In 2024, St Catherine’s School has again obtained exceptional NAPLAN results.  

In every test, in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 students have achieved strong NAPLAN results.  

Our strengths across the School are seen in our Reading, Writing and Numeracy results. These NAPLAN results reflect our academic care approach to learning, through our teaching frameworks, and individualised learning pathways for all students. 

NAPLAN Online is now a tailored (or adaptive) test, in which the test individually presents questions of higher or lower complexity depending on a student’s performance as they complete the test. It is important to note, NAPLAN provides parents with a snapshot of your daughter’s performance at a single point and, as such, provides a simple but worthwhile measure of information.    

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 four 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. 

Years 3 and 5 NAPLAN Results

We are happy to report students in NAPLAN testing Years 3 and 5 achieved very well this year, during the testing in March. As you will recall, the tests were brought forward to March from May, and as such, the results are more reflective of the girls’ learning in Years 2, 4, 6 and 8 given the early Term 1 testing period. 

Across all Year levels tested, the girls achieved highly across the top two band ratings: Strong and Exceeding. The percentage of girls scoring in these two bands is shown in the table below. 

Students in both Year 3 and Year 5 achieved highly in this year’s NAPLAN assessments. The Year 3 results showed 92.9% of students achieved in the Strong and Exceeding proficiency levels across all assessment areas, while in Year 5, 87.7% achieved at these levels as well. 

When considering the three key learning areas, Year 3 achieved an average of 94.56% and Year 5 achieved an average 90.3% respectively.   

Years 7 and 9 NAPLAN Results

It was really pleasing to see strong achievement in both Years 7 and 9 NAPLAN results.  

• At Year 7 across all tests 90% or more of students achieved in the Exceeding and Strong proficiency levels.  

• At Year 9 across all tests 80% or more of students achieved in the Exceeding and Strong proficiency levels.  

Of note are the consistent results at the School for Reading, Writing and Numeracy.  

• In Year 9 Numeracy – 93.2% of students achieved in the Exceeding and Strong levels.  

Students in our Year 9 Cohort also received NAPLAN Certificates for Exceeding in one or two of the tests. Of note: 

• 52% of Year 9 students were awarded a NAPLAN Certificate for Exceeding Standards in 2024 

Fifteen of these students were at St Catherine’s in Barbreck, our Junior School – a strong testament to the wonderful teaching and individualised programs that our students engage with in Junior School.   

These results are a testament to the skilled teaching of our staff across all Year levels and the work and enthusiasm of our students. Our high NAPLAN scores support our view that St Catherine’s academic program, the methodology of how we teach, and the diagnostic assessment tasks we set within our School, are of the highest standards.  

We look forward to continuing to work in partnership with all parents in their daughter’s learning journey at St Catherine’s.