Principal's Message

The 2026 School Performance Report has now been released for Victorian Government schools. The report provides insight into the performance of schools across two key areas: Learning and Wellbeing.

The data that informs the report includes 2026 NAPLAN results, the 2026 Attitudes to School Survey, and 2025 Teacher Judgements, Senior Secondary results and attendance data.

Last year, I wrote about the transformation that was beginning to take shape at Brighton Secondary College, and that the first signs of positive change in a school are often reflected in how students feel about their school.

It is incredibly encouraging to see that this improvement has continued, whilst our students continue to achieve strong learning outcomes.

The 2026 report places Brighton Secondary College in the High performance group overall, with High performance in both Learning and Wellbeing. Our Learning performance has been maintained, whilst our Wellbeing performance has improved.

Overall LEARNING performance

Our Learning performance continues to be strong. In 2026, 86% of our Year 9 students achieved Strong or Exceeding in NAPLAN Numeracy, compared with 80% in similar schools. Our Reading and Numeracy relative growth measures also sit above similar schools.

Our 2025 Senior Secondary results further contribute to this strong performance, with a 99% VCE and VCE VM certificate completion rate and a mean VCE English study group score above similar schools.

Overall WELLBEING performance

Perhaps even more encouraging is the continued improvement in Wellbeing.

All five measures from the 2026 Attitudes to School Survey that contribute to our Wellbeing performance have been classified as High.

Across these measures, we have seen improvement in emotional awareness and regulation, managing bullying, school connectedness, stimulated learning, and student voice and agency.

Our Managing Bullying result has increased to 61% positive endorsement, compared with 54% for similar schools. Student Voice and Agency has increased to 52%, compared with 44% for similar schools. Both measures have improved by 7.1 percentage points compared with 2024.

These improvements are particularly important because they speak to how our students, in aggregate, are experiencing school.

There is still work to be done. Attendance and some measures of student learning growth remain areas for improvement, and our focus on strengthening the quality and consistency of classroom practice will continue.

However, what excites me most about this report is that we're seeing the next stage of the transformation that we spoke about last year. Our already strong learning outcomes are being maintained, whilst the way our students feel about their school continues to improve.

I want to acknowledge the work of our staff and students in contributing to this positive direction. School improvement takes time, and it requires persistence and consistency, but these results provide further evidence that we're moving in the right direction.

We have every reason to be confident that the future is bright.

Sincerely,

Peter Langham

Principal