With NAPLAN writing results across Australia stalling or declining, a growing number of schools are bucking the trend by delivering gains well above state and national averages.
On Tuesday 17 March, a webinar by Writer’s Toolbox (WTB) in partnership with The Educator will hear from leaders behind these improvements, who will outline how a deliberate whole-school approach — including a shared language for teaching writing, consistent practice across year levels, and strong alignment between leadership, data and classroom practice — is helping build confident, self-directed writers.
Attendees will gain practical strategies to identify key shifts in high-growth schools and adapt proven approaches to accelerate writing outcomes in their own contexts.
‘Keep NAPLAN in perspective’
One of the speakers who will be sharing his insights in the webinar is Paul Mead, Australia Country Director for Writer’s Toolbox.
“NAPLAN continues to be a point in time test, from which schools can identify areas to target in particular students,” Mead told The Educator.
“Unfortunately, it is also used by parents to judge the effectiveness of a school, without taking into account other factors like student progress in particular subjects over time, academic improvements, social justice initiatives, socioemotional training and development for students, sporting and co-curricular activities, culture of the school, and so on.”
Mead said it’s important to keep NAPLAN results in perspective when weighing up a school’s overall performance and impact.
“These areas are of importance as well as strong results in a point in time series of tests.”
Making time for writing in a crowded curriculum
Another speaker on the webinar will be Carmel O’Brien, Principal of St Mary’s Catholic College in Kingaroy, Queensland.
The implementation of Writer’s Toolbox at the College has transformed writing outcomes for both students and staff across this rural P–12 community. Led by O’Brien, the initiative began with a carefully phased rollout targeting Years 2, 4, 6, and 8—key stages for measuring long-term impact.
O’Brien says a primary concern is that educators often don’t have time to prepare their students for NAPLAN.
“WTB can be specific focused and engage our students in teacher directed areas where students have need of support,” she said. “WTB is very good in supporting this for students, while empowering teachers to become better at their craft.”
At Aviation State High School in Queensland, students use WTB from Years 7 to 12, and it is mandated for assessment wherever applicable. Students also complete the Daily Challenge, at varying times across different terms, making the use of WTB both ubiquitous and self-directed.
The school’s Head of Humanities, Chris Cummings, said this sustained and schoolwide focus on writing leads to measurable improvement over the year and as students progress toward graduation.
“I have been at Aviation since 2019 and have used WTB throughout that time, taking over its coordination in 2022 as Writing Coordinator alongside my role as Humanities Head of Department.”
Building staff expertise and shared purpose
When asked how teachers and leaders can prepare for, and respond to, the challenges associated with NAPLAN, Mead pointed to the importance of explicitly teaching the craft of writing and ensuring students are confident with the demands of the test itself.
“NAPLAN is an area that educators need to engage and explicitly prepare students for the stye of assessment- being able to write clearly, concisely and with precision is an important skill here,” Mead said.
“Familiarity with the assessment type, time management strategies, feedback on practice tests, being able to write on demand are all important strategies to reinforce with students. Writer’s Toolbox explicitly teaches and reinforces such strategies.”
O’Brien said staff need to be explicitly taught to have the skills they need to teach writing and reading when they leave University.
“Deeper analysis is provided through WTB to assist student growth in their writing.”
Cummings said in his context, he has addressed NAPLAN challenges through school-wide, multi-disciplinary implementation based on data.
“This includes the training of staff so that everyone is an expert and knows the ‘why’ of what we do,” he said. “Additionally, there is no compromise for students or staff on doing WTB – challenges, use in assessment, use across their subjects.”
Cummings said consistency and collective ownership had been key to ensuring the approach stuck.
“Implementation was sustained, year after year – meaning it became part of the school culture.”
A culture shift beyond test scores
When asked what teachers and leaders will learn from attending his session, Mead said they’ll take away a clear sense of how to build consistent writing habits across the school.
“The importance of routines, of having a cross-curricular writing program so that there is a sequential, developmentally appropriate program with the common language that all students understand and that is common across the college, how WTB can address these aspects.”
O’Brien said attendees watching her talk will gain a deeper understanding of why it’s important to have programs such as WTB to use as a teacher directed platform to use in their classroom.
“They will feel less isolated as there will be another teacher in the classroom,” she said. The classroom teacher can cater for the needs of each student and their individual needs. It is personalised, contextually based and differentiates between individual students.”
Mead said WTB provides a comprehensive program to address writing needs of students across a college.
“It is a powerful tool that allows teachers the confidence to teach writing to students with appropriate differentiation, explicit instruction and an online program that is engaging, instructive and powerful for students.”
O’Brien said that WTB has provided a way in for teachers, PTT or ECT or even teachers working out of their areas with a skill set and a confidence to translate into student success.
“This is significantly important for remote or rural schools and teachers. It is an empowering tool for teachers to use in the classroom.”
Cummings said the impact of WTB in the classroom has been significant.
“NAPLAN scores increased dramatically from year 7 to 9 for the same cohort of students, while upper 2 bands [A-B] percentage of students increased year on year,” he said.
“Student confidence and willingness to write and put down words on a page and share increases as they progress year to year.”
Cummings said the results speak not only to improved data, but to a deeper shift in how students see themselves as writers.
“Students can explain and cross-examine the value of using the WTB skills in their writing, applying these lessons when drafting or completing assessment.”
Register for the webinar here.