By ANDY WILSON
Change can come in the blink of an eye and education is no exception.
After decades of revolutions in teaching that seemingly come one after the other in response to falling numeracy and literacy standards, good news stories of quick change do abound.
In Euroa, you need look no further than the secondary college to see the success of the school’s new leadership and its enthused and committed staff.
Last week’s NAPLAN results met with the usual nationwide storm of debate, dismissal, and worry, as is fitting for a nationwide angst on falling education standards.
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Amid all that white noise, Euroa Secondary College has reaped the rewards of a targeted shift in teaching and community focus over the past two years.
Principal Anna Eddy and Assistant Principal Brett Williams have been in their roles for over two years and if ever there was a D-day to present their first report card, it was going to be this year’s NAPLAN to measure what the school has done with the grade seven students it acquired two years ago.
The annual NAPLAN test is given to students in grades three, five, seven, and nine and measures primarily improvements in learning for individual students as well as cohorts, schools, school networks, and demographics.
Last week’s results are also the steppingstone measure for 2025's grade nines before they head into VCE and/or vocational education.
Eddy and Williams found the time on Wednesday, 30 July to lay down their report card for this masthead with a sense of sobering joy, perhaps a hidden pride, but certainly a deep sense of satisfaction that what they have changed at the school is definitely working.
But the results did not catch them off guard, nor does the duo seek credit.
“It’s been a collective effort, and these results reinforce that we’re on the right path,” Ms Eddy said.
“We are really, really pleased with where things are at.
“We are above similar schools in reading, writing, spelling, and numeracy at the Year 9 level.”
Given they are the only categories NAPLAN tests for, four-out-of-four ain't bad.
The numbers on relative growth – which compares the change in year nine students over the last two years – are more critical to how the school's recent changes have been effective and in the case of Euroa SC, are even more impressive.
“As you can see, 80 per cent of our kids got high and medium growth in numeracy.
“That’s with 70pc in writing and 68pc in reading.”
These numbers are very, very good indeed, and in any NAPLAN interpretation, it means that recent new strategies from the school are working.
Ms Eddy lays the credit at the feet of her staff.
“We've got great teachers here,” she said.
“They are really supportive teachers, and we've got explicit teaching.
“We're following the direction of the (education) department around explicit teaching being a major focus.”
“Obviously, pedagogy leads all of this, so what the staff members are doing in the classroom is obviously working.”
Mr Williams said the school’s culture had an equally as important role to play.
“The school is in a really positive place,” he said.
“The kids are happy, the staff are happy, and when kids are happy, they're more productive.
“When staff are happy, they're also more productive.”
The results of a recent survey of students on their attitude to school – not related to NAPLAN – saw a significant change for the better, with students positively endorsing all 19 categories of school life surveyed.
Effective and engaging teaching resulted in an increase of 17 per cent of students since 2024 feeling that classes stimulated their learning.
Social engagement, student voice, bullying management, and teacher concern all increased by similar values, with respect for academic and cultural diversity topping the chart with 22pc improvement.
“You can see in every measure, we've gone up considerably in terms of percentage, most of them in the teens,” Ms Eddy said.
Mr Williams pointed also to anecdotal evidence of change.
“Behaviour incidences are down significantly, from what they were previously,” he said.
“Parents have anecdotally been much happier – we're looking forward to the parent opinion survey at the end of the term.
“And staff are anecdotally very happy, and we're looking forward to the staff survey as well.
"We have incredibly good teachers here."
Most critical, however, is the importance of the final link in any chain for educational improvement, and Ms Eddy makes it clear that the real credit goes where it is earned.
“Our students have been working incredibly hard, and we believe these outcomes are a fair reflection of their efforts,” she said.
