Top performing Canberra NAPLAN schools revealed in last 5 years

Canberra’s best performing NAPLAN schools have been revealed. Find out their secrets to academic success.

Julia Kanapathippillai, Daniel Petrie, Ephrem Sitiwin and Mark Flack

2 min read

November 29, 2022 - 5:00AM

Canberra Star

"Teaching is not one size fits all" Canberra Girls Grammar head of junior school and ELC Peter Macdonald. Picture: Supplied

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Canberra Grammar School and Canberra Girls Grammar School have been named as the top performing NAPLAN schools in the Australian Capital Territory.

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, Canberra Girls Grammar School, in Deakin, had higher Year 5 yearly results than any other school in the Australian Capital Territory, scoring an average of 2732.8 each year.

Garran Primary School was the second best for the region with an average score of 2673.8, while Radford College in Bruce was the third best with an average score of 2663.5.

For Canberra Girls Grammar’s head of junior school, Peter McDonald, excelling at NAPLAN is only one aspect of ensuring every child has a quality education.

"Teaching is not one size fits all" - Canberra Girls Grammar head of junior school and ELC Peter Macdonald. Picture: Supplied

“Teaching is not simply one size fits all at Canberra Girls Grammar School. We deliver a personalised and individualised approach to education,” he said.

“We also ensure each student achieves their potential by continually monitoring their growth and progress.

Canberra Girls Grammar School had the best NAPLAN scores in primary year levels, and the second best scores in secondary levels. Picture: Supplied

“We know that a strong foundation for literacy and numeracy is vital to ongoing academic achievement and success, beginning from the very start of school.”

Mr Mcdonald credits high-quality teachers, small class sizes and fostering the expectation for students to go beyond the prescribed curriculum as keys to the school’s success.

“A sense of belonging cannot be underestimated and is vital to learning success,” he said.

“We are a school where each student, teacher and family are known, cared for, and understood – our unique signature programs and K-6 wellbeing curriculum helps us achieve this.

These methods, supported by the data NAPLAN provides, are valuable and can work at a school level to improve student literacy and numeracy outcomes.

In secondary school the top performing Year 9 school was Canberra Grammar School, in Red Hill, where the average yearly result was 3144.3 over the five years.

Canberra Girls Grammar School in Deakin was the second best for the region with an average score of 3134.5, while Radford College in Bruce was the third best with an average score of 3102.5.

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.

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

Australian Capital Territory‘s best performing Year 5 schools between 2017 and 2021