Celebrating Strong 2026 NAPLAN Results
Every year, NAPLAN offers a snapshot, one moment among many that shows how our students are growing as learners. This year, that snapshot tells an encouraging story, one that reflects both the effort of our students and the expertise and commitment of our teachers.
Across Years 3, 5, 7 and 9, we can be proud of an impressive overall NAPLAN profile. In 2026, approximately 85% of student results landed within the Strong or Exceeding achievement bands, continuing a pattern of consistent improvement across recent years. Importantly, the proportion of students achieving in the Exceeding band has also grown, rising from 28.9% in 2024 to 33.5% in 2026. It's a result that speaks to more than strong performance overall, more of our students are now reaching the highest level of achievement.
Writing: A Standout Two Years
Writing has shown significant improvement across the School, with the average mean score rising from 544.5 to 560.0 over the last two years, and the proportion of students in the Strong and Exceeding bands climbing to 90.4%.
Year 5 Writing was a particular highlight, with the mean score increasing from 512 in 2024 to 553 in 2026, and 95.9% of students now achieving in the Strong or Exceeding bands.
A Steady, Sustained Lift in Numeracy
We are equally pleased by the steady lift in Numeracy across the School — from an average mean score of 536.0 in 2024 to 558.8 in 2026, with Strong and Exceeding results rising from 83.4% to 88.8%. The improvement is evident across multiple year levels, reflecting a consistent, long-term focus on strengthening mathematical understanding, fluency and confidence.
What's Behind the Numbers
In the Junior School, this has included the implementation and refinement of evidence-informed approaches such as Little Learners Love Literacy and The Writing Revolution, part of our broader work to strengthen writing instruction, sentence-level precision, vocabulary development and disciplinary literacy. In the Senior School, significant investment has been made in targeted literacy testing and intervention, utilising evidence-based programs such as MacqLit and Reinforced Reading. Our Learning Services team has been very much at the forefront of comprehensive data collection and analysis in ensuring that the specific needs of each student are understood and tracked.
We warmly congratulate our students on these achievements. NAPLAN is only one measure of learning, but it offers a useful external reference point, helping us evaluate the impact of our programs over time. The 2026 results affirm that the School's sustained focus is generating clear evidence of improvement particularly in Writing, Numeracy, and the growing proportion of students achieving at the highest levels.
Where We're Looking Next
High-quality schools keep looking closely at the data, even when the overall picture is strong. Our analysis has highlighted opportunities to further strengthen aspects of Literacy, particularly Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation across the early and middle years.
The 2026 NAPLAN results affirm the direction of our work and the strength of our teaching culture. We are proud of our students, grateful to our teachers, and confident that the foundations now in place will continue to support excellent learning outcomes for every student.
St Michael’s is one of Australia’s leading independent coeducational schools, educating more than 1200 students from Kindergarten to VCE. We acknowledge the Boonwurrung People of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which St Michael’s stands. We pay respect to their ancestors, elders and emerging leaders, and we are committed to reconciliation through authentic relationships and continued cultural learning.
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