ACARA has given schools the opportunity to review their literacy and numeracy scores. How did your school perform?
The My School website last night released data revealing the nation’s top performing schools in literacy and numeracy. Up to 300 public and private schools were shown to have achieved above-average gains in NAPLAN scores compared to similar schools.
One of the top performers, Beauty Point Public School in Mosman, achieved significant gains in its students’ numeracy scores. Its principal, Shanti Clements, put the results down to her school’s integrated professional learning program.
“Our school piloted the NSW Department of Education and Communities’ (DEC) New School Plan, which integrates a strategic approach to aligning professional learning to drive real school improvement,” Clements told The Educator.
“Of course we have built upon the hands-on, real-world constructivist approach for mathematics as well as literacy, however I think that if all these things are compartmentalised then you don’t have a clear line of sight to the overall vision of the school.”
Clements said that the New School Plan was “an excellent vehicle” for her school to drive transformation and improvement, adding that it was helped along by Beauty Point’s “exceptional students”.
“We had exceptional students to begin with. We’re very lucky to have such dedicated teachers, students and the New School Plan developed by the director of High Performance, Eric Jameson,” Clements said.
ACARA revealed the nation’s “high gain” schools, which were chosen based on methodology focusing on three standards: large overall gain, gain compared to schools with similar groups of students and gain compared to students at similar NAPLAN start points.
Below is a list of some of the nation’s schools which achieved high gain in both literacy and numeracy.
Kensington Public School (NSW), Maribyrnong Primary (ACT), Wandong Primary School (VIC), Greenslopes State School (QLD), Sunrise Christian School (SA), Woodthorpe School (WA) and Goulburn Street Primary School (TAS).
Barry McGaw, ACARA chairman, said this year's My School data includes "a set of quality data that schools, teachers, parents and the wider community can use to help ensure that every child in every classroom receives a high quality education".
"My School allows for comparisons of results from schools with students from similar socio-educational backgrounds using the Index of Community and Socio-Educational Advantage (ICSEA) scale," McGaw said.