The results of raising expectations and explicit Instruction
Explicit instruction is simple in principle and powerful in practice. Teachers name the skill being learned, model it clearly in front of students, and build regular routines that give students repeated, guided practice until a skill is embedded rather than merely encountered. Over the past three years this approach has been woven into every year level, and our 2026 NAPLAN results show what that consistency can achieve. This year in particular, staff have had a shared plan to apply these practices in order to improve their grammar and number fluency.
The RAISE model in every classroom
Behind these results sits our RAISE model, which shapes what teaching and learning looks like in every classroom at St Mary's. We start from the belief that all students are inherently seeking understanding, the S in RAISE, and our teachers meet that curiosity with clear explanation, careful modelling and scaffolding that gradually hands responsibility to the student as their skill and confidence grow. Understanding is checked regularly throughout a lesson rather than only at the end, so that any gap is caught and addressed while it is still small and easy to close. Just as important is the R in RAISE, students are ready to learn. Calm, constructive classrooms give every student the settled, focused environment they need to engage fully with this teaching, free from the distractions that make learning harder. It is this combination, students supported to seek real understanding and classrooms where they are ready to do so, that turns good teaching into results like these.
I want to highlight a couple of affirming results that we are very proud of:
Grammar shines in Year 7
Grammar and Punctuation is now the strongest domain for our Year 7 cohort, with 70 per cent of students achieving a Strong or Exceeding result. It is a fantastic reflection of the explicit grammar routines our teachers have embedded from the very first weeks of secondary school, giving our youngest students a real and early advantage. The skills, knowledge and habits that come from these interventions will support these students well into the future and results in improvements across a wide range of learning domains for years to come.
Number fluency builds from Year 7 to Year 9
Numeracy is where the impact of sustained, explicit teaching is clearest of all. Our Year 7 students already show excellent number fluency, with 74 per cent achieving a Strong or Exceeding result. By the time these same explicit teaching routines have carried through to Year 9, an outstanding 72 per cent of students are achieving Strong or Exceeding results, with the proportion of students Exceeding more than doubling along the way. This is exactly the kind of growth we hope to see when clear modelling and regular, embedded practice are given time to take hold.
These results are a wonderful credit to our students, who have brought focus and effort to every lesson, and to our teaching staff, whose consistency in modelling, routine and explicit teaching across three years is now showing up so clearly in the data. Thank you also to our families, whose encouragement at home has supported this work every step of the way.