Yorkeys State the North star

ONE Far Northern school is emerging as a consistent overachiever in national numeracy and literacy assessments.

Yorkeys Knob State School came in at number 25 in a ranking of Queensland’s best NAPLAN results for 2019 and recorded the best primary school results in the Far North.

Last year the school’s Year 3 classes achieved results ranking them in the top 20 schools in Queensland and was in the top 20 of Queensland primary schools according to the Better Education website.

Principal Nathaniel Train said “supportive parents, dedicated teachers and support staff” were key to the school’s success.

“We have a consistent delivery of teaching programs, a quality learning environment that focuses on every student being given the opportunity to be a successful learner and students that commit themselves wholeheartedly to their learning opportunities,” he said.

“Our strategy continues to be for each student to strive to be the best they can be. NAPLAN is an opportunity to learn and provides all schools in Australia with point-in-time assessment. It is useful to everyone in education that is looking for continual improvement.

“The students, parents and teachers should be proud of their ongoing success. NAPLAN is reflective of what happens every day at Yorkeys Knob State School.”

In the top spot for high school NAPLAN results, St Monica’s College staff and students do not practise NAPLAN “at all”.

Assistant to the principal in curriculum Larissa Nolan said the data from NAPLAN was used to “drill down” on teacher and student strengths and weaknesses.

“Some teachers have different strengths and we use them to train teachers in their techniques,” Ms Nolan said.

“We use it to empower their staff. We are very lucky because we have very experienced staff who upskill themselves.

“For the students, we try and make NAPLAN as stress free as possible. We don’t talk about it that much. They know it’s coming up via newsletters and we tell parents to make

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sure they get plenty of sleep to help with their learning.

“We’re moving in to the new senior system of external exams so we are trying to make that idea of formal, external assessment as common as possible.”

Students have been sitting formal exams throughout each term for the past few years in an effort to reduce any anxiety associated with testing.

St Monica’s College principal Edna Galvin said she was “very pleased” with the results, but wanted to remind the community NAPLAN results “did not tell the whole story”.

“There are schools doing wonderful work across the board with a range of students including those with special needs,” she said.