Students from 49 Northern schools converged on Prospect High School for the award ceremony. 

Those students were rewarded for being in the top 1 per cent, top of their school or sometimes both. 

Education deputy secretary Trudy Pearce said it was a wonderful and outstanding achievement.  

“It’s great to have the students’ support teams here too, the mums and dads, family and friends. Undoubtedly you've read a few home readers throughout the years,” she said.

Ms Pearce recognised the importance of good learning. 

“As a priority, working to improve literacy and numerous outcomes has been undertaken in all our schools, as literacy and numeracy are critical building blocks on which all learning areas depend,” she said. 

“Literacy and numeracy are found skills for life, work and learning. They provide every child, young persons, and adults with the best opportunity to succeed and contribute to the community.” 

Education Minister Jeremy Rockliff presented the awards and said it was important to celebrate high achieving students.  

“We are all aware of how important it is that our young people develop effective literacy and numeracy skills,” he said.

“Success in these areas equip our young people with the necessary tools to fully participate and engage in learning and life.”

He said the awards also acknowledged the hard work that goes on behind the scenes. 

“Our young people of today are indeed the leaders of tomorrow,” he said. 

“We know that achieving great academic results may open up a world of opportunities both at school and of course after school.” 

More than 275 students received high achievement awards from across the state. 

The government hopes to be at, or above, the national standard in every NAPLAN measurement by 2020, but Mr Rockliff said there was still work to do.