Stand out results begin with student wellbeing

by Nicholas Duck
Warragul Primary School staff and students are beaming with pride following standout results in this year's NAPLAN assessments.
The school, which has about 270 students, returned a number of results last week well above the average compared to schools in their network, the local area and southeast Victoria as a.
NAPLAN puts grade three and five students to the test in a range of areas, including reading, writing, spelling, numeracy and grammar and punctuation, with Warragul Primary School punching well above their weight in most areas.
In particular, the school's relative growth - the improvement students showed from their year three NAPLAN tests compared to their year five - left the local averages in the dust.
In reading, the school had 81 per cent of students showing growth at a medium or high level, compared to the regional average of 74.
"That growth doesn't just refer to a certain cohort of kids, it refers to all kids across that level," principal Scott Clode explained.
"Whether they're kids already at or above the average level, but also kids below that level. Whether they're below or above, they're actually showing high or medium growth in their learning."
The school also registered a low percentage of students requiring additional support for their learning. For example, the average percentage of grade threes requiring support in schools across Warragul Primary's network is 18 per cent, while theirs is just five.
"Our percentages were really low there compared to schools across Victoria which is great," Mr Clode said.
The school's approach to wellbeing has laid the groundwork for the results, according to Mr Clode.
"It's not all just about learning. You have to set up a real calm and orderly school, and an engaged and positive classroom. We've done a lot of work in that space, which is more your wellbeing approach, and then that leads into hopefully positive learning."
A focus on things like explicit teaching, where teachers demonstrate a new skill or concept, have students collaborate to figure it out, then allow them to demonstrate it by themselves, had paid dividends.
Mr Clode also credited the school's hiring of a learning specialist who handles curriculum documentation for the improvement in areas like year three numeracy.
"The teachers can really focus on their teaching, which is really important."
Now the school is reaping the rewards for their hard work.
"It's great recognition and it's great to pass it on to the staff and then pass it on to the school community. The staff see that all the hard work that they're doing, it's actually achieving a positive outcome and it's worth it.
"They were rapt. To see those sort of results you could see they're proud that what we're doing is working."