When students at Lethbridge Park public school noticed their peers acting out in the playground, they asked for a meditation club. So the school set one up, and now, three days a week, children spend their lunch break lying in a classroom seeking tranquility.
Then students brought up an ongoing graffiti problem with the toilet blocks. So they got the green light to make their own designs, and covered the walls with positive messages.
The greater western Sydney school’s cohort is about 35% Indigenous, and it was the students who designed its yarning circle, from which native plants would be introduced, to instructing contractors where the story poles would go.
The school’s principal, Garry Sheen, says throughout his four years in the job, his biggest priority has been to build a “deep sense of connection” with his students.
“Our school is centred around the needs of our kids – and we know that, because we ask them, and we empower them,” he says. “We want our kids to believe they can make positive changes in our school, and then take that into their own life … to know that their voice matters.”
On Tuesday, Lethbridge Park students in yellow tutus and face paint dashed around the athletics track at an Olympic-level centre in Blacktown, launching themselves into longjump pits.
Naplan results were hours from being released, but Sheen was focused on the school’s annual athletics carnival. There was a tug-of-war competition to be had, and the children needed him cheering in the grandstand.
Seven in 10 of Lethbridge Park’s 450-strong students are in the bottom quartile of socio-educational advantage, which measures factors such as a parent’s education and occupation.
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But the school’s most recent Naplan results showed year 3 and 5 students performing close to or well above comparative cohorts with a similar background. Most encouragingly, students had continued to improve compared with previous years, with Indigenous students at the school outperforming their peers in reading for the first time.
“We have excellent systems to support kids who are underperforming,” Sheen says, citing six support unit classes and wellbeing programs for kids with additional needs. “But we also have kids who have potential to be gifted and we want to target the needs of all of our kids across the broad spectrum of life.”
Marian Vidal-Fernandez, an associate professor in the University of Sydney’s School of Economics, says the most important benefit of Naplan is for schools to compare the same cohort of students over time to see what is working and what needs addressing.
She says it also allows policymakers to see the impacts of disadvantage, and how they progress over time.
“It’s useful to highlight differences among groups of students that require extra help and support – basic reading and numeracy skills between, let’s say, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, or urban or non-urban,” Vidal-Fernandez says.
“But most of the parents who worry so much about Naplan and choose schools according to Naplan are not the sorts of parents whose children who are going to have any problems developing those skills.”
Academics have criticised Naplan for placing undue pressure on students and schools, exacerbated by media hyping up top performers and pointing the finger over poor results.
Naplan results are often taken into account in selective school admissions, and the internet is rife with tutors offering their services to boost a child’s results.
Vidal-Fernandez says the test “needs to be taken with a grain of salt”.
“It’s great for schools to have, but it doesn’t measure the ability to solve social emotional problems. It doesn’t measure creativity, how flexible we are, how we’re working in a team.
“It’s also very sad when schools are competing against each other, focusing a lot on Naplan and moving away from co-curricular and other project-based work.”
She points to other factors just as important to a child thriving: a school’s arts program, its culture, whether there’s a garden or sports program.
“These things matter, and some schools might focus on these elements more, which won’t necessarily be reflected in Naplan scores,” she says. “Life is not only – especially these days – about reading and counting. Some schools might have amazing Naplan scores, but high anxiety levels.”
For Sheen, school should be fun. “It’s for the kids, it’s not for me,” he says.
“You can’t get academic results if your kids don’t want to come to school.
“We provide a well-rounded curriculum for every single child to be successful at something.”
