Emmaus Christian School principal Erik Hofsink knows the secret to lifting NAPLAN scores - well one of the secrets. It's about educating parents, not just the kids.
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He said he can't pin-point the exact reason his school has seen one of the most dramatic improvements in NAPLAN scores. But Emmaus is a school that "does a lot with little and we're proud of that," he says.
The co-ed primary to year 10 school was named one of the capital's top-gaining schools in NAPLAN by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, which lists ACT schools that helped students improve their results.
ACARA compares the results of year 5 pupils with how they went two years earlier when they were in year 3 and the same for year 9 students.
"It actually shows you that money does not drive success," he said.
"We have a thing called the 'new parent induction course' where our parents, in the first two years of coming to Emmaus need to do this course.
He said the course helped parents understand what the school was about and what was driven.
"The idea is to inform the parents that education at the school is not a transaction, it's not a fee for service, it's a partnership and in a partnership it's both," he said.
"So from early on, parents understand that if they partner with us, they need to be there, they need to take responsibility, and so will we, and walk on the journey with us."
He said parents had no choice but to be involved with their childrens education.
"I say to them [parents] in the induction course - your kids, especially when they start in pre-school would not have a clue about what you pay, to them it's even irrelevant until about year 10, so don't say to them 'I pay good money to have you at this school' they're not going to appreciate that kind of comment," he said.
"But when they see you at assembly, if they see you talk seriously with their teachers at parent teacher interview, if they see that you come to a school celebration, whatever it may be, then for them that's the highest value on their education and that's something that I believe has worked for us."
He said parents who were invested in their childrens' education had a positive flow-on to students.
Mr Hofsink said a school written program called 'connect well' was also something that he believed was another contributing factor to the success of the school.
"It's where our learning support people in the school, together with our school wellbeing co-ordinator drive transitions for students coming from other schools," he said.
"If you talked to the students they'll tell you it feels a bit like a big family here and it's stuff that we really value.
"It's easy to become driven by performance and those sorts of things but you'll find a different picture here, you'll find that people feel that there's a sense of belonging.
He said that sense of belonging had a big impact on performance.
"Belonging is important because if kids don't want to be here, if they don't feel at home, if they don't feel at peace or even if they don't feel safe, their learning is going to be affected.
Mr Hofsink, who has been a principal for almost 20 years - the last two at Emmaus - said he was very proud of the results and said an individual could not claim the success.
"We're a really happy little school in leafy old Dickson."
