St. Joseph’s Catholic School in Cloncurry achieved outstanding NAPLAN results through a profound academic transformation.
During his years as Deputy Principal, Dean Kelley championed a school-wide commitment to systematic writing instruction using the educational AI program, Writer’s Toolbox, transforming the school’s trajectory in just three years.
The 2025 NAPLAN results saw St Joseph’s students soar to scores comparable to elite Australian schools, beating every state benchmark and creating new opportunities for their students.
A New Culture of Writing
Deputy Principal Kelley, like many educators, understands that the most effective school transformations are built on a foundation of strategic leadership and teacher dedication. St Joseph’s Catholic School, situated in the remote community of Cloncurry, recently demonstrated how this focus, combined with judicious use of technology, can break through academic barriers.
Kelley implemented a structured system to advance student writing abilities across the entire curriculum. St Joseph’s engaged Writer’s Toolbox, an educational AI platform that empowers teachers and supports students, using it as the foundation for a revitalised whole-school writing culture.
The system was integrated into every subject, not just English, starting with a comprehensive assessment of teachers and students and a three-year professional development plan to ensure the change was deep and lasting.
This systematic approach, championed by Kelley and embraced by the entire teaching staff, created a culture where writing was taught with precision and consistency.
“For us, it wasn’t just that this programme would give us resources in our classrooms, but our teachers would also be trained on how to effectively teach writing.”
The school’s commitment paid off with exceptional outcomes in their 2025 NAPLAN scores, proving that a dedicated school community can beat the odds. The Year 9 cohort achieved a monumental score of 607 — a whole 152 points above similar schools.
Achieving these top-tier results is the crucial first step to accessing the higher education these students deserve.
According to a study by Georgetown University’s Centre on Education and the Workforce, the lifetime earnings gap between someone who completes a bachelor’s degree and someone who doesn’t is around 75% — or $1.2m USD. That’s the difference between being a homeowner or a renter.
Too many children are prevented from entering higher education due to their struggles in writing. St Joseph’s has shown this can be changed.
“There was almost immediate growth as a direct result of using Writer’s Toolbox — not only in student writing but also in their attitude and confidence towards writing.”
— Samantha Kelley, St Joseph’s School Principal at the time
A Priceless Transformation
Principal Samantha Kelley credits the dramatic success not just to the tool, but to the school-wide shift made as a result of implementation.
“We’ve created a different culture — the whole culture around reading and writing at our school has changed. We found our writing move from well below the Australian average, and in our Year 7s we’re right up with your elite schools. Across Years 3, 5 and 7 we’re anywhere from 15% to 25% above our like schools.”
The triumph is evident in the students’ transformed attitudes to writing. As one student explained:
“I like Writer’s Toolbox because it expands my thinking in ways I didn’t think I could… I didn’t even know that there were paragraph types or sentence types until I went on there.”
The exceptional success shows that, with the right support, any school and any student can succeed. St Joseph’s demonstrates that with the right leadership and commitment, every student can be empowered with the writing skills needed for lifelong learning and success.
On the 17th March, Writer’s Toolbox are partnering with The Educator to host a live webinar featuring several other schools that achieved outstanding NAPLAN writing success, St Joseph’s Cloncurry being one of them, alongside three others.
To register for the webinar, click here.