Cluster a class above

A CLUSTER of state schools have punched alongside heavyweight Brisbane private schools to be named in Queensland’s top 10 performing primary schools across five years of NAPLAN data.

An independent analysis of NAPLAN results has revealed the schools which consistently performed the best in the Year 5 and Year 9 tests from 2017 to 2021.

Queensland Catholic Primary Principals Association president Gavin Rick said NAPLAN had merits to measure success of the whole school approaches to literacy and numeracy.

However, the Cairns principal said when used in isolation, it tended to not indicate a student’s knowledge and skills.

“Only a teacher can truly know a student’s growth and achievement by using various assessment tools and overall teacher judgement,” Mr Rick said.

“It can be a very helpful and powerful tool when used by schools to identify the success of the whole school.”

Mr Rick said he believed the annual cost to administer NAPLAN could be better spent on schools and teacher training in literacy and numeracy instead.

To determine each school’s performance, the average scores for each year were combined and the yearly average was found.

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

Rainworth State School in blue-chip Brisbane suburb of Bardon was the second-best performer across the five years, trailing only GPS giant Brisbane

Grammar School. Sunnybank Hills, Indooroopilly, MacGregor and Robertson state schools also featured in the top 10 primary schools alongside Somerville House, St Aidan’s, St Margaret’s and Townsville Grammar School.

Brisbane Grammar, which charges parents between $25,000 and $29,000 a year, cemented its reputation with the best performance in primary results and the second for secondary.

Townsville Grammar School and Whitsunday Anglican School were the only primary schools in the top 20 primary schools from outside of Brisbane.

The analysis showed St Aidan’s Anglican Girls School was one of the high academic achievers with the seventh-best results for primary and the third-best in secondary.

Principal Toni Riordan said the school placed equal importance on NAPLAN results as it did for its other measures for student and cohort progress.

“We support research that continues to correlate NAPLAN performance with future senior studies outcomes, such as ATAR ranks,” Ms Riordan said.

“Of course, it’s not the only measure which might point to future success at school but we do believe there could be a relationship between the two.”

Ms Riordan said she was proud of the school’s recent consistency and praised students, staff and parents for the hard work and success.

She said St Aidan’s careful selection of teachers which helped ensure its students tapped into their full potential.

“St Aidan’s sets high expectations and standards, which we balance with an acute focus on wellbeing and pastoral care,” she said.

“We know that NAPLAN is a pointin-time test, and that there is a great deal more included in a student’s learning and assessment profile.”