NSW NAPLAN 2025: Five Sydney public schools beating elite private school neighbours

Opportunity classes are lifting NSW public schools’ NAPLAN scores by up to 7 per cent, but there are still some non-selective public schools beating their expensive private school neighbours.

Rose Bay Public School is one of several government-run schools where Year 5 students are outperforming their private school peers. Picture: AAP Image/Bianca De Marchi

Opportunity classes are lifting NSW public schools’ overall NAPLAN scores by up to 7 per cent, but there are still some non-academically selective primary schools beating the expensive private schools in their local communities.

Sydney’s opportunity class (OC) host schools – including Beecroft Public School, Matthew Pearce PS and Sutherland PS – feature heavily among the state’s best-performing primary schools, accounting for one in five of the top 100.

Based on their average Year 5 NAPLAN results, public schools with an OC or two have recorded scores 7 per cent higher than those without OCs, and comparable with independent and Catholic schools in the greater Sydney area.

OCs are designed to extend and challenge academically gifted children in the public system and students must sit a placement test to earn a spot when they are in Year 4.

However there are also more than two dozen non-selective public primary schools in the top 100 on Sydney’s north shore, northwest and Hills district.

Two Carlingford schools – Carlingford West Public School and Murray Farm Public School – recorded “well above average” results in all five testing areas, and improved their standings compared to other schools too.

Hornsby North Public School students outperformed peers at nearby high-fee independent schools Pymble Ladies’ College and Barker College, where Year 5 tuition costs up to $41,000, as well as the two other public schools in the area.

In the eastern suburbs, Rose Bay Public School’s Year 5 cohort achieved higher average scores across the board than junior students at the $33,000-per-year Kincoppal Rose Bay School of the Sacred Heart, Holy Cross Catholic Primary School in Woollahra and St Catherine’s School in Waverley.

Cherrybrook Public School Year 5 students were among the best performers in the country and beat their counterparts only a few streets away at Tangara School for Girls, as well as Dural private schools Pacific Hills Christian School and Redfield College.

Independent schools in Sydney recorded higher Year 5 NAPLAN scores than any other sector, averaging 525 points out of a possible 1000, followed by systemic Catholic schools on 515 points and government schools (including OCs) on 496.

Originally published as NSW NAPLAN 2025: Five Sydney public schools beating elite private school neighbours