At St Paul's Primary School Woodridge, a tailored approach to supporting students in numeracy, literacy and test readiness has seen a significant improvement in NAPLAN results over the past three years.
With almost 70 per cent of students whose first language is not English, St Paul's approach is unique to its school community.
Introducing a school-wide Literacy and Numeracy scope and sequence
St Paul's Primary School Woodridge Principal, Helen Boyes said the development of clear scope and sequences for teachers has supported improved numeracy and literacy results at the school.
“The scope and sequences are being designed across all year levels, tailored to meet our goals and the unique needs of our students who are learning English and the curriculum at the same time," Helen said.
“Aligned to the Australian Curriculum, it gives our teachers a clear and detailed guide on what to teach and how to use evidence-based, explicit instructional methods."
The literacy scope and sequence allow teachers to better identify gaps in English fluency of the children and the foundational steps that must be met in order for them to succeed in later primary years.
“In literacy, three years in, the first cohort to benefit from an improved understanding of the English curriculum are the current Year 4 students who produced pleasing results in the 2024 NAPLAN Writing."
“In addition, the literacy early years scope and sequence developed in 2024 is already impacting the outcomes of current Year 2 students who are showing growth that we expect to translate to further improvement in NAPLAN in 2026 and beyond."
Focus on literacy development
St Paul's Primary Learning Leader, Susan Coyne said the school has also introduced a targeted focus on phonemic development, phonics, vocabulary development, reading and writing in Prep, working with support teachers and speech pathologists to build these skills.
“This foundational work has continued through each year level and we can see this contributing to the students becoming better speakers, readers and writers over the years."
While a holistic, tailored approach has improved academic outcomes at St Paul's, dedicated test preparation strategies are helping students more effectively engage with the NAPLAN test.
Test readiness strategies
St. Paul's has worked very hard to enable the students to be more assessment capable.
With many families without devices at home, the school has now embedded technology skills from Prep and provided more equitable access to devices across the school.
“Our students are now more test ready and have developed the digital skills necessary to compose online and meet the digital requirements of the tests," Susan said.
“Furthermore, now that our students can access the test more effectively and are set up for success, NAPLAN results are helping us to identify those students who are strong and exceeding, and who we can extend in the classroom."
Improved self-belief and pride
Helen said they were immensely proud of the whole school's effort to improve academic outcomes for their students.
“We are on a journey from good to great," Helen said.
“St Paul's has amazing teachers who love being here, have high expectations for the students and are helping them to really believe in themselves."
“We place no pressure on our students to achieve in NAPLAN, but we have seen such mindset growth where the students are invested and enthusiastic about having a go."