My School is the official website about every school in Australia, published by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). It is a rich source of information, and easy to misread. This guide explains what the main measures mean and how to use them fairly. We link every school page on Schools Near Me to its My School profile rather than repeating the figures, and we never rank schools by results or ICSEA.
What My School shows
- A school's NAPLAN results over several years, and how they compare with schools serving similar students
- Student numbers, attendance and, for secondary schools, senior secondary outcomes
- Staff numbers
- The school's income from all sources, and its capital spending
- The school's ICSEA value, which describes the families it serves
NAPLAN in brief
NAPLAN (the National Assessment Program, Literacy and Numeracy) is a set of tests in reading, writing, conventions of language (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and numeracy. Students sit it in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9. Since 2023 it has been held in March and taken online.
Since 2023, results are reported against four proficiency levels: Exceeding, Strong, Developing and Needs additional support. Exceeding and Strong mean a student is meeting or going beyond what is expected at that point in their schooling. Results from 2023 onwards use a new scale and cannot be compared directly with results from 2022 and earlier.
What ICSEA is, and is not
ICSEA, the Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage, is a scale built from information about students' families, such as parents' education and occupation, along with the school's location and the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. The average is set at 1000. A higher number means the school's families have, on average, more educational advantage.
ICSEA is not a rating of the school. It describes who the school serves, not how well it teaches. Its main purpose on My School is to let you compare a school's results with those of schools serving students from similar backgrounds.
Comparing schools fairly
ACARA has long cautioned against using My School to build simple league tables, because a ranking hides the differences between the students schools serve. Use the data to ask good questions, such as how a school supports students who are below or above the expected level.
- Look at the similar-schools comparison on My School, which sets a school's results against schools with students from statistically similar backgrounds, rather than against every school in the country.
- Look at several years of results, not one. Small schools in particular can swing from year to year because a few students make a big difference.
- Look at progress where My School shows it: how much the same students improved between tests.
- Read results alongside what you see and hear on a visit. NAPLAN covers literacy and numeracy only, on a few days, and says nothing about a school's care, culture, arts or sport.
Where to find it
Every school page on Schools Near Me links to the school's profile on My School (opens in a new tab). You can find schools near you and open each profile from there, or compare schools side by side on what we do show: sector, years, location and contact details.
Common questions
- What is a good ICSEA score?
- There is no good or bad ICSEA value, because ICSEA describes the families a school serves rather than the quality of the school. The average is 1000. Use it to find schools serving similar students, then compare their results with each other.
- When is NAPLAN held, and who sits it?
- NAPLAN is held in March each year. Students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 sit tests in reading, writing, conventions of language and numeracy, mostly online. Parents receive an individual report for their child later in the year.
- What do the NAPLAN proficiency levels mean?
- Since 2023, each result is reported at one of four levels: Exceeding, Strong, Developing or Needs additional support. Exceeding and Strong mean the student meets or goes beyond the expected standard at that point in their schooling; the other two mean they may need more help.
- Can I compare NAPLAN results from before and after 2023?
- Not directly. NAPLAN moved to a new reporting scale and to proficiency levels in 2023, so results from 2023 onwards are not comparable with results from 2008 to 2022. Compare years within the same period.
- Why does Schools Near Me not rank schools?
- Rankings by results or ICSEA mostly reflect the families a school serves, not how well it teaches, and the My School data is not designed for league tables. We describe every school in the same plain way and link to its official My School profile instead.
Sources
We check guides against official sources. Rules can change, and some details vary by area, so check with the source before you act.
Last updated 1 November 2026.