The western suburbs top performing NAPLAN schools of past five years revealed

We’ve broken down the NAPLAN data to reveal the schools who aced the national school standards test. See how every school in the western suburbs performed.

Westbourne Grammar School, in Turganina, had higher Year 5 yearly results than any other school in the region.

Which schools in Melbourne’s west are consistently head of the class in NAPLAN results?

A News Corp Australia analysis of five years of the national test results has revealed the strong performers in the Years 5 and 9 tests between 2014 and 2018.

Over that five-year period Westbourne Grammar School, in Turganina, had higher Year 5 yearly results than any other school in the region.

The top performing Year 9 school in the area was Suzanne Cory High School in Werribee, which is selective.

Principal Colin Axup said the school focused more on its own testing than the national results.

“We’re a Year 9-12 school so, to be honest, we don’t take the NAPLAN results as seriously as it is not really our data,” he said.

“We also have some concerns about the testing because it doesn’t differentiate as much at the top end and doesn’t provide as meaningful data.”

“Our entrance examination results data is of more use to us in looking at what the students need.”

Mr Axup said the school did various kinds of assessments, and also required students to do sport and other co-curricular activities to ensure they were getting a well-rounded education.

To find out how schools performed between 2014 and 2018, News Corp Australia combined each school’s average scores for each year and calculated a yearly average.

The 2019 results are not yet publicly available.

Special schools, schools with fewer than 20 students enrolled during those years, and schools that did not report any results for NAPLAN subjects were excluded from the analysis.

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A Federal Department of Education spokesperson said the NAPLAN was an important measure as it told Australians at national, state and territory levels how well the nation was equipping students with critical literacy and numeracy skills.

“NAPLAN is not designed to compare individual students, but rather enable teachers to identify and focus on specific areas to improve individual student achievement and to potentially adjust their teaching emphasis,” the spokesperson said.

WESTERN MELBOURNE’S BEST PERFORMING YEAR 5 SCHOOLS 2014-18

1. Westbourne Grammar School, Truganina and Newport

2. Heathdale Christian College, Werribee

3. Yarraville West Primary School

4. Sunshine Christian School

5. St Mary’s School, Williamstown

6. Williamstown North Primary School

7. St Margaret’s Primary School, Maribyrnong

8. Southern Cross Grammar, Caroline Springs

9. St Leo the Great School, Altona North

10. Kororoit Creek Primary School, Burnside Heights

MORE:

RICHEST SCHOOLS IN MELBOURNE’S WEST

WEST MELBOURNE TEACHER STUDENT RATIOS

WESTERN MELBOURNE’S BEST PERFORMING YEAR 9 SCHOOLS 2014-18

1. Suzanne Cory High School, Werribee

2. Westbourne Grammar School, Truganina and Newport

3. Heathdale Christian College, Werribee

4. Mount St Joseph Girls’ College, Altona

5. Overnewton Anglican Community College, Keilor

6. Williamstown High School

7. Gilson College, Taylors Hill

8. Footscray City College

9. Caroline Chisholm Catholic College, Braybrook

10. Keilor Downs Secondary College

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