Students unable to do the test because of illness or some other acceptable reason are regarded as absent. They are not awarded a NAPLAN score.

Also called the national average, this is the average of all scores of Australian students in each year level in each domain.

An average score is obtained by adding up all the scores and dividing by the number of students who sat the test. The average is also sometimes referred to as the mean.

The NAPLAN scale is divided into ten bands, used to report student progress through Years 3, 5, 7 and 9. Band 1 is the lowest band and band 10 is the highest band. A band has a high and low range and is not a specific point.

A combined school is one that has classes from both primary and secondary year levels.

The five learning areas tested in NAPLAN are Reading, Writing, Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation, and Numeracy. These are called domains.

Students with severe intellectual or functional disabilities or students from a non-English speaking background who have been learning English in Australia for less than one year are eligible for exemption. However, this is not automatic and parents may choose for their child to participate. Exempted students are not included when calculating school average scores.

A full-time student is one who undertakes the prescribed workload for a full-time student of that year level. This may vary between States and Territories and from year to year. A full-time equivalent enrolment is registered as 1. A smaller enrolment is represented as a proportion of the full-time enrolment. For example a half-time enrolment is 0.5.

The number of full time and part time staff employed at the school that are not included in the teaching staff category, expressed as a proportion of full-time staff.

The number of full time and part time teaching staff employed at the school, expressed as a proportion of full-time staff. Full-time staff are registered as 1.0, and part-time staff represented as a proportion of the full-time load. For example a staff member that teaches half-time is registered as 0.5.

The government sector includes schools which are operated by the relevant State or Territory government. For the My School website, Australia's school system is divided into two sectors: government and non-government.

The Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage (ICSEA) is a measure that enables meaningful and fair comparisons to be made across schools. The variables that make up ICSEA include socio-economic characteristics of the areas where students live (in this case an ABS census collection district), as well as whether a school is in a regional or remote area, and the proportion of Indigenous students enrolled at the school. It has been developed specifically for the My School website for the purpose of identifying schools serving similar student populations. The average ICSEA value is 1000. Most schools have an ICSEA score between 900 and 1100. ICSEA should be interpreted with the assistance of the About ICSEA Fact Sheet, the ICSEA Technical Paper and relevant FAQs, provided at www.myschool.edu.au under ‘Resources’.

A student is considered to be ‘Indigenous’ if he or she identifies as being of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander origin. The term ‘origin’ is considered to relate to people’s Australian Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent and for some, but not all, their cultural identity.

A list of up to 20 schools that are located closest to the selected school. These schools are listed by distance, with those nearest to that school first. Schools are only listed as local if they are within 80 kilometres of the selected school, so those schools that are in remote or very remote locations may have fewer local schools.

Where the school is situated. On My School, the four possible locations are metropolitan, provincial, remote and very remote.

National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy. A series of common literacy and numeracy tests conducted annually across Australia for all students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9. For more information on NAPLAN, see www.naplan.edu.au.

Average NAPLAN score of students in Australia per year level and domain.

A member of the school who supports the school by providing educational services but does not directly teach students. Principals and deputy principals are not included in this measure.

Australia's school system is divided into two sectors: government and non-government. Non-government sector schools are operated independently from the State or Territory government. These may operate as individual schools, in small groups or an independent system such as the Catholic Education Commissions in each State and Territory.

Students who sat the NAPLAN tests.

A measure of the main activity of students who finished school. These destinations include university, TAFE, apprenticeships, traineeships, employed, seeking work or had deferred a tertiary place. This measure has a large degree of variation between States and Territories and should not be compared outside the State or Territory of collection.

The number given to the geographic location where a school is located, as determined by Australia Post.

Primary schools start with pre-Year 1 and finish with Year 6 except in Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia where they finish with Year 7.

SBAT is the name that is given to two programs: School Based Apprenticeships (SBAs) and School Based Traineeships (SBTs). These programs provide students with the opportunity to combine paid part-time employment and study towards a nationally credentialed program, while continuing at school and completing their high school certification. Depending on the pattern of study, an Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) can be achieved.

