Matthew Flinders Anglican College has recorded its highest-ever NAPLAN writing results for the third consecutive year, defying a national trend showing Australian children’s writing skills have reached an all-time low.
The Sunshine Coast school’s 2025 NAPLAN results revealed Year 7 and Year 9 students achieved their best scores across all four literacy domains since online testing began in 2023. Year 9 students scored 11.15% above the Queensland average in writing, while Year 7 students exceeded the state benchmark by 15.6%.
These achievements come as the Australian Education Research Organisation reported on June 26 that many Year 9 students across Australia were writing at primary-school level, based on analysis of 10 years of NAPLAN data.
The college’s overall 2025 results showed students exceeded state averages by 6% to 25% across all five NAPLAN domains. The strongest performance came from Year 3 students, who surpassed the state average in grammar and punctuation by 25%.
Science of Learning framework
Principal Michelle Carroll attributed the results to the school’s teaching and learning framework, which incorporates Science of Learning principles through explicit teaching methods.
“We use NAPLAN and other assessment data to constantly review, refine, and innovate our curriculum programs and further develop our staff expertise,” Carroll said.
“The college’s outstanding NAPLAN results highlight our dedication to mastery, underpinned by our recently introduced Flinders Teaching and Learning Framework. This bespoke framework embeds Science of Learning principles through a deliberate focus on a common language of learning and an explicit teaching model to develop students’ literacy and numeracy skills.”
The college’s approach centres on structured, low-variance lessons designed to support learning retention and skill development. Teachers receive ongoing professional development to ensure classroom practices focus on deep learning, engagement, and wellbeing.
Head of curriculum Bill Hooper said evidence-based literacy programs provided structured teaching approaches and common instruction language across the school.
“In our Secondary School English programs, our teachers explicitly teach vocabulary and grammar, and draw on techniques from Scarborough’s Reading Rope and Hochman’s The Writing Revolution program to elevate proficiency in literacy. These approaches are increasingly being adopted by subjects across the curriculum,” Hooper said.
According to Hooper, primary students receive support through literacy mastery lessons, adaptive learning programs with small group instruction, and a writing framework developed with English specialists and Science of Learning expert Jocelyn Seamer.
The college hosted the 2025 Science of Learning Conference in April, featuring speakers including AERO’s Zid Mancenido, Dr Jared Cooney Horvath, and Dr Nathaniel Swain. The event attracted over 450 educators seeking evidence-based strategies to improve student outcomes.
NAPLAN assesses students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 across five domains: Reading, Writing, Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar, and Numeracy. The annual assessment measures fundamental literacy and numeracy skills nationwide.