Thursday, December 12, 2024

Issue:

Mackay and Whitsunday Life

Whitsunday Anglican School Secures Top 25 In NAPLAN Rankings

Recent NAPLAN results highlight Whitsunday Anglican School’s commitment to an exceptional education for students, after ranking as the top secondary regional School in Queensland.

Whitsunday Anglican School was featured in the top 25 NAPLAN rankings attaining 10th for Year 9 and 24th for Year 5. Principal Mr Andrew Wheaton said he believed that the school’s phenomenal outcomes were driven by Whitsunday’s exceptional teachers, who are committed to academic growth for every student, which is strongly grounded in evidence-based research and practice.

"We are truly dedicated to fostering academic growth through a focus on personalised learning that is realised through effort and continuous improvement—ensuring that every student has opportunities to make progress and reach their potential.

"Although we take pride in these results, the true heroes are our exceptional educators, who work tirelessly every day with our students—not only to achieve high levels of literacy and numeracy but also to apply these skills in critical and creative ways."

Mr Wheaton said the school invests in specialist teachers who are experts in their disciplinary field; and works diligently to develop partnerships with leading educational institutions to inform evidence-based decision-making.

Critical to this success is a strong culture of learning in the classroom.

“We have partnered with The University of Melbourne’s Graduate School of Education to research innovative learning environments that impact the way our teachers teach and develop deep learning.

“We’re also conscious that strong academic outcomes are balanced with a focus on the student’s emotional intelligence, and we proudly partner with Swinburne University to implement an evidence-based Emotional Intelligence (EI) programme for our students.

“Balance through cocurricular pursuits in the Arts, music and sport is also critical for ensuring that our students perform at their best.

“As a school we view NAPLAN holistically and do not see it as a sole indicator of performance by any means.

“However, it is a strong measure of the exceptional work being done in our classrooms to progress our students’ literacy and numeracy at Whitsunday Anglican School.”

Mr Wheaton added, “Our approach to learning is multifaceted where creativity and innovation were also fundamental to the school’s progress.

“Central to the School’s approach is an understanding that critical skills required for future success include creativity, curiosity, and innovation.

“We invite our students to develop a new way of thinking that is engaging, multifaceted and inclusive, with diversity of thought and global-mindedness.

“Critical thinking and problem-based learning is a real focus area, and we have captured this in the build of our new award-winning STEAM Centre, opened in late 2023.

“The STEAM Centre has been a tremendous vehicle to inspire our students with critical skills for the future and it is designed to link in with the region’s industry strengths in STEAM - Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Design, and Mathematics.

“From its inception, the school had the vision to design a cutting-edge, research driven educational building that will inspire innovative teaching and learning into the future,” Mr Wheaton said.

“At Whitsunday we are confident that our regional students receive world class educational
opportunities, and these NAPLAN results are further evidence of this.”

To determine how each school performed in 2024, the scores for all five test subjects for the student cohort (Yr 5 or Yr 9) were combined and the average found. Special schools, schools with fewer than 20 students enrolled, and schools that did not report any results for NAPLAN subjects were excluded from the analysis.

The figures were independently compiled from the Federal Government's MySchool website. Data was not collected for Western Australia.

Whitsunday Anglican School topped NAPLAN rankings as the leading regional school in Queensland, driven by exceptional teachers, personalised learning, and a strong academic culture. Photo credit: Whitsunday Anglican School

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