YEAR 5 pupils at Plenty Parklands Primary School are Whittlesea’s best-performing students, according to 2012 NAPLAN test results.
Pupils from the Mill Park school were the only group out of 20 Whittlesea state primary schools to score an average of more than 500 points.
NAPLAN is the National Assessment Program in Literacy and Numeracy, co-ordinated by the Standing Council on School Education and Early Childhood. It is a compulsory annual assessment for students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 which tests reading, writing, spelling, grammar and punctuation, and numeracy.
Plenty Parklands’ grade 5 class scored an average of 503.2 across all disciplines. The average score for year 5 pupils in Whittlesea in 2012 was 480.6. Lalor East had the municipality’s worst performing grade 5 pupils with an average of 451.8.
But Epping Primary School assistant principal Ed Heskett said his school did not place a heavy emphasis on the outcome of the test. “You can’t ignore it, but you don’t want to give it too much credence,” he said.
The only information the school used from the NAPLAN results was longitudinal data – for example, data from a five-year trend.
Mr Heskett said it only took something small to change the outcome of the NAPLAN. He said the school experienced a spike in 2009 because of two “exceptional students”.
“Success that year was attributed to two brothers,” he said.
Mr Heskett said that indicated how fickle the test was.
Test scores and other information about Australian schools is available at myschool.edu.au.
