St Brigid's Catholic Primary School students achieved well above average results from 2016 to 2018 in reading.

Gwynneville Public School achieved below average results in reading two years ago but is now on par with other schools with similar students.

The Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority updated the My School website with the standardised testing results on Wednesday.

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St Brigid's principal Kathy Uroda said she and her teaching staff had ramped up their strategy to improve the pupils' reading and comprehension skills in the past 18 months.

"We purchased quality literacy books and digital texts, and teachers did a lot of professional development sessions," Ms Uroda said.

"We also eliminated interruptions during literacy sessions.

"The Catholic education office provided an instructional literacy coach to work with teachers to help them plan their methods and this ensured they were all teaching in the same way .

"There is also a picture of every child in the office and we move their faces around to show how they are progressing.

"If a student is not progressing then we have a discussion as to why.

"Reading and comprehension were a key focus in our school."

The coordinated approach came after the school's NAPLAN results showed a downward trend in literacy.

Ms Uroda said teachers would continue to implement the new practices after seeing the impressive results.

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The NAPLAN tests assess years 3, 5, 7 and 9 students' skills in reading, writing, spelling, grammar and punctuation and numeracy.

Gwynneville Public School assistant principal Jennifer Eshman said she was proud of the students, and teachers, for improving on the results from their year 3 tests.

She said the successful results came from a new project-based learning program that allowed the pupils to build on knowledge learnt each year.

"For example, the students learn a maths concept then complete a project so it ends up relating to real life and they understand that the concept has a purpose," Mrs Eshman said.

"A lot of students fall down in their ability to apply their knowledge during the test despite being able to work out the algorithm."

Mrs Eshman said the teachers also worked to "demystify" the standardised test format for pupils so they did not get stressed.

"NAPLAN can never be viewed as an isolated assessment," she said. It is part of everything else we do in the school and all other assessments.

"The NAPLAN results are just another indicator for how a child is achieving."

Visit the ACARA My School website for results on all Illawarra schools.