A student is a person who is formally enrolled in a school and active in a course of study other than preschool or TAFE courses. Students not present at school on the National School Statistics Collection (NSSC) census date were included if they were expected to be absent for less than four continuous weeks (excluding school vacations). Students were excluded if they had left the school or had been absent without explanation for four continuous weeks (excluding school vacations) prior to the census date. Students who are undertaking TAFE, tertiary studies, apprenticeships, work placements, VET in schools or a combination of such pathways, in addition to 'normal' school subjects, are in the scope of the NSSC, regardless of which year of schooling these alternative pathways are undertaken. The workload of both the 'normal' school subject(s) and alternative pathways are aggregated together to determine whether a student is classified as full-time or part-time and in calculating the full-time equivalent for part-time students.

These appear at the top right-hand side of each school’s profile page. Government school information has been provided by the respective State or Territory Education Departments. For non-government schools, this information has been provided by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) from the annual non-government school census.

The official name of the school as registered with the registration and accreditation authority in the State or Territory. Note that the school name may differ from the local name of the school.

Australia's education system comprises government and non-government schools. Additional information on the type of non-government school may be available in the school statement that was provided by the school.

A statement provided by each school. This statement is limited to 1320 characters (approximately 200 words).

Four types of schools are listed on the My School website: primary, secondary, combined (primary and secondary) and special. Selective schools are not listed as a school type on My School.

In all NAPLAN domains, results are reported on a single scale that goes from 0 to 1000. A score is the mark that a student gets on that scale.

Secondary schools start with Year 7 except in Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia where they start with Year 8. Secondary schools finish with Year 12 or Year 13.

Schools may belong to a sector (eg Queensland government sector) or a system (eg Catholic Education Commission). Not all schools belong to a school sector or system, as some act independently.

The results of students who completed post-compulsory school education.

Schools designated as ‘special purpose’ by their school authority are those that cater for students with mental or physical disability or social or emotional problems, who are slow learners, or who are in custody, on remand or in hospital.

A group of schools that share a similar socio-economic profile, based on their ICSEA value. A list of up to 60 schools within 10 ICSEA points of the selected school is provided. It is possible that a school has no similar schools.

This information is collected from students' parents (or guardians) via enrolment forms and includes gender, Indigenous status, socio-economic background and language background.

This term describes the performance of one school when compared to another. If the selected school’s mean is above/below the comparison school’s mean by more than half (>0.5) of one standard deviation, the difference is deemed to be substantial for the purposes of this website. The accompanying terms ‘above’ and ‘below’ represent a difference of between one fifth and one half (between 0.2 and 0.5) of a standard deviation in magnitude. (Standard deviation is defined as the average amount by which scores in a test differ from the overall average score ie how ‘spread out’ the results are from the average result.)

A residential district or locality using a particular name.

Teaching staff are staff who spend the majority of their time in contact with students. Teaching staff support students either in direct classes or on an individual basis, and are responsible for imparting the school curriculum. Teaching staff includes principals, deputy principals and senior teachers mainly involved in administration. Teacher aides and assistants, and specialist support staff are excluded.

The head count of full-time and part-time teaching staff employed by the school for non-government schools; or the number of teaching staff both full-time and part-time assigned to the school providing educational services directly to students. This information is provided by the school jurisdiction, so may only provide numbers of staff employed by the jurisdiction.

Number of students currently registered to attend a school. This number includes both full-time and part-time enrolments but excludes students registered for TAFE courses and in WA, those children in preschool.

A standardised national training scheme that provides skills and knowledge for work and potential certification for participants. VET provides many skills for people in a vocational environment. VET courses are offered in schools and colleges, community centres, TAFE institutes and other registered training organisations. In these organisations VET may be provided off-the-job and/or in a workplace environment. For example, workplace training is a significant part of all apprenticeships and traineeships.

The results for the final year of school for students who chose to complete all years. This is equivalent to Year 13 in some States (ACT, SA and Tasmania).

The years of schooling offered by the school, including Year 1 to Year 12 and the various provisions for education prior to Year 1 in each State and Territory. The abbreviations used on the My School website are consistent with the abbreviations used by the education systems. For example, K is kindergarten; P is preparatory. The age that children start school varies from State to State and is not reported on the My School website.