Liverpool: Marsden Road Public School reveals NAPLAN turnaround method
A school where 65 per cent of students have spoken English for under three years has achieved above-average results in reading and writing. Here’s how they did it.
Liverpool
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It has been a long-term consistent effort to turn around Marsden Road Public School’s NAPLAN results, but the 2021 test scores have validated the school’s approach to teaching.
Scoring 445 across both spelling and writing in the Year 3 cohort places the Liverpool school above average for the state.
Similarly, the Year 5 scores of 493 for spelling and 499 for writing are considered well above and above average respectively when weighed against scores from students of a similar background.
As a comparison, across 2016 and 2017 the Year 5 cohort in the school first scored well below average in spelling, with a score of 442, and well below the state average in writing the following year, with a score of 463.
The improvements have been made while 65 per cent of Marsden Road Public School students have spoken English for less than three years, 90 per cent are from a non-English speaking background, and one in five come from a refugee background or experience.
Just under half of the students in the school rank in the bottom quarter in the Distribution of Socio-Educational Advantage (SEA), which is used to compare students more fairly across similar educational backgrounds.
Marsden Road Public School principal, Manisha Gazula, attributes the turnaround to the school’s creation of its ‘Marsden Way’, a set of principles and standards which guide teaching, student behaviour expectations, and consistency and standardisation across all its assessments.
“It’s hard to explain six years in a nutshell. You need to change the mindset,” Ms Gazula said.
To kick off the revolution, the school spent an entire year revamping its teaching practices, including educating the teachers on the best practice for phonics and comprehension, followed by another year educating them on how to teach writing.
The school put in place a strict assessment schedule across K-6. Students are assessed on their writing, NAPLAN style, four times a year, according to Ms Gazula.
“We believe that standardised tests are important for triangulating the data we do collect,” she said.
The teachers feedback is also standardised, with their input to students recorded and checked to ensure it is constructive.
“Gradual improvement in teaching is reflected in student outcomes,” Ms Gazula said.
There is a lot of moderation to establish consistency in teacher judgement.”
There is a large effort to standardise the student behaviour too.
They learn how to walk in two lines consistently before even entering the classroom. That cuts out wasted time getting to and from the classroom between lessons, and adds up over the lifetime of schooling.
Margins in books are monitored, graffiti on pages discouraged, and they are taught to write dates and start pages identically.
“It might look almost mechanical, but it gives a sense of peace and calm. It teaches them manners, respect, and ethics,” Ms Gazula said.
She said it helps the teachers get the best results for the students to, using the analogy of road rules being essential to driving.
“You can drive on the road because there are road rules, and you can drive safely.
“Even with the best car, and no rules, there is chaos. We have very clear rules and expectations from kindergarten.”
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