It’s a 15-hour drive from the big city lights, but this regional school outperforms Brisbane

It’s a 15-hour drive from the bright lights of Queensland’s capital city, but kids at this independent Townsville school are academically outshining students from Brisbane schools.

The Cathedral School of St Anne & St James, in the Townsville suburb of Mundingburra, scored up to 36 points higher on its Year 9 NAPLAN scores this year than the average Year 9 student in Queensland’s major cities, including Brisbane.

It’s not the only regional Queensland school to punch above its weight. In fact, Queensland is better at narrowing the educational gap between city and country than New South Wales, despite the Sunshine State being twice its size.

The Cathedral School of St Anne & St James in Townsville is punching above its weight academically, outperforming city schools in Brisbane, on average.

The Townsville school’s Year 9 students, in outer regional Australia, scored 35 points higher in their average NAPLAN scores in reading this year, at 596, than students in Queensland’s major cities, which includes Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast.

They scored 36 points higher in numeracy, with an average score of 599.

Annual fees – $14,100 for senior years – are about half those charged at Brisbane’s top private schools.

Principal Luke Baills said north Queenslanders had an innate attitude to adapt, overcome and succeed when faced with challenges.

Principal Luke Baills said students came from diverse backgrounds but were all backed by parents who valued the education the school provided.

“There is no doubt that regional centres do it tougher; however, that is also the reason to challenge yourself to succeed,” he said.

Many families at the Prep to Year 12 co-ed Anglican school come from the local area, and include parents working in professional fields and defence, but children also attend from cattle stations out west, and remote communities in the Cape.

About one in 10 Cathedral students are boarders, while 7 per cent of enrolments are from remote or very remote areas.

Last year’s graduates are pursuing careers in everything from politics and law to agriculture, plumbing and childcare.

Queensland performed worse in almost every test – reading, writing, spelling, grammar and punctuation, and numeracy – and year level compared with NSW, Victoria, Western Australia and South Australia in this year’s NAPLAN test.

One in three Queensland students did not meet minimum standards in the state’s major cities, including Brisbane, compared with one in four in NSW, including Sydney.

But Queensland had a smaller gap between results in major cities versus regional and remote areas, compared with NSW, despite the vast state’s unique challenges.

More Queenslanders live outside their capital city (51 per cent) compared with NSW (35 per cent).

The overall average gap in NAPLAN scores between major cities in New South Wales, for example Sydney, versus inner regional, such as Byron Bay and Bathurst, was 33.3 points.

The gap between Queensland’s major cities, for example Brisbane, versus inner regional, such as Toowoomba and Rockhampton, was 25.8 points.

In outer regional areas, the gap between the major cities was 47.4 points in NSW (Parkes, Inverell) versus 31.1 points in Queensland (Emerald, Stanthorpe).

An education department spokesman said Queensland was a vast, decentralised state.

“In fact, about 63 per cent of Queensland state schools are located in regional or remote communities,” he said.

“No matter where students live we are committed to ensuring they all have access to high-quality learning opportunities within their local communities.”

Australian National University Professor Ben Edwards said the results also showed the high performance of Sydney school students, while children were also slightly older when they started school.

“Kids in Sydney have the most competitive education system,” he said. “The parents are cut-throat in a variety of different ways.”