St Mary’s & St Laurence’s, Dubbo: A Diocese of Bathurst Follow-up Story
Six months on, both schools held the same intentional assessment routine, used Professional Learning Community (PLC) time to talk about their evidence, and realigned practice through a designated Professional Learning day with EA ahead of the mid-year assessment. This update reports what the NSW Common Grade Assessment (CGA) evidence shows at the mid-year point.
|
AT / ABOVE EXPECTATION 30 / 37 year-level results at or above stage expectation at MID |
HELD OR GREW
34 / 37 cohort medians held their place or lifted |
POSITIVE GROWTH
16 cohorts lifted their median in Semester 1 |
SHARED ROUTINE 2 schools, one consistent approach |
The story so far
A small, deliberate routine, held steady for a full semester
Where the schools began
At the start of 2026, both schools set out to build assessment-capable students. Teachers opened every assessment by explaining its purpose, ran a short Listen, Think, Talk vocabulary routine, modelled the EA student portal step by step (“circle, circle, start”), and normalised the “I don’t know yet” function. The aim was to reduce the cognitive load of the assessment process itself so students could focus their thinking on the mathematics.
What both schools did across Semester 1
The routine was not a one-off. Across the semester, leaders and teachers kept the same disciplined focus and built the supporting structures around it.
- Professional Learning Community time was protected throughout the semester so teams could look at their CGA and Flexi Assessment evidence together and agree on next steps.
- A designated Professional Learning day with EA realigned practice across both sites ahead of the mid-year assessment, refreshing the shared norms before the mid-year point (MID) window opened.
- Flexi Assessments were used to move from broad cohort trends to granular, syllabus-aligned analysis, so teaching decisions stayed informed by evidence rather than assumption.
| Key insight
The intervention was the consistency, not the novelty. The same routine, the same language, and protected time to talk about evidence were held for a full semester and reinforced at one realignment point. |
The mid-year picture
Most cohorts sat at or above stage expectation, against a rising bar
Students completed the NSW Common Grade Assessment in Mathematics at the start of the year (PRE) and again at the mid-year point (MID). The expectation line is not fixed: it lifts by half a stage between the two windows, so holding position still means a cohort has kept pace with roughly half a year of expected growth.
Across the two schools, 30 of 37 year-level results sat at or above stage expectation at the MID point (St Mary’s 17 of 18; St Laurence’s 13 of 19), and 34 of 37 cohort medians either held their place or lifted. The pattern is sustained, consistent performance with selective gains: the signature of cleaner evidence, not a single dramatic jump.
| What the evidence shows
✓ Strong start-of-year baselines were sustained, not lost, across the semester. ✓ St Mary’s lifted Year 1 and Year 6 Number and Algebra medians by half a stage each. ✓ St Laurence’s Year 3 Statistics and Probability lifted by (+0.75). ✓ Where medians eased, movement was small (a quarter stage or less) and against the rising bar. |
How the routine supports this
→ Lower cognitive load means students demonstrate what they actually know. → Shared norms keep evidence comparable across classes and across both schools. → PLC and Flexi analysis turn the data into specific, syllabus-aligned next steps. → Movement stays the expectation in both directions – enable and extend. |
Method: counts use each school’s own workbook status (green = at or above stage expectation; orange = working towards). Year-level results are counted per strand, for students with results in both windows. Medians are shown in NSW stage notation: decimals below K (for example 0.5) indicate pre-Kindergarten placement, and K.25 to K.75 indicate placement within Kindergarten. Expected MID = expected PRE plus half a stage. Median growth = MID median minus PRE median. Some year levels are not shown where a MID result was not yet recorded at the time of export.
School results, Diocese of Bathurst, St Mary’s Dubbo
NSW Common Grade Assessment, Mathematics. Cohort median placement at start-of-year (PRE) and mid-year (MID), with median growth and stage status across Semester 1.
