2025 NAPLAN

Last week, we received the highly anticipated NAPLAN results for our Year 3 and Year 5 students. Once again, St Joseph’s students performed exceptionally well, with the majority achieving in the ‘strong’ and ‘exceeding’ categories and only a small number in the ‘developing’ range across various strands.

Our students excelled in both Literacy and Numeracy, with this year’s Numeracy results standing out as particularly impressive, showing significant growth across the board.

For further insight into 2025 NAPLAN results, you may find the recent article in The Age by Noel Towell, titled “Victorian kids the bright sparks as NAPLAN fails to shine” (July 30, 2025), an interesting read.

The article states:

“The results of tests sat by more than 1.3 million children around the nation in March show nearly 33 per cent are either 'in need of additional support' or 'developing', on average, across reading and writing.

Despite the underwhelming national picture, Victorian students recorded either the best or second-best results in the country in 18 of the 20 categories reported, in what the state government describes as the “best ever” NAPLAN performance by local students.

Victoria also recorded fewer students struggling across all subjects and age groups, with less than 28 per cent of the state’s children needing additional support or “developing”, compared with a national average of almost 33 per cent.

The state government said the improvement was a direct result of its push towards an explicit instruction approach to teaching maths and literacy, but a leading expert said Victoria could and should be doing better.

Education Minister Ben Carroll said there was a direct line between the Victorian government’s high-profile push for explicit learning and the improved results.

“The credit goes mostly to our hardworking teachers because, at the end of the day, pedagogy is the single most important lever we have in uplifting standards,” Carroll said. “So, explicit instruction is now mandated in Victorian teaching and learning models that I have launched, and that is what is occurring.

Principal Dave Warren said the Meadow Heights school had been using explicit teaching and evidence-based learning long before it was mandated by the government, leading to standout results by the school’s year 3s and year 5s in reading, writing and numeracy.’

St Joseph’s strong NAPLAN results are a reflection of several factors:

Our students' hard work and dedication
Our strong, explicit teaching pedagogy from Prep to Year 6, which has been embedded since 2018 and is ongoing
The passion and openness of our teaching staff, who continually strive to develop their professional expertise in areas such as The Science of Learning, cognitive load theory, explicit and direct instruction, high-impact teaching strategies and engagement norms.

NAPLAN 2025 results

Here is a snapshot of St Joseph’s 2025 results:

The following tables compare the school's mean to the state mean.

Year 3 2025	St Joseph’s mean score	State mean score
Numeracy	483	405
Reading	466	402
Writing	461	413
Spelling	459	405
Grammar/Punctuation	482	408

Year 5 2025	St Joseph’s mean score	State mean score
Numeracy	568	491
Reading	513	491
Writing	540	479
Spelling	511	487
Grammar/Punctuation	547	497

Student achievement in NAPLAN is reported using proficiency standards for each assessment area at each year level. The standards are set at a challenging but reasonable expectation of what students know and can do at the time of testing. There are 4 proficiency levels:

Exceeding: the student’s result exceeds expectations at the time of testing.
Strong: the student’s result meets challenging but reasonable expectations at the time of testing.
Developing: the student’s result indicates that they are working towards expectations at the time of testing.
Needs additional support: the student’s result indicates that they are not achieving the learning outcomes that are expected at the time of testing. They are likely to need additional support to progress satisfactorily.

NAPLAN - Proportion of St Joseph’s students meeting the proficient standards
Domain	Year level	Mean Scale score	Proficient- Exceeding/Strong
Numeracy	Year 3	483	95%
	Year 5	568	87%
Reading	Year 3	466	95%
	Year 5	513	87%
Writing	Year 3	461	83%
	Year 5	540	87%
Spelling	Year 3	459	83%
	Year 5	511	62%
Grammar & Punctuation	Year 3	482	83%
	Year 5	547	87%

St Joseph’s remains fully committed to fostering a culture of high expectations and continuous improvement. We have embedded rigorous, evidence-informed teaching practices that challenge both students and staff to strive for ambitious growth. Our staff work collaboratively, using data, feedback, research, and shared responsibility to drive strong academic outcomes across the school.

We look forward to continuing our partnership with you to ensure your child receives an excellent education.

Amanda Jackson

Structured Literacy Leader

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