Principal's Message

Somewhere in a Year 3 classroom this year, a child sat down to a reading test on what felt to her like an ordinary Tuesday. She liked the passage. She finished, handed it in, and went back to whatever seven-year-olds go back to. Months later, when the results came through, that morning turned out to be part of the strongest Year 3 reading result in the history of our school. She still doesn't know that. She just liked the story.

I find that worth holding onto, because it's easy to talk about NAPLAN as numbers and forget that every number is a child on an ordinary morning, doing their best.

The results are very good. Year 3 reading is the strongest we have ever recorded. Year 5 numeracy is the strongest we have ever recorded. Our Year 7 and Year 9 students continue to read and write well above the state, and Year 9 numeracy has climbed every single year.

There's one pattern in particular I want to point to. Our children get stronger the longer they're with us. Our Year 9 students are performing above every year group beneath them, which is what you'd hope to see if good teaching is doing its quiet work, year after year, on the same child. It tells us this isn't one lucky cohort. It's what happens over time.

And here is the part I most want you to hear. These results are not the product of one clever program, one strong cohort or one good year. They are the slow return on something far less glamorous: years of our teachers getting better, together, at the daily craft of teaching. Clear explanations. Showing students how before asking them to do it alone. Checking, constantly, whether the class has actually understood, and changing course when they haven't. High expectations held steady, with the support to meet them. None of that makes headlines. All of it makes the difference.

What pleases me most is where the improvement is happening. It isn't concentrated at one end. We have students who needed extra help this year, and fewer of them need it now, because the support is working. We have students who have lifted out of the middle and into strong achievement. And we have students at the very top whom we've pushed further still. One of our Year 3 students achieved the highest possible band across every domain. Several of our Year 9 students did the same across reading, numeracy, grammar and spelling. Stretching the most capable while lifting those who struggle, at the same time, is the hardest thing a school can try to do, and this year we managed both.

That is the commitment underneath all of this. Whether your child needs a steadying hand or a much harder push, our job is the same: to help them flourish. Not the same path for every child. The same care for every child.

So this is mostly a thank you. To our students, who turned up and had a real go. To our teachers and learning support staff, who do the patient, unglamorous work these results are built on. And to you, our families, who send us your children every morning and trust us with them and work with them at home, encourage and challenge them.  This is the three way partnership between students, teachers and parents.

There is more work ahead, as there always is. But this week, we're letting ourselves be quietly proud. Thank you for being part of it.