NAPLAN: Southwest Sydney’s top-performing schools revealed

There’s been an excellent raft of NAPLAN results across southwest Sydney with principals applauding the work of staff. See what your school ranked in our interactive tool.

Pal Buddhist School. Picture: Supplied

Independent analysis of NAPLAN results across NSW has revealed the top performing southwest Sydney schools — with principals applauding the work of staff.

The Daily Telegraph crunched the numbers of NAPLAN results across the state and in southwest Sydney there were some particularly outstanding results – across both primary and secondary schools.

FULL NSW 2022 NAPLAN RESULTS

PAL Buddhist School, in Canley Vale, received an outstanding NAPLAN average of 607.2 across its primary school students.

It maintains its strong track record: it ranked second in Sydney by percentage of students receiving over 95 in the ATAR last year, only behind Sydney Grammar.

Founding principal Panha Pal said the school focused on not just intelligence, but wisdom.

“One focus is to help our students understand the value of wisdom over intelligence,” he said.

“We have too many intelligent people in the world and not enough wise people.”

Panha Pal, founding principal. Picture: Supplied

Spiritual endeavour was another focus, “helping students understand the value of morals”, but discipline was also important.

“Discipline, responsibility and accountability is something we try to embody and put into the values of everything we do,” Mr Pal said.

“We call a lot of our programs and activities ‘training grounds’, because we try to ensure everything we do embodies these values.”

For Mr Pal, the incredible NAPLAN average also came down to both the hard work of his staff and the desire of students.

“It’s a reflection of our teachers’ commitment, we are blessed to have excellent staff,” he said.

Pal Buddhist School. Picture: Supplied

“But we also want our pupils to improve their own personal best, and when they do that they’ll be successful in everything they touch.”

In Georges Hall, across both primary and secondary, Georges River Grammar (GRG) posted excellent results: an average of 518 across its primary students and 602 across its secondary.

“I am very proud of GRG’s hardworking teachers, and even more importantly, our students who are at the centre of all we do,” principal Raquel Charet said.

Georges River Grammar. Picture: Jonathan Ng

“At GRG we have been focusing on establishing a culture of high academic standards and expectations all the way from kindergarten to year 12.

“We have worked hard to ensure that we teach using evidence-informed teaching practices.”

Ms Charet said a focus on teaching how best to study and learn may have underpinned the excellent set of results.

“We believe in explicitly teaching not only syllabus content, but also study practices,” she said.

“Students need to know how they learn, therefore we have developed and constructed comprehensive programs to support our students in developing excellent study habits.

“Ultimately, a focus on the right kind of teaching, and a commitment to supporting staff and student wellbeing is serving our community well.”