NSW NAPLAN results reveal public schools beat out private schools
Public primary schools have beaten their private school counterparts in last year’s NAPLAN results. SEARCH YOUR SCHOOLS RESULT
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Public primary schools have beaten their private school counterparts in last year’s NAPLAN results while the state’s selective high schools have retained their place at the top of academic league tables.
New National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy data released yesterday on the MySchool website reveals schools like Charlestown South Public in suburban Newcastle have beaten elite school Sydney Grammar in Year 3 writing.
While Sydney Grammar took out the top spot for highest average primary school score, Pymble Public School outperformed Pymble Ladies College in Year 3 and Year 5 NAPLAN results.
In Sydney’s northwest, Carlingford West Public School outdid exclusive eastern suburbs schools Ascham, SCEGGS Darlinghurst and Kambala.
Carlingford West principal Andrew Williamson credited his teachers’ ability to set high expectations and challenge their pupils as responsible for their great NAPLAN scores.
“The ability to make students interested and also that explicit teaching which gets students interested is what makes a difference,” he said.
Year 6 student Bonnie Zhu said teachers made her enjoy the challenge of subjects like writing and mathematics.
“I like how the teachers make writing fun and interesting to learn, I like writing creatively,” she said.
NSW Education Standards Authority Chief Executive Officer Paul Martin said what these high schools had done with their students to achieve such good results would be put under the microscope.
“We have seen that schools and teachers throughout the State have implemented some really effective teaching methodologies and it is vital that these are shared,” he said.
For Year 7 and Year 9 NAPLAN, the state’s selective high schools unsurprisingly dominated the league tables, taking out the first 23 spots.
James Ruse Agricultural High School in Sydney’s west was the top performing school with an average score of 715.7 across reading, writing and numeracy.
It was followed by North Sydney Girls in Crows Nest and Sydney Girls in Surry Hills.
Centre for Independent Studies Research Fellow Blaise Joseph said it was to be expected these schools would top the list.
“A school James Ruse is a selective school, but it also has students from higher socio-economic backgrounds, so we expect it to be at the top and it is obviously a great school,” he said.
“There are many schools in less rich areas which might be below the national average but are performing much better than we would expect.”