REVEALED: School’s secret to NAPLAN success

A Sunshine Coast school has revealed the secret behind its success after achieving unmatched NAPLAN results in the region. SEE THE TOP TEN SCHOOLS

A SUNSHINE Coast school has revealed the secret behind its success after achieving unmatched results in the region.

An independent analysis of NAPLAN results has shown the schools that performed the best in the Year 5 and Year 9 tests between 2015 and 2019.

>> HOW YOUR SCHOOL PERFORMED IN NAPLAN OVER FIVE YEARS

The data revealed Sunshine Coast Grammar School had higher Year 9 results annually than any other school in the region, where the average yearly result was 3083.6

Dean of secondary school David Andersson attributed the success to the students' daily routine where NAPLAN skills were required.

"Grammar prepares curricula with the cognitive verbs in mind," he said.

"These are the skills required by our syllabus documents, and are tested directly in NAPLAN.

"In a sense we do our NAPLAN preparation every day and every week because of this focus."

Sunshine Coast Grammar has performed the best out of any school in the region for their Year 9 NAPLAN results. Students, Fynn Van Den Brenk, Agen Collen, Grace Wilson-Smith sand Geordie Marsh. Photo Patrick Woods / Sunshine Coast Daily.

Mr Andersson said preparing the students for the type of questions they'd be asked on the test was important.

"We also deliver practice tests with our students so that they are familiar with the style of NAPLAN questions and so they can be aware of time management in the tests," he said.

"This year we moved to NAPLAN Online and we believe the students were more engaged in the testing because of this new format."

THE RESULTS:

Best performing schools for Year 5 students:

• Matthew Flinders Anglican College
• St Andrew's Anglican College
• Caloundra City Private School
• Immanuel Lutheran College
• Sunshine Coast Grammar School
• Eumundi State School
• Sunshine Beach State School
• Peregian Beach College
• Glenview State School
• Good Shepherd Lutheran College

Best performing schools for Year 9 students:

• Sunshine Coast Grammar School
• Matthew Flinders Anglican College
• Good Shepherd Lutheran College
• Immanuel Lutheran College
• St Andrew's Anglican College
• Pacific Lutheran College
• Caloundra City Private School
• St John's College
• Siena Catholic College
• Nambour Christian College

Although Mr Andersson did not consider NAPLAN to be extremely effective in determining a student's ability, he said the school was proud of the successful results.

"We don't give a lot of weight to NAPLAN because it is a point-in time test that students complete every two years," he said.

"Generally, it confirms what we already know about a student's ability. Occasionally, it provides us with insights into a student's potential."

"(But) we are understandably very proud of the fact that Grammar has consistently achieved excellent results with all our students, not just the Year 9s."

The data also revealed Buderim's Matthew Flinders Anglican College was the top- performing Year 5 school during the time frame.

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

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

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