Western Australia’s high-achieving schools in the NAPLAN testing for 2024 have been revealed, with government schools in the metropolitan area – largely in the city’s south-east – forming the majority.
Parents can view their child’s school results on the My School website, after the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority released the latest data from 2024 testing on Wednesday.
The students at high-achieving schools showed above-average literacy and numeracy results when compared with others with a similar background. The list was provided by ACARA and is unranked.
Just three schools of the 20 listed were private with the remaining public schools. Just one school was located outside the metropolitan area – Baynton West Primary School in the state’s Pilbara region.
The Karratha school was also a finalist in the excellence in school leadership category at the 2024 WA Education Awards.
Results before 2023 cannot be directly compared to this year’s marks after the way NAPLAN was calculated changed, but the school has clearly improved significantly over time.
In 2017, the school was below or well below average in many testing areas.
Principal Lisa Ledger said Baynton West was not limited by its remote location, and part of its success could be attributed to a renewed focus on reducing workloads.
Teachers at the school work in teams to share expertise, plan lessons, and moderate assessments.
Teachers will also nominate themselves to trial new initiatives and provide feedback, before they are implemented across the whole school.
“Resourcing and coaching is then made available (on the new initiatives), and all staff are provided with extra time to support workload management, so-called the ‘power hour’,” Ledger said.
Charlie Jaques (left), Chianna Taylor, Sharnicqua Mills, Lisa Ledger, and Eric Yang from Baynton West Primary School.
One of those initiatives, which has now been running for eight years, is the Talk for Writing strategy. Ledger said writing had since become the school’s “superpower”.
“Our added sentence level and vocabulary component supports students achieve above both WA public school and the national mean in writing,” she said.
St Norbert College was the only Catholic school to make the top 20 list. Principal Sharon Rainford said she was “super proud” of the staff and students at the school.
Head of English and languages Corrina Markich said her team focused on intervention when gaps in knowledge were identified, targeting core skills and concepts necessary at each year level.
Head of mathematics Colette Miranda said NAPLAN data was a resource used to help the school’s teachers find those gaps.
“Teachers can choose to integrate 10-minute numeracy skill sessions into their lessons either at the start or end, at least three times a week, while continuing with the regular curriculum,” she said.
“We focus on students whose NAPLAN proficiency levels are identified as ‘developing’ or ‘needs additional support’.
“We also provide numeracy support in smaller groups.”
Miranda said the school ran a Term 4 bootcamp for incoming year 7 students, to address any mathematics gaps left after primary school.
Ryan and Neeva (year 7), Corrina Markich, Sharon Rainford, Colette Miranda, Amy (year 9) and Luke (year 7).
Across WA, schools in higher socioeconomic areas continued to perform well above the average when compared to all Australian students.
Shenton College was one, with its year 7 and year 9 cohorts performing well above average in all testing areas.
However, when compared to schools with students of a similar background, year 9 performed above average in all by spelling, but year 7 only performed above average in numeracy.
Harrisdale Senior High School exceeded students with a similar background in nine out of 10 categories, which principal Everal Eaton said reflected “the dedication and expertise of our well-experienced teachers, and the hard work of our students”.
“Our approach combines targeted use of student-specific data with high-impact teaching strategies to ensure the best possible outcomes for every learner,” she said.
Some schools, including Rossmoyne and Melville Senior High School, were high achievers when compared to both similar students and all Australian students.
ACARA chief executive Stephen Gniel said the My School website provided meaningful education performance data.
“We need to know how our schools are doing, but it is also important that this information is presented in a way that considers the individual circumstances of a school, especially its level of socio-educational advantage,” he said.
“This helps parents and carers understand the full value and quality of a school, inclusive of NAPLAN results within the broader context in which each school operates.”
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