NAPLAN yearly results: NT schools leading pack when it comes to academic improvement — but our students sit far below national average

TERRITORY schools are leading the pack when it comes to academic improvement — however NAPLAN data indicates children sit far below the national average

TERRITORY schools are leading the pack when it comes to academic improvement — however NAPLAN data indicates children sit far below the national average.

A breakdown of school by school data of the NAPLAN test sat in 2017 has been released today on My School. The national test undertaken by students in Year 3, 5, 7, and 9 is sat yearly with the intention of the school community being able to see progress and areas to improve on in both literacy and numeracy.

Multiple schools across the NT have shown significant improvement including Leanyer Primary School in numeracy from Years 3 to 5 and Ross Park Primary School in Alice Springs from Year 3 to 5 in reading.

The Essington International School Darwin, the most affluent school in the NT, topped the data, collated by the NT News for Year 9 students and Year 5 students in numeracy. Yulara School, which is near Uluru topped Year 5 literacy data. Larrakeyah Primary School, Darwin Middle School, Stuart Park Primary School, and Parap Primary School performed better than the national average. Education Minister Eva Lawler said it was disappointing children were not meeting the national minimum standard. “The results are disappointing, however the Northern Territory is seeing strong student gains over four and six years of testing, which is promising,” she said.

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“We need to continue focusing on being the most improving system in the country so that all Territory children can achieve their full potential.” Ms Lawler said to improve outcomes students needed to attend school everyday. Remote schools where the percentage of students were indigenous and did not speak English as a first language, on average performed the worst.

“Teachers use a range of assessment tools to inform their day-to-day teaching to meet the learning needs of their students, including those for which English is not their first language. It is important to have assessment tools that are contextually relevant for our students.”

Education Department chief executive Marion Guppy said the department was focusing on improving outcomes.

“All NT schools continue to focus on implementing explicit teaching and learning programs that build strong literacy and numeracy foundations,” she said.

Data collected by the NT News is for Year 5 and Year 9 tests only.

The literacy figure is the calculated average for the reading, writing, spelling and grammar components.