” she said.