Year 3 results in reading, writing, grammar and numeracy have gone from being on par with similar schools in 2015 to substantially above in 2017. 

“The success of Walcha Central School didn't occur overnight,” said principal Mark Hall.

“Our improvement plan started more than two years ago through a school review using the Schools Excellence Framework, a focus on early intervention, learning support at all levels and high expectations around student success in literacy and numeracy.”

The improvements made by the school involved the implementation of literacy and numeracy programs, the employment of early intervention and support staff.

“This and the hard work of teaching staff and our community has helped us to achieve this outstanding result,” Mr Hall said.

“It is fantastic to be recognised as a leading school Australia-wide.”

Mr Hall said Walcha Central staff have been key players on several Education Department Literacy and Numeracy programs supporting schools to develop best practice models.

“Under the Australian Governments National Innovation and Science agenda Walcha Central School has teamed with UNE and Uralla Central School to create a Digital Literacy Learning Hub,” he said. “This project led to the award of a Digital Literacy grant to extend and inspire student learning in literacy and numeracy across all key learning areas and allow us to partner with industry to become Information and Communication Technology champions and our students to become critical and creative thinkers.”

Mr Hall will present the work Walcha Central School is doing at the Future Focused Conference in Victoria, Canada during the school holidays.

“I am also planning a visit to over 20 schools to look specifically at curriculum design models for learning,” he said.