NAPLAN results for every NSW primary and high school

We’ve crunched the numbers and ranked every NSW high school and primary school based on their 2022 NAPLAN results. SEE WHERE YOUR SCHOOL RANKS.

Schoolkids in Sydney’s north have been revealed as the academic powerhouse of the state in last year’s NAPLAN results, but their peers in the far west earned 18.3 per cent less on average, highlighting the fight teachers in the bush have on their hands.

Exclusive analysis of the newly released 2022 results has revealed Year 5 students in Northern Sydney scored an average of 536.7 points across their reading, writing, spelling, grammar and numeracy exams. In fact, every Sydney district reported an average result above 500, including the west and southwest, but in the Far West of the state the average drops by 91 points to 445.5.

The same pattern was observed in Year 9 average results, where there was a 102.6-point difference between the two regions.

Former high school principal and education researcher Chris Bonnor described the gap as “the single biggest problem bedevilling Australian education generally”.

“When you congregate stragglers – disadvantaged kids – together, there’s a proven effect on the levels of achievement, and that clearly comes out in the data,” he said.

Remoteness also sees the gap between private and public school achievements widen. In Sydney’s north, non-government schools only narrowly outperformed government schools, with only seven marks between the average results for Year 5 students in each category.

In regions like New England however the gap widens to almost 40 marks, or 6 per cent.

“Changing that means changing the way we structure schools,” Mr Bonnor said.

“We’ve been doing school reforms now for about three decades, and it isn’t getting us anywhere.”

The tide has started to turn in some of the less affluent areas, with schools in Sydney’s west and southwest in many cases punching above their weight in the 2022 results.

Sydney’s selective schools, meanwhile, dominated the exams, taking out nine of the top ten spots in the secondary school results.

James Ruse Agricultural High School topped the list with a Year 9 average of 730.8, followed by fellow academic selectives North Sydney Boys High School on 709.4 and Sydney Girls High School on 709.

Combined, the ten best-performing secondary schools are also scoring 30.6 per cent higher marks in NAPLAN than the bottom 100 schools on average.

Ranking at number 38, Willoughby Girls High School is the first non-selective public school on the leaderboard.

Principal Adrienne Scalese said she was proud to see her girls had performed better in spelling, grammar and numeracy than students at other similar schools, citing “a culture of high expectations” and “a whole school focus on literacy”.

Willoughby Girls High School year 9 and 10 students Kiera Boocock, 15, Beth Uys, 15, Sophie Poole, 14, and Hannah Lau-Du, 14. Picture: Jonathan Ng

“(The data) has indicated that the strategies that we’re currently implementing across the school are working,” she said.

“I’m not just proud of our school, but of the wonderful teachers that I have here. I’m very fortunate.”

Year 5 students at elite private school Sydney Grammar scored the highest marks – and the only average score above 600 points of any primary school.

Fellow inner city school Woollahra Public School came second, while Beecroft PS in Sydney’s north took out third.

Woollahra Public School students Riley James and Felicity Smirl. Picture: Richard Dobson

Woollahra Public School, a coeducational public school in Sydney’s affluent eastern suburbs, has a selective stream for academically gifted students in Year 5 and 6.

Principal Nicole Molloy said her students are never coached specifically for the NAPLAN exams, but rather there’s an explicit focus on reading and writing in every class.

“Every day, every hour, every lesson is building my kids’ capacity to show what they know, and it’s only one part of how we know what our kids can do,” she said.

“We’re not preparing our children to perform well on one assessment, we are preparing them to perform well in their life.”

Year 6 student Charlotte He, who completed the 2022 tests, said the NAPLAN helped her set personal learning goals.

“It also helps me learn strategies like time management for future assessments I’ll have to do in my life,” she said.

Year 5 student Ted Stynes, who will sit the exams next month, said he found them interesting – especially the reading assessment.

“You never know what you’ll get next. One minute you’ll be reading a story about Ancient Egypt and the next you’ll have a report about Meerkats,” he said.