Schools such as Cattai Public, Maraylya Public, Hawkesbury Independent, Colo High and St Paul's Grammar are among the highest ranking in the Hawkesbury area according to a league table published in our sister paper the Sydney Morning Herald last Friday - developed from information available on the government website.

The My School site shows literacy and numeracy results, with above average performance indicated by green bands and below average results by red bands. The website also compares schools' performances.

Some of the Hawkesbury schools which did not perform so strongly were Windsor South Public, Ebenezer Public, Bligh Park Public and Windsor High, but they were still ahead of many in the state.

Current NSW law prevents the publication of these results in a ranking form, but The Sydney Morning Herald's website does feature the information, giving a state ranking for each school.

While there were plenty of green bands for St Paul's Grammar School, which was ranked among the top 50 schools in the state for writing and reading results, principal Paul Kidson said there was still more to schools than marks.

"The NAPLAN tests [literacy and numeracy tests] have never been designed to present data for this type of purpose, they were designed to check the developmental growth of students over a two-year period," he said.

"I believe schools should be accountable to the communities they serve.

"But there are so many other important things that go on in schools that aren't captured."

For example, Mr Kidson said visual arts, sports, music, language learning and community service were all unre- presented on the My School website.

"These are all part of what the richness of schools should be," he said.

"We need more meaningful data incorporated [into the website]."