NAPLAN 2019: Elite private school principals defend subpar results calling comparisons ‘unfair’
Elite private school principals have defended subpar NAPLAN results, saying the My School similar schools comparison is unfair, while a southwest Sydney school where just 14 of the 951 students are native English speakers has made the NAPLAN honour roll.
Elite private school principals have defended subpar NAPLAN results, saying the My School similar schools comparison is unfair.
Sydney Church of England Girls Grammar School (SCEGGS) Year 7 and Year 9 numeracy results this year were “substantially below” other similar schools in NAPLAN results.
But Principal Jenny Allum of the $38,000 a year school said it was unfair to compare SCEGGS’s results to so called “similar schools” which included James Ruse and North Sydney Girls because they’re highly academically selective.
“I think it is an absolute travesty that they say this allows fair comparisons to be made — it does not allow fair comparisons to made,” she said.
SCEGGS doesn’t teach to the test or do excessive practise.
“I don’t care how they do in this test, I do care deeply that they can read and write well and are numerate,” she said.
Matthew Pearce Public School in Baulkham Hills, received a score of 488 for Year 3 numeracy, beating Bellevue Hills schools Cranbrook and The Scots College, as well as Ravenswood School for Girls in Gordon.
Among other private schools not to have fared well was St Andrew’s Cathedral School where Year 9 students performed below average in writing, spelling, grammar and numeracy, when compared to “similar schools”.
Principal Dr John Collier said comparing his school’s results to selective schools was unfair.
“We are not really interested in comparisons with other schools, which are often nowhere near us and not like us, for instance, they may be selective,” he said.
“St Andrew’s Cathedral School chooses deliberately not to be a ‘hothouse’ NAPLAN school. “We would rather thoroughly educate our students than spend time in extensive NAPLAN drills which reduce our attention to the whole curriculum”.
The academically selective Sydney Grammar School this year had results substantially above average when similar schools in Year 7 and Year 9 grammar and numeracy.
Impressively, Ascham School received above average results when compared to “similar schools” in every NAPLAN subject for Year 3, Year 5, Year 7 and Year 9.
Cranbrook School Acting Headmaster Bob Meakin said they didn’t coach to the test.
“At Cranbrook we do not believe there is merit in coaching students to achieve against the
limited parameters measured through NAPLAN testing only, but rather to provide an educational environment which regularly challenges and assesses each student,” he said.
He said the school performed well academically, with three students last year receiving the perfect ATAR of 99.95.
STUDY ‘A GOLDEN TICKET’
A school in southwest Sydney where just 14 of the 951 students are native English speakers has defied the odds and made the NAPLAN honour roll for achieving high gains
in reading.
Lakemba’s Holy Spirit Catholic College principal Phillip Scollard attributes his school’s significant improvement to its focus on reading in “every single subject”, early intervention programs and the belief of the student’s families that education is a “golden ticket” to a good life.
“Part of the role for every teacher no matter what they teach is we’re actually also teaching formal academic English to these students,” he said.
The school was one of 60 NSW schools acknowledged by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority for achieving significantly above average gains. Students who were in Year 7 in 2016 improved their reading scores on average by 61 points when they were retested in Year 9 last year.
The school has 65 recently arrived Syrian refugees enrolled.
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