Invermay Primary School: Celebrating NAPLAN success, building for the future
7 min
NAPLAN
Suzanne Ireland
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Invermay Primary School is a small school on the outskirts of Ballarat, but their vision for student success is anything but small.
Over the past few years, their Year 5/6 students have been learning to write with Seven Steps to Writing Success, led by teacher and literacy coordinator, Paul Borchers. The results have been so positive, both in student engagement and NAPLAN results, that Paul and Principal Justin Marshman decided it was time to bring the whole school on board.
At the start of the year, the entire staff, including education support staff, attended a Seven Steps workshop in Melbourne and followed it with an in-school Classroom Modelling session.
The aim? To build a consistent, whole-school approach to writing that engages both teachers and students.
A teacher’s perspective: From engagement to NAPLAN results
Paul has been teaching with Seven Steps for several years and has seen first-hand the transformation in his classroom:
“I’m a massive fan of Seven Steps. The engagement, the support of the activities … has really made a fun and exciting environment where kids want to write.”
~ Paul Borchers, Literacy Coordinator
This excitement has translated into measurable improvement. In 2024, Invermay’s Year 5 students achieved significantly higher NAPLAN results in writing compared to both like schools and all Australian schools.
“Our 2024 NAPLAN results were great! It was something we certainly celebrated with our team.”
Even in 2025, when challenges like attendance and new arrivals impacted results, Paul noticed a clear trend:
“When crunching the data it was still really pleasing to see growth across those students who have attended regularly. It makes a huge difference in all subjects, but particularly writing!”
For Paul, Seven Steps isn’t just about improving test results – it’s about giving students and teachers practical strategies they can draw on every day. His class uses the techniques not only in writing lessons but also in real-life tasks, like producing the school newsletter.
“The Seven Steps is the absolute correct tool for building an excitement level of writing and knowing that, whatever you need as a teacher, it’s in your back pocket to grab out and use.”
A principal’s perspective: Consistency for every child, every year
For Justin, Invermay’s Principal, Seven Steps is about more than just improving writing lessons. It’s about ensuring every student experiences consistent, high-quality instruction as they progress through the grades.
The Year 5 NAPLAN results in 2024 have made this need clear. When their Year 5 students sat down to NAPLAN, almost all of them drew out a simple version of the Seven Steps writing graph. This is a planning template that was introduced to them the year before, and it contributed to their significantly higher writing results than like schools and all Australian schools.
“Our Year 5 students almost without fail used the planning graph they’d been introduced to the year prior. But in our Year 3 cohort, the gaps were obvious… that highlighted the need for continuity across all year levels.”
Seeing it, doing it: Whole-school training in action
The gap between how the Year 5 and Year 3 students approached the NAPLAN test confirmed the importance of taking a whole-school approach.
To bring Seven Steps to life across the whole school, all staff members, including teachers and education support staff, participated in training. First, the whole team attended a Seven Steps workshop in Melbourne to build shared knowledge and understanding. Then they hosted an in-school Classroom Modelling session.
Seven Steps team members – Deb Larmer (teacher and presenter) and Sarah Bakker (Head of Education) – demonstrated lessons on Step 3: Tightening Tension.
The goal was to show teachers how to differentiate the concepts for different year/ability levels and how to apply one step across different text types. The day also included debriefing sessions with teachers, unpacking strategies and approaches to ensure staff could ask questions and confidently implement Seven Steps across the school.
This combination of workshop exposure and live modelling gave the Invermay staff both knowledge and practical experience.
Next challenge: Balancing creativity and mechanics
With a strong foundation in Seven Steps, Invermay is now tackling the next challenge: helping students balance creative expression with the technical skills of writing.
They are using both Seven Steps and Writing Revolution, two popular programs, and are exploring different ways to align these two approaches:
- Should students focus on creativity first, then use Writing Revolution to edit?
- Or should they build a strong foundation in mechanics before exploring creative writing?
To answer this, Invermay has had an initial session with literacy coach Amanda Sutera from Hands on Heads, who supports Seven Steps schools with implementation challenges.
The focus is on providing teachers with clear guidance: when to encourage students to generate ideas, how to apply editing and mechanical skills and how to sequence both programs for maximum impact. Amanda has created a year level-by-year level plan on how the two programs align, giving staff an overview to build on.
While still a work in progress, this table gives you an insight into how it can look for one year level.
This next stage reflects Invermay’s commitment to ensuring students are confident, creative writers who also master the mechanics – preparing them for success both in the classroom and on assessment tasks like NAPLAN.
Key takeaway
Through strong leadership, whole-staff commitment and a clear vision for continuity, Invermay Primary School is creating a culture where writing is not just taught – it’s enjoyed. With Seven Steps at the core of their program, they’re building confident, capable writers across every year level.
