Townsville Grammar School takes out top spot in NAPLAN rankings

Townsville Grammar School has been ranked the best school in North Queensland for the second year in a row.

Townsville Grammar school's secondary students have once again proven themselves some of the most accomplished in the region.

An independent analysis of newly-released 2022 NAPLAN results has revealed the schools which performed the best in the Year 5 and Year 9 tests.

Townsville Grammar School, in North Ward, had better primary results than any other school in North Queensland, scoring an average of 524.6 across the five test subjects.

St Joseph’s Catholic School in North Ward was the second best for the region with an average score of 519.2, while Annandale Christian College was the third best with an average score of 506.8.

Principal of St Joseph’s Timothy Ham said the school’s staff had worked hard to help their students achieve.

“Literacy and numeracy are both priorities in our school and we have quality staff who have the capacity to assist students to learn to their full potential.”

The top performing secondary school was also Townsville Grammar School, where the average result was 620.4.

That result means that Townsville Grammar have been ranked the best performing primary and secondary school for two consecutive years after analysis of the 2021 NAPLAN results also showed them ahead of the pack.

Townsville Grammar principal Tim Kelly said the school worked hard to maintain standards of academic achievement throughout all grades.

“We are very proud of our long-standing reputation for achieving the highest academic outcomes in northern Queensland, and this is due to our teaching and learning approach that begins in our Junior School and carries through to Year 12,” Mr Kelly said.

Townsville Grammar school's secondary students have once again proven themselves some of the most accomplished in the region.

“It is perhaps best to describe our school as having a ‘culture’ of learning and very high behaviour standards which translates to maximum teaching time in the classroom.

“Townsville Grammar School is one of eight Grammar Schools in Queensland, offering a traditional, broad and liberal education that defines a Grammar Education.

“Our school is place where children, regardless of abilities, can enjoy the full Grammar experience – a balanced offering of exceptional academic instruction, extensive co-curricular opportunities, and community service and leadership programs to build young people of character.”

The Cathedral School of St Anne and St James in Mundingburra was the second best for the region with an average score of 599.6, while Annandale Christian College again rounded out the top three with an average score of 597.2.

Cathedral School of St Anne and St James’ Assistant Head of Middle School, Karen Brennan said the results were the result of a switch in strategy, with literacy and numeracy taking an increased focus across all areas of learning.

“We have seen a significant improvement in all categories of NAPLAN which includes Reading, Spelling, Grammar & Punctuation, Writing, and Numeracy. As a result, we can now acknowledge our Year 9 positioning themselves in the Top 3 in North QLD.”

Townsville Grammar students have been ranked North Queensland's best performing in the 2022 NAPLAN results.

Annandale Christian College principal Andrew Jones said students at the school had put in a ‘wonderful’ effort.

“This is the fruit of a partnership between students, parents and our Christian teachers and support staff. I am so pleased to recognise their ongoing achievement. NAPLAN is a point in time test and is a snapshot of the day-to-day work of the classroom.”

The overall picture of the results puts the region’s private and catholic schooling institutions at the top of the heap in term of academic results, with only one public school appearing in the top 10 best performing schools in Year 5, that being Magnetic Island State School, which accrued an average result of 490.6 through it’s year 5 cohort of students.

To determine how each school performed in 2022, the scores for all five test subjects for the student cohort (Yr 5 or Yr 9) were combined and the average found.

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

The figures were independently compiled from the Federal Government’s MySchool website.

Originally published as Townsville Grammar School takes out top spot in NAPLAN rankings