What this page shows
We aggregated school-level NAPLAN results for every NSW school across the past 12 years and computed the cross-school mean for each subject and each sector. The result is one chart per cohort — Primary (Year 5) and Secondary (Year 9) — that reveals which subjects and which sectors actually moved over the decade, and which were essentially flat.
Most school-finder sites show a single year of NAPLAN scores. That single number cannot tell you whether the system is improving, stagnant or declining. The charts below do.
Primary (Year 5)
By subject (Primary (Year 5)): mean score across all NSW schools, 2014 to 2025.
By sector (Primary (Year 5)): mean across all 5 subjects, faceted by Government / Catholic / Independent.
Secondary (Year 9)
By subject (Secondary (Year 9)): mean score across all NSW schools, 2014 to 2025.
By sector (Secondary (Year 9)): mean across all 5 subjects, faceted by Government / Catholic / Independent.
Methodology
For each year and each subject we computed the unweighted mean of school-level scores across all NSW schools that reported a result. Year 5 is used as the Primary cohort and Year 9 as the Secondary cohort, matching ACARA convention. Sectors are taken from each school's ACARA classification (Government, Catholic, or Independent). Combined schools are included in both Primary and Secondary cohorts where they reported in the relevant year.
Aggregating at school level (rather than student level) gives every school equal weight — the trend reflects how the population of schools is changing, which is the relevant signal for parents comparing schools.
Related reading
Frequently asked questions
Why does writing sometimes look flatter than other subjects?
There is not a single official explanation for that pattern. Based on the charts here, writing often appears less volatile than some other subjects, which may reflect both the assessment design and the way schools improve writing more gradually than numeracy or reading. That is still an interpretation from the observed trend, not a formal ACARA statement.
Are these scaled scores or raw scores?
These are the school-mean scaled scores published by ACARA via MySchool. That part is factual. What is less certain is how much weight a parent should give to small year-to-year moves, which is why the charts are more useful for direction and persistence than for reading a two- or three-point change as meaningful on its own.
What about 2020?
NAPLAN was not administered nationally in 2020 due to COVID-19, so there is no 2020 school-level data in the underlying series. The gap is real data absence, not a charting omission.
Does this include Catholic systemic and independent schools?
Yes. Every school with a reported NAPLAN result for that year can contribute to the relevant series, and the sector split follows the ACARA sector label attached to the school record.