Matthew Flinders Anglican College has topped the Sunshine Coast region in the 2021 National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN).
The Courier Mail's analysis of the region’s 2021 NAPLAN results revealed that Flinders achieved the number one ranking for both primary and secondary schools on the Sunshine Coast.
And in Queensland, the Flinders Primary School ranked 15th for its average overall score of 1027.2, with its Year 3 cohort ranking 12th.
The Flinders Secondary School also achieved strong results, ranking 28th in Queensland for its total average score of 1195, with the Year 7 cohort ranking 22nd.
And mean scale scores (cohort average) show that Flinders students performed better than the nation in all domains and all year levels.
The NAPLAN provides a national, consistent measure of students across Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 on their fundamental literacy and numeracy skills in the domains of Reading, Writing, Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar, and Numeracy.
Flinders Primary School Results
- Flinders Primary ranked 15th in Queensland for its average overall score
- Flinders Year 3 cohort ranked 12th in Queensland for its average overall score
- Compared to schools across the nation, Flinders Year 3 students performed 8% - 16% higher across the domains than the national average
- In Queensland, Flinders’ Year 3 students achieved 19% higher than the state average in Reading and Numeracy
- Flinders' Year 5 cohort of 2021 also showed significantly higher rates of growth over the two years from Year 3 to Year 5 compared to students across Australia, at 21% greater than the nation’s average growth.
Flinders Head of Primary, Mrs Trudi Edwards said, “This high level result is due to our investment in teacher professional development. We also prioritise a whole-school approach to literacy and numeracy teaching in the early years at Flinders.”
Secondary School Results
- Flinders Secondary School also achieved strong results, ranking 28th in Queensland for its total average score
- Flinders Year 7 cohort ranked 22nd in Queensland for its total average score
- Compared to schools across the nation, the Flinders Year 7 and Year 9 results were consistently 5% to 9% higher than the average score
- Flinders Year 7 students of 2021 also showed significantly higher rates of growth over the two years from Year 5 to Year 7 compared to students across Australia, at 7% greater than the nation’s average growth.
From the Principal
Flinders Principal Stuart Meade said NAPLAN was a good way for the school to see the progress of students’ literacy and numeracy skills.
“We appreciate that the NAPLAN is only one measure among a number of measures we use to constantly review and refine our curriculum and our teaching and learning programs,” Mr Meade said.
“It highlights the exceptional quality of our teachers, the high level of engagement of our students and the benefits of our strong commitment to using research to inform our teaching,” he said.
Mr Meade said while the school does not ‘teach to the test’, it’s encouraging to see students are “attaining high levels of literacy and numeracy”.
“We also know that we must ensure that creativity and innovation are always present, and that developing our students as people of strong moral character who display curiosity, creativity and entrepreneurial dispositions is equally important,” he said.
To learn more about Flinders' Academic Results, please visit here.
Image caption: Flinders Head of Senior Primary, Mrs Ingrid Clark with Year 4 students who sat the NAPLAN last year in Year 3
