Ballarat schools among the best in Victoria for NAPLAN

A tiny Ballarat primary school has excelled in this year’s NAPLAN results, with a top independent school ranking among the state’s best.

Napoleons Primary School in Ballarat has exceeded expectations to be ranked as the second best Primary School in the region for NAPLAN results. Picture: Napoleons Primary School

A leading independent school has topped the Ballarat academic charts, while a small suburban primary school has exceeded expectations across the board to rank among the best in the latest NAPLAN results.

An analysis of NAPLAN results for Year 5 and 9 students ranked Ballarat Clarendon College — one of the state’s top independent schools — within the top six primary and high schools in the state.

The school’s results for reading, writing, spelling, grammar and numeracy were all graded as “well above” the state average for students with a similar background.

The average score across the board for the school’s grade 5 cohort was 586.7 — the sixth best in the state.

Clarendon’s Year 9s were in esteemed company, with an average score of 670.8 placing the school in the top five high schools in Victoria.

Ballarat Clarendon College was among Victoria's top performing schools for NAPLAN. Picture: Ballarat Clarendon College

Clarendon was the best performing primary and high school in regional Victoria.

Napoleons Primary School — which has a population of fewer than 80 students — was Ballarat’s second best performing primary school with an average score of 524.

Napoleons grade 5 students performed “well above” the state average in reading, grammar and numeracy.

The school’s learning specialist Judy Hunt said it was an “amazing” result for the school.

“It’s a real reflection of all our hard work,” she said.

“To be right up there considering we’re a small school is really great.

“We’ve been consolidating some programs that we’ve been working on for the past two or three years so it’s really good to see that those things we started in the junior grades are all coming through.”

Get the latest news straight to your inbox. Subscribe to our email newsletters

Avoca Primary School — located in the Pyrenees Shire — was also among the highest achieving schools in the Ballarat region, excelling in numeracy.
Among the high schools Ballarat Grammar and Loreto College made up the top three in the region.

Ballarat High School was the best performing government school with an average score of 553.4.

To determine how each school performed in 2024, the scores for all five test subjects for the student cohort – Year 5 or Year 9 – were combined and the average found.

Students are tested on the reading, writing, spelling, grammar and numeracy skills.