So as she reflected on her school's stellar results in last year's exams, Lutheran School Wagga principal Janet Moeller was proud to say it was through a different tactic entirely.

The focus for teachers at the independent Wagga school was instead on social and emotional learning, helping students regulate their emotions.

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"Where we start is not actually where you would think when it comes to getting good academic results," Ms Moeller said.

"Any teacher will tell you that for a student to learn, they have to be coming to the classroom ready to learn. They can't be upset about something that happened before they entered the classroom."

Lutheran School has been identified by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) as one of the highest achieving Wagga schools in last year's NAPLAN.

Some of the other schools with above average results included Wagga Christian College, the Riverina Anglican College and South Wagga Public.

Ms Moeller credits her school's good results to the positive environment fostered by teachers and the implementation of high impact teaching strategies.

"There was no special preparation. All we do is teach them how to fill in the bubbles," she said.

Regional schools have, on average, performed worse in NAPLAN than their inner-city counterparts. This has been blamed on greater workforce shortages and higher disadvantage among students.

Chris Duncan, CEO of the Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia, urged parents to look beyond NAPLAN scores when choosing schools for their children.

"The My School website offers a wealth of interesting and helpful data about schools and the academic performance of their students ... but NAPLAN scores do not add up to create the whole story of a school community," Dr Duncan said.

He said the results offer "only a very limited snapshot" of school life and parents should search on school websites and research the curriculum if they want to ensure a good fit for their child.

The 2022 NAPLAN data was uploaded to the My School website on Wednesday.

As well as their overall scores, schools are also graded based on how they performed in comparison to other schools with similar socio-educational backgrounds.

The local schools which performed the best compared to their socio-educational rating were Holy Trinity Primary, Sturt Public, South Wagga Public and the Wagga Christian College.

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