The school was one of five in the state’s North recently commended by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority for making “substantially above average” improvements in their NAPLAN scores over the past year. 

Punchbowl principal of nine years Elizabeth O’Donahue has been at the school almost every year since NAPLAN was first introduced in 2008. 

She said the latest scores were the result of “a lot of hard work” and a holistic learning approach.

“The key message I think is that we have worked really hard for it,” she said. 

“We want to make this a great school.

“That has been the key language we have used with staff, on how to get kids to aspire to do better. 

“I think if we have those high expectations, then the students will rise to achieve it.

“We have been working really closely with research and what the data is telling us. 

“Then working with the data and the best practice to plan.”

With 345 students, Ms O’Donahue said the school had received positive NAPLAN results in the past, but had intensified its focus on the data during the last two years. 

By implementing a whole school approach to literacy, she said they were able to better engage with each individual students progress. 

“The biggest area that we have been focusing on is reading,” she said.

“The research shows that if you have a huge push in reading then you will find that will lift everything and we have definitely seen that.

“If students can read well, than they understand more about the spelling and the place of the words.

“We have put in place different models and we are being really explicit about what we are teaching and they know what they need to do to be successful at it.

“It’s not just about them doing the work, but more about understanding why and how.

“I am really excited about the next two years and I think we will see even better results.”