NAPLAN 2024: Toowoomba Anglican School, Fairholme College top year 5, 9 results across city

Two of Toowoomba’s most prestigious private schools are the city’s best-performing primary and secondary colleges in this year’s NAPLAN results. See how your child’s school did here:

Tom Gillespie

4 min read

December 5, 2024 - 3:00PM

Toowoomba Chronicle

Catholic schools find ‘vast improvement’ in NAPLAN results from old-school teaching

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A data-driven approach to literacy and numeracy and a heavy focus on a sense of community are major drivers behind Toowoomba’s best performing schools in this year’s NAPLAN results.

Toowoomba Anglican School and Fairholme College have dominated the annual assessment program for primary and second students, which tests year 3, 5, 7 and 9 students on reading, writing, spelling, grammar and numeracy skills every 12 months.

TAS topped the year 5 results for the Toowoomba region, with the school finishing 18th in Queensland, just ahead of Glenvale Christian School (20th).

Its average score of 551 was more than 30 points better than its 2023 result and also higher than last year’s top-ranked school.

Meanwhile, Fairholme College was again the Garden City’s top performer for year 9 NAPLAN results in Toowoomba, scoring 611 (up from 604 last year).

It also jumped from 46th to 32nd across Queensland.

Toowoomba had four schools feature in the state’s top 50 for both year 5 and 9 NAPLAN results, double the amount from last year.

This included Toowoomba Christian College, which finished 44th for year 9 (up from 82nd in 2023).

Here is some insight into what is behind the city’s top NAPLAN schools

TAS: ‘Continuity of practice’ and data behind school’s rise

Toowoomba Anglican School has topped the region with its Year 5 NAPLAN results in 2024, which were also in the top 20 across Queensland.

Jason Locke wasn’t surprised to see Toowoomba Anglican School’s 2024 year 5 students ranking among the best in Queensland for NAPLAN results.

“We take a lot of data and when we hit NAPLAN we correlate that data, so it validates that our teaching and learning philosophy was beneficial,” the head of junior school at the campus said.

The prestigious Toowoomba private college says the latest results are in part thanks to its role as a “lighthouse school” for InitiaLit, an “evidence-based whole-class literacy program” that it rolled out in 2018.

Toowoomba Anglican School's head of junior school Jason Locke.

Mr Locke said the current crop of year 5 students were the first to experience the program as preps, which saw a uniform and consistent approach to education that flowed from teacher to teacher.

“We have some amazing teachers that work with some amazing programs and we always look at improving literacy and numeracy, so all our teachers are fluent in the same program,” he said.

“Our teachers all use data informed practices and are trained in pedagogy that gets the best results.

“That means as students go from teacher to teacher, they’re hearing the same language and that has improved our literacy and numeracy results.”

Mr Locke said the school was constantly analysing internal and NAPLAN testing data to identify areas of improvement, which he said staff had embraced as part of the process.

He said the results spoke for themselves.

“It’s not all about the program, the way we adopt this is through our teachers — they are very talented and they get great results,” Mr Locke said.

“We’ve got some year five students that are at year seven levels of literacy and numeracy.

“It’s something that’s data driven, it’s got to be a program driven by data and that can show there is progress.

“We are used to and invite other schools to observe our programs, especially our InitiaLit reading program.

“We are fortunate to have become a lighthouse school for this program in the region.”

Mr Locke said the shift had also meant less students required additional learning support, saving the school hundreds of thousands of dollars in resources.

TAS also finished 3rd in Toowoomba for its year 9 results, a big jump from 8th in 2023.

Fairholme: Focus on ‘beautiful school experience’ key to success

Fairholme College has again topped Toowoomba for its Year 9 NAPLAN results in 2024. Pictured is head of middle school Jaye Ross with students (from left) Chelsea Crump, Sjanica van Eck and Emily McConnel.

Fairholme College’s continued dominance in Toowoomba NAPLAN year 9 results is always pleasing for head of middle school Jaye Ross — but it’s not the only thing she hangs her hat on.

“It’s not something we obsess over because it’s just one thing we look at — we have strong teachers, interesting lessons, great students and all of that is important to us,” she said.

“Students don’t do well if they’re not happy and if there isn’t strong pastoral care like at Fairholme it’s not just about having strong academic students.”

The elite all-girls school has topped all Toowoomba secondary institutions with its year 9 NAPLAN results for the third year in a row, consistently maintaining an average score above 600.

The performance was even more impressive considering the school gets just two years to consolidate the learning pathways of city-based and boarding students under one curriculum.

“We have a large number of students that join us in year seven, they are boarders and they come from all over Queensland,” Mr Ross said.

“Sometimes their primary schooling experience has not been what we’d like, so we see a real growth (in NAPLAN results) from years seven to nine.

“NAPLAN was in March meaning our year seven results reflected their primary school years.

“That transition to boarding is a big challenge to many of those girls, so it’s about the support we give to them and the culture we create for middle schooling.”

Fairholme College has again topped Toowoomba for its Year 9 NAPLAN results in 2024.

Ms Ross said this year’s cohort had performed strongly in reading and writing, something the school emphasised.

“The writing this year is very strong, that’s been a consistent thing for us over the years but our writing for year nines was very strong,” she said.

“Our girls are regular readers and writers — they are still reading well and regularly and that’s a common conversation among girls is what books they’re currently (reading).

“What’s important is the girls are doing the best they can and are enjoying themselves — we focus on the big picture, and often that does pay off in NAPLAN figures.”