Radford College did well, while Canberra Grammar slipped back on almost all measures in the primary years but held onto its top rankings in the high school years.

Garran Primary was the top-performing government primary school, while Catholic schools St Vincent's Primary in Aranda showed massive gains in Year 3, and St Bede's Primary in Red Hill continued its strong performance across Year 5.

Telopea Park was the top-performing government high school, while Marist and Merici dominated Catholic senior schools.

League tables are created using the raw scores of the national assessment program – literacy and numeracy, or NAPLAN. Students sit tests across reading, persuasive writing, spelling, grammar and numeracy across Years 3, 5, 7 and 9.

These league tables do not take into account the socio-educational or economic advantage of each school's student body; The Canberra Times will publish separate tables of achievement based on the index of community socio-educational advantage on Monday.

An indication of just how much raw scores can change for each school each year is illustrated by some wild movements up and down the tables.

For instance, in Year 3, the Wanniassa School rocketed up 44 places to come fourth in writing. St Vincent's Primary rose 56 places to sixth in spelling, while Wanniassa Hills Primary rose 76 places to sixth in numeracy.

Farrer Primary showed consistent rises of between 40 and 60 places across Year 3 – posting the biggest gains for any school on raw score increases.

In Year 5, Torrens Primary showed the largest gains, rising 36 places to sixth in reading, 35 places to fifth in writing, 22 places to sixth in spelling, and 59 places to be third in grammar.

The large ranking jumps were mainly seen in the primary years, with school results much more stable in Years 7 and 9.

Canberra Girls' Grammar and Canberra Grammar continued to dominate the top rankings in the high school years, with the girls' school coming first in Year 7 reading, writing and grammar, and the boy's school coming first in Year 9 writing, spelling and numeracy.

Brindabella Christian College and Burgmann Anglican School were also in the top clutch of schools across nearly all areas.

A table of school funding per student – including government funding, parent fees and other income – shows that some of the highest-need government schools receive almost three times as much money as the lowest-funded Catholic systemic schools.

The Wanniassa School, which has a high indigenous population and low socio-economic status, receives $19,644 per student. Canberra Grammar receives $19,935 per enrolment, though the vast majority of that is raised from student fees.

The Islamic School of Canberra receives the lowest funding per student of any Canberra school: just $7227 per student.

Yet it posted large gains across a number of tested areas this year, coming third in spelling in Year 3, 19th in grammar and 24th in numeracy. It also achieved results above the national average on most measures across all year groups.