Naplan results for every Brisbane westside school

The results are in for NAPLAN 2021 — and once again they show most westside schools punched way above the state average. We talked to students at Qld’s top performer about why their school is so good.

Westside schools once again outperformed most other schools in the state in last year’s NAPLAN results, with the top three all in inner-west suburbs.

Top of the 2021 results, which were released on Wednesday morning (March 16) was Toowong’s Queensland Academy for Science, Mathematics and Technology.

The 100 per cent selective school, where all students study for an International Baccalaureate rather than an ATAR, were well above the average when compared to schools with students from a similar background for every subject category – reading, writing, spelling, grammar and numeracy – in both Years 7 and 9. Its total average score for Years 7 and 9 was 1342.4.

Brisbane Girls Grammar School came in at second place with a total average of 1256, followed closely by Brisbane Grammar School (1255.2), which ranked two and third in the state respectively.

St Aidan’s Anglican Girls’ School in Corinda was next on 1220 (eighth highest in Queensland), with St Peters Lutheran College in Indooroopilly nearly pipping it on 1218.6 (eleventh highest in the state).

Indooroopilly State School was the second best-performing primary school in Queensland (1050.8) and the best in the westside, followed by St Peters Lutheran College at 1050.8 (third in Qld), Ashgrove State School on 1039.2 (sixth in Qld), Ironside State School on 1033.6 (15th) and Rainworth State School on 1024.4 (19th).

Deputy Principal Engagement, Sandra Davey, who heads up QASMT’s Middle School Years Program, said it was the first time NAPLAN data had been reported for both those year levels for their school.

NAPLAN was cancelled last year due to Covid-19 and the school only recently expanded from a Years 10-12 campus to Years 7-12, so full data was not available before then.

“I think it’s reflective of our rigorous teaching of literacy and numeracy in all subject areas,’’ Ms Davey said.

“We also have a committed and dedicated teaching staff and student body.’’

Principal Kath Kayrooz said the school did not “teach to the test’’ and the only exposure students had to NAPLAN was one session to familiarise them with how the online platform worked.

QASMT students (left to right) Joshua, Georgia and Charlie.

“NAPLAN is just a point-in-time assessment. We rely on the strength of our existing academic program, not teaching to NAPLAN,’’ she said.

Year 8 student, Charlie, said his science teacher was so dedicated they set up experiments at home and demonstrated them online when on-site schooling stopped during the “Indooroopilly cluster’’ lockdown.

“This school has a mindset that everyone wants to improve — teachers and students. There’s no need to push everyone,’’ he said.

Year 10 student, Georgia, said there was a seamless transition to online learning in lockdown, which had helped.

Corinda SHS Executive Principal, Helen Jamieson, said the NAPLAN results were an acknowledgement of the school’s teaching methods.

“It is so rewarding to see the hard work of our staff around reading, writing and numeracy being acknowledged (by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority),’’ she said.

“Our school is very focused on these important foundations and we continue to make this a priority for our work.”

Year 5 Marist top performers were rewarded with a "Top of the tower'' tour.

Head of College at Marist College Ashgrove, Michael Newman, said its results revealed huge improvement among the students at the Catholic boys’ school.

“NAPLAN data showed the percentage of improvement of the cohorts moving from Years 5 and 7 in 2019, to Years 7 and 9 in 2021 respectively, in the areas of reading, writing, spelling, numeracy, grammar and punctuation, increased by a huge 70 per cent,’’ Mr Newman said.

“Of particular note is the improvement in reading, writing grammar and numeracy due to the excellent teaching of the new programs implemented.”