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TEACHER LOGIN 100% staff engaged with EA |
STUDENT LOGIN
100% students active in EA |
MY NUMERACY
1,679 short-cycle sessions |
MATHS FLEXI 1,811 targeted assessments |
Number and Algebra
| Year | PRE median | MID median | Median growth | Stage status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| K | -0.5 | 0.25 | +0.25 | At / above |
| Yr 1 | K.5 | 1 | +0.50 | At / above |
| Yr 2 | 1.5 | 1.5 | +0.00 | At / above |
| Yr 3 | 3 | 3 | +0.00 | At / above |
| Yr 5 | 4.75 | 4.75 | +0.12 | At / above |
| Yr 6 | 5 | 5.5 | +0.50 | At / above |
Measurement and Space
| Year | PRE median | MID median | Median growth | Stage status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| K | 0.5 | 0.25 | +0.25 | At / above |
| Yr 2 | 1.5 | 1.5 | +0.00 | At / above |
| Yr 3 | 3 | 3 | +0.00 | At / above |
| Yr 4 | 3.5 | 3.75 | +0.25 | At / above |
| Yr 5 | 5 | 5 | +0.00 | At / above |
Statistics and Probability
| Year | PRE median | MID median | Median growth | Stage status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| K | K | K.25 | +0.25 | At / above |
| Yr 1 | 1.75 | 1.75 | +0.00 | At / above |
| Yr 2 | 2.25 | 2 | -0.25 | At / above |
| Yr 3 | 2.5 | 3 | +0.50 | At / above |
| Yr 4 | 3.25 | 3.5 | +0.25 | At / above |
| Yr 5 | 4.5 | 4.5 | +0.00 | At / above |
| Yr 6 | 5 | 5 | +0.00 | Working towards |
Median growth = MID median minus PRE median. Full method note above
School results, Diocese of Bathurst, St Laurence’s Dubbo
NSW Common Grade Assessment, Mathematics. Cohort median placement at start-of-year (PRE) and mid-year (MID), with median growth and stage status across Semester 1.
|
TEACHER LOGIN 88% staff engaged with EA |
STUDENT LOGIN 100% students active in EA |
MY NUMERACY 275 short-cycle sessions |
MATHS FLEXI 952 targeted assessments |
Number and Algebra
| Year | PRE median | MID median | Median growth | Stage status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| K | 0.5 | 0.5 | +0.00 | At / above |
| Yr 1 | K.5 | K.75 | +0.50 | At / above |
| Yr 2 | 1.25 | 1.5 | +0.25 | At / above |
| Yr 3 | 2.75 | 3 | +0.25 | At / above |
| Yr 4 | 3 | 3 | +0.00 | Working towards |
| Yr 5 | 4.75 | 5 | +0.25 | At / above |
| Yr 6 | 5 | 5 | +0.00 | Working towards |
Measurement and Space
| Year | PRE median | MID median | Median growth | Stage status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| K | 0.5 | 0.25 | -0.25 | At / above |
| Yr 1 | 1 | 1 | +0.00 | At / above |
| Yr 2 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 0. | Working towards |
| Yr 3 | 3 | 3 | +0.00 | At / above |
| Yr 4 | 3.25 | 3.25 | +0.00 | Working towards |
| Yr 5 | 4.75 | 5 | +0.25 | At / above |
| Yr 6 | 5 | 5 | 0 | Working towards |
Statistics and Probability
| Year | PRE median | MID median | Median growth | Stage status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| K | K | K | +0.00 | At / above |
| Yr 1 | 1.25 | 1.75 | +0.50 | At / above |
| Yr 2 | 2 | 2 | +0.00 | At / above |
| Yr 3 | 2.25 | 3 | +0.88 | At / above |
| Yr 4 | 3 | 3.25 | +0.25 | Working towards |
Median growth = MID median minus PRE median. Full method note above
READING THE RESULTS HONESTLY
Sustained performance, with clear targets for Semester 2
This is a six-month snapshot, and the honest reading is encouraging rather than dramatic. Both schools began Semester 1 already sitting at or above stage expectation in most year levels, so the work this semester was about holding and extending strong positions while the expectation bar lifted. The large majority of cohorts did exactly that, and several lifted further. A small number eased by a quarter stage or less; these are not setbacks so much as the specific, named places where PLC attention now goes.
Leadership reflection
The same insight that shaped the start-of-year work continued to drive practice across the semester: modelling, immediate application, and a disciplined focus on one priority.
“I can listen to theory a thousand times, but it was not until I saw it modelled in the classroom that it became very clear how achievable it was.” —School leader, St Laurence’s, Dubbo
Growing across the Diocese of Bathurst
The approach is now drawing interest beyond the two schools. Encouraged by what the Dubbo evidence shows, other schools across the Diocese of Bathurst have asked to track their own growth in the same way: the same intentional routine, the same shared norms, and the same start-of-year to mid-year reporting rhythm. This is the network effect EA values most: consistent practice and comparable evidence spreading school to school across a diocese.
Key takeaways
- Assessment literacy, once taught and normalised, holds. A routine built at the start of the year sustained cohort results through a full semester.
- Protected PLC time and one realignment point with EA kept practice consistent across both sites and turned evidence into action.
- Against an expectation line that lifts half a stage by mid-year, the holding position is itself meaningful growth, and most cohorts did more than hold.
- There are a small number of cohorts working towards expected. These are now clearly named priorities for Semester 2.
We are proud to continue partnering with St Mary’s School, Dubbo and St Laurence’s, Dubbo, and to support the wider Diocese of Bathurst as more schools take up this approach to strengthen assessment literacy and evidence-informed teaching.
Prepared by Jacinta Browning Senior Adviser – Curriculum, Assessment and Pedagogy, Essential Assessment-Semester 1, 2026.
