The website displays and compares a chart of school’s National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) results.

NAPLAN scores indicate students’ achievements, but they only provide a snapshot of what students know and can do.

Just 13 WAS students from years three, five, and seven sat the NAPLAN tests last year.

Data from the website identified Woomera Area School as needing extra support to lift standards because it fell below both the national average and average of statistically similar schools.

WAS principal Stuart Kitto said just one year level had enough students to be compared to “like” schools.

The school was not initially recognised as in need of the $2.5 billion Smarter Schools national partnership, of which South Australia gets $232.5 million in funding over seven years.

A media release issued last week by Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard, and South