These are the high performing NAPLAN schools in your area

One of Victoria’s fastest growing schools is also one of the state’s top performing in this year’s national testing.

Beverley Hills Primary School in Doncaster East had just 207 students in 2012, but has nearly quadrupled its enrolments since, with 811 children attending this year. Acting principal Elena Pitsiakkos says the surge in enrolments has been a direct result of the school being sought after given its high standards for academic achievement.

In this year’s NAPLAN test, taken by years 3 and 5 students, the school performed well above average for students of similar backgrounds across all five disciplines of writing, spelling, reading, grammar and numeracy.

Beverley Hills Primary School acting principal Elena Pitsiakkos with year 5 students Alina, Azlan, Clara, Quinton, Rahma, Morgan and Olivia. Credit: Paul Jeffers

More than 90 per cent of students at the school have a language background other than English, with many from Asian and Middle Eastern cultural backgrounds.

“There’s a huge proportion of students who speak an additional language – we are really fortunate for that because our community is so diverse, but it does bring challenges when you’re learning a second language, and that’s where our teaching has really proven itself,” Pitsiakkos said. “Everything we do is grounded in evidence.”

In 2019, for example, teachers at the school were early adopters of using a systematic synthetic phonics approach to teaching reading, which came into effect in all government schools this year.

“Team work and collaboration among staff have been a driving force behind our success,” Pitsiakkos said. “Our school is more than just learning to read and write, it’s about student wellbeing, too, and we do have a lot of fun.”

The Age analysed NAPLAN results to identify high-performing schools across nine different regions. The raw scores aren’t weighted for schools’ socio-educational status.

In Melbourne’s outer east, Templeton Primary School in Wantirna is also one of the area’s top performers, a school where 80 per cent of students come from a non-English-speaking background.

Principal Rod McKinlay said that with students coming from 24 different cultures, the school’s focus was connection and a clearly articulated vision.

“We’re all working in the one direction. We’re all clear about our goals, and we’ve got a great group of parents that really support us,” he said.

McKinlay said they’d worked hard to identify and target areas they wanted to improve and incorporated new programs like the accelerated reading program and Maths Invaders, while taking inspiration from top-ranking schools.

Select-entry government schools, Melbourne High School and Mac.Robertson Girls’ High in inner Melbourne, Suzanne Cory High in Melbourne’s west, and Nossal High in Melbourne’s south-east were top performers in each region.

Melbourne High School principal Tony Mordini said the four selective entry principals worked collaboratively and met almost fortnightly, shared data and talked about staff development.

“It’s not so much about the competition, but very much about collective responsibility for our task as educators in the public system,” he said.

“Young people in these high ability categories can also have a lot of anxiety. Sometimes they need that love and support to help them achieve the best because if you are quite capable, sometimes you can also be a bit shy, a bit awkward, and you know, you don’t want to make a mistake, so don’t put your hand up. So you’ve got to create a safe culture of learning where it’s okay to make a mistake.”

Melbourne High principal Tony Mordini.Credit: Justin McManus.

St Bernard’s School and Lauriston Girl’s School in inner Melbourne, Presbyterian Ladies College in Melbourne’s inner east, Kilvington Grammar School in the inner south, Ivanhoe Girls’ Grammar in the north-east and Penleigh Essendon Grammar in the north-west were among the top-ranked non-government schools for their regions.

Other government primary schools that were top performers include South Melbourne Primary School in inner Melbourne, Wheelers Hill Primary School in the south-east, Alamanda K-9 College in Point Cook, Viewbank College and Preston West Primary School in the north-east, Murrumbeena Primary School in the inner south, Strathmore North Primary in the north-west.

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Independent day and boarding school Ballarat Clarendon College continues to achieve in both VCE and NAPLAN results, and is among the top performers in regional Victoria, as is Coleraine Primary School, which is a stand-out government primary in Warrnambool and the south-west.

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