By Renee Wood
Chum Creek Primary School has been ranked the second most improved school with their NAPLAN results over the past five years.
Principal Michael Corr said it’s wonderful for the school and children to receive the acknowledgment.
“We were pleasantly surprised, it just goes to show that a little school can compete,” Mr Corr said.
The school lifted its scores by 22.77 per cent over the past five years.
“We work really hard to try and provide the best we can for the kids and I think this just goes to show that our guys can compete with any other school in the state, so I’m very happy.”
Mr Corr said the school focuses on a holistic approach and preparing for NAPLAN isn’t a huge focus prior to the testing.
“We try to treat NAPLAN and most testing very low key, because we find that kids respond better to that. We don’t like the idea that kids might be feeling threatened or concerned.
“We try very much for the kids not to feel like they’re a failure and they can do as well as they want to and we just encourage them to do the best they can.”
The data has been accumulated over a five year period reflecting on the students’ results since 2017.
School captain Declan said he enjoyed doing the NAPLAN testing last year and found the questions were ‘easy’.
“The questions, I just knew the answer to everything,” Declan said.
The grade six student said it was good to hear of the school’s overall result and improvement.
“That’s good…you want to improve and if you’re improving the most then that’s good.”
In a school of 52 students, the results prove that small schools like Chum Creek stand up equally against others.
“This just shows that our guys can compete equally, no matter the size of the school – equally or even better,” Mr Corr said.
“It’s very hard to get people to say whether you’re doing the right thing or the wrong thing and this is something that shows we’re hopefully doing the right thing.”
Coldstream Primary School also saw a great improvement over the past five years, being ranked fourth in the state for most improved.
The school’s five year percentage change was 18.70 per cent.
Principal Phillippa Adgemis said she was proud of the year five cohort.
“Our year five cohort had the best growth for the entire state, including public, Catholic and private schools. That group did much better in their growth than any other school. I’m incredibly proud,” Ms Adgemis said.
