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Principals at the Victorian schools that received top marks in this year’s NAPLAN test for reading, writing and numeracy have credited the rapport between students and staff for their excellent results – regardless of the size of the school.
St Bernard’s School principal Julie Di Noto with students Hugo Stacey, Rose Boardman and JJ Pisani. Credit: Justin McManus
According to analysis of this year’s results by The Age, one of the state’s top-performing primary schools is in the city’s north.
The new principle of St Bernard’s School in Coburg, Julie Di Noto, said the school’s small size was one of its secrets of success. The Catholic co-educational primary school has just over 150 students.
“Our school motto is ‘where every child is known’, so it definitely feels like a shared responsibility across the school to provide the best possible outcomes and education for the kids,” she said.
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Di Noto started at the school this term and said the strong relationships between teachers and pupils stood out to her.
In addition to the Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools’ 2024 introduction of the explicit teaching model, it was one reason she believed the school had standout results.
“The students feel like it’s a safe place to learn,” she said.
“The classroom is a non-threatening space where they can have a go, make mistakes and learn from them.”
The school’s well-resourced library also helped foster a love of reading, she said.
“It’s one of the best libraries I’ve seen in a primary school for a very long time. The teachers take the children to the library, and they have that opportunity to borrow the books and have some reading time there.”
The experienced specialist teachers also helped ensure students’ success.
Other schools that achieved marks above average across multiple categories included government schools Oakleigh South Primary School, Wheelers Hill Primary School and Strathewen Primary School.
Students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 sat the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) test in March.
Results of the annual assessment of students’ reading, writing, spelling, grammar and numeracy skills provide schools with a benchmark for assessing their students’ performance over time and against national standards.
The scale of East Doncaster Secondary College, which has more than 2200 students, may dwarf St Bernard’s, but the winning approach is the same.
Principal Karen Boyle said staff-student relationships had proved key to the school’s performance in this year’s NAPLAN results, which has placed it among the state’s best for reading, writing and numeracy.
“It’s not just about curriculum and learning; it’s about relationships between students and staff,” she said.
Boyle said simple things such as staff greeting students in the morning or checking in on them if they were away built a sense of trust, making students comfortable to come to teachers for help.
Boyle also pointed to the school’s literacy framework, introduced four years ago.
East Doncaster Secondary College principal Karen Boyle with students Ryan Thomas, Alice Davine, Aethon Konstas and Chloe Chang.Credit: Wayne Taylor
Regardless of the subject being taught, be it science or commerce, teachers use the same terminology.
This approach, she said, gave students an easy access point to the curriculum and confidence in what they were being asked to do. There was also the bonus of boosting students’ writing skills.
“Every teacher is a teacher of literacy, not just the English teacher,” Boyle said.
“So if the science teacher is asking students to write a body paragraph, they are using the same language as in English or commerce subjects.”
The star Victorian secondary schools this year were the select-entry Melbourne High School and Mac.Robertson Girls’ High School, according to The Age’s analysis of NAPLAN results.
Other government schools to make the grade included Glen Waverley Secondary College and Balwyn High School.
Among the best schools with combined primary and high school cohorts were government select entry schools Nossal High School and Suzanne Cory High School, while seasoned performers Ballarat Clarendon College and Haileybury College were the standouts among the independent school sector.
Schools on the list are in alphabetical order and not ranked in order of achievement because the results reflect raw test data and are not weighted for schools’ socio-educational status.
The 2025 NAPLAN results have been published on the My School website, along with information on each school’s profile, population and attendance levels.
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