Top performing Riverina NAPLAN schools revealed in last five years

Saint Mary MacKillop Colleges and Bunnaloo Public School are the top performing NAPLAN schools in Riverina. See the full list.

Daniel Petrie, Ephrem Sitiwin, Mark Flack and Clare Sibthorpe

3 min read

November 29, 2022 - 5:00AM

The Wagga News

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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, Bunnaloo Public School, in Bunnaloo, had higher Year 5 yearly results than any other school in the Riverina, scoring an average of 2729.0 each year.

Lutheran School Wagga Wagga in Wagga Wagga was the second best for the region with an average score of 2673.0, while Saint Mary MacKillop Colleges in Wagga Wagga was the third best with an average score of 2655.8.

The top performing Year 9 school was Saint Mary MacKillop Colleges, in Wagga Wagga, where the average yearly result was 3183.75 over the five years.

Saint Mary MacKillop College Albury in Jindera was the second best for the region with an average score of 3098.25, while The Scots School Albury was the third best with an average score of 3043.5.

Bunnaloo Public School stage 2 students Ruby Rogan (l) and Georgie Barnes read in the library. Picture: supplied

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.

South Wagga Public School Stage 3 students (l-r) Zac Hartwig, Asher McNellie, Patrick Winson and Sam Mortimer. Picture: supplied

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

Bunnaloo Public School principal Darren Devereux said the success was satisfying and that the school had performed highly in NAPLAN for many years.

“A lot of that comes down to the students themselves and the culture that they work in, which is that they come to school to do their best,” he said.

“I’ve also got very experienced staff that have worked within the roles in the school for some time. They’re really passionate about doing things well, and they’re very open to change and (assessing if) there’s anything they can do to improve the way they go about teaching their students and develop as we go along”.

Mr Devereux said having a small school of 36 students allowed staff to care for the individual needs of students.

“That’s why we have these results,” he said. “They’re all very well known to the staff … everyone knows where they’re at. It’s how we can support them to do the best that they can”.

Another primary school that made the top 10 best performers was South Wagga Public School, which came in eighth spot.

Principal Leonie Stevenson said staff and students at South Wagga Public had worked really hard to achieve that result.

“We’ve done a real deep dive into our data to look at common themes and trends in students’ results,” Ms Stevenson said. “So we’re sort of identifying the areas to focus on … through customised learning programs and different interventions for students. So that’s been a really big factor in identifying what the students already know and what we need to teach them”.

With it being the first year students had done NAPLAN online, Ms Stevenson said there was a lot of preparation to ensure there were no technical issues and that students weren’t anxious about the change.

Riverina’s best performing Year 5 schools between 2017 and 2021

Bunnaloo Public School: 2729.0

Lutheran School Wagga Wagga: 2673.0

Saint Mary MacKillop Colleges Limited (Wagga Wagga): 2655.8

Saint Mary MacKillop College Albury: 2644.0

The Scots School Albury: 2624.3

St Mary‘s Parish School: 2595.5

Moama Anglican Grammar School: 2579.3

South Wagga Public School: 2575.8

St Brendan‘s Primary School: 2568.8

St Mary‘s Primary School: 2565.0

Riverina’s best performing Year 9 schools between 2017 and 2021