NAPLAN results Central Coast: How high schools ranked

The 2019 NAPLAN test results are in. How did your school rank compared with all other Central Coast high schools?

Central Coast Steiner School principal Rosemary Michalowski addressing students. The school ranked fourth in local secondary schools 2019 NAPLAN results. Picture: supplied

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Private schools dominated the best performing Central Coast secondary schools, according to the latest NAPLAN data, with just the selective public Gosford High School in the top 10.

Gosford High ranked first on the coast and 21st across NSW with the rest of the top 10 local schools being private or Christian schools.

The surprise bolter was Central Coast Steiner School, which ranked fourth locally and 148th across NSW.

Principal Rosemary Michalowski said the results were from literacy and numeracy learning programs they introduced in 2013 based on the Steiner method and other “best practice” education models.

“I know it’s borne fruit,” she said.

Central Coast Rudolf Steiner School student Arabella Zocher, deputy principal Tiffany Reynolds-Flannery, teacher Georgia Kingshott, Principal Rosemary Michalowski and Dobell Federal Labor MP Emma McBride pictured when the school was connected to the NBN.

The small school has about 285 students with one class per year.

Ms Michalowski said in primary years the teacher stayed with the same class as the students progressed from Years 1-6.

“I think the main changes were, really in the early years, identifying students who needed support and employing highly trained teachers to give them extra attention,” she said.

“Any issues they had were dealt with in the first couple of years.”

Central Coast Steiner School finished with an average score of 586.0 points — just 0.3 points behind Green Point Christian College at 586.3.

A primary school classroom at Central Coast Steiner School which performed well in the 2019 NAPLAN results. Picture: supplied

The Steiner’s primary students ranked 18th against other primary schools across the region while Green Point’s primary students ranked fourth locally.

Ms Michalowski said her school analysed and used the NAPLAN results but was “philosophically” against “teaching to the test”.

Instead she said the school’s calm learning environment fostered a “love of learning”.

Students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 took the NAPLAN tests in May last year.

Tuggerah Lakes’ Berkeley Vale Campus had an overall average score of 540.8, just ahead of its sibling and the more fancied Tumbi Umbi Campus at 537.3.

While the average score was close, in a tightly bunched field, it meant Berkeley Vale Campus ranked 499 out of the state’s 787 high schools compared to Tumbi which came in at 529.

Kincumber High School was the highest ranking, non-selective, public high school.

Kincumber High School came in at number 11 on the Coast and 356 in NSW as the first non-selective public school followed by Henry Kendall High School, which ranked 362 in the state.

Students in Year 3, 5, 7 and 9 took part in the controversial nationwide standardised test in May last year.

Henry Kendall High School ranked 12th among Central Coast high schools. (AAP Image/Sue Graham)

The test is designed to measure students in literacy and numeracy and track progress.

The NAPLAN test remains controversial with the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), the federal body responsible for developing national curriculum and assessment, this year revamping the MySchool website where school’s NAPLAN results are publicly displayed.

Focus groups across the country found MySchool was difficult to navigate and was filled with technical language and jargon.

ACARA also had to further explain on the website the benefits of NAPLAN and MySchool to parents.

Gosford High School remained the top performing school on the coast. (AAP IMAGE / Troy Snook)

List of where all secondary schools placed in terms of NAPLAN results on the Central Coast, its average score and in brackets where the school placed in NSW:

1/. Gosford High School: 654 (21)

2/. Central Coast Grammar School: 606.9 (61)

3/. Green Point Christian College: 586.3 (146)

4/. Central Coast Steiner School: 586 (148)

5/. St Philip’s Christian College – Gosford: 574.2 (222)

6/. Lakes Grammar – An Anglican School: 570.8 (249)

7/. Central Coast Adventist School: 567.9 (278)

8/. St Joseph’s Catholic College: 565.7 (304)

9/. Wyong Christian Community School: 565 (314)

10/. St Peter’s Catholic College: 560.2 (354)

11/. Kincumber High School: 560 (356)

12/. Henry Kendall High School: 559.7 (362)

13/. St Edward’s Christian Brothers’ College: 559.4 (363)

14/. Terrigal High School: 558.3 (371)

15/. MacKillop Catholic College: 554.3 (403)

16/. St Brigid’s Catholic College: 546.6 (457)

17/. Central Coast Sports College: 546.5 (459)

18/. Tuggerah Lakes Secondary College Berkeley Vale Campus: 540.8 (499)

19/. Lisarow High School: 540.5 (501)

20/. Erina High School: 540.1 (504)

21/. Brisbane Water Secondary College Umina Campus: 539.4 (512)

22/. Narara Valley High School: 538.9 (518)

23/. Kariong Mountains High School: 537.4 (528)

24/. Tuggerah Lakes Secondary College Tumbi Umbi Campus: 537.3 (529)

25/. Gorokan High School: 533.9 (562)

26/. Wadalba Community School: 528.6 (613)

27/. ET Australia Secondary College: 523.3(647)

28/. Wyong High School: 523.1 (648)

29/. Northlakes High School: 516 (693)

30/. Lake Munmorah High School: 504.3 (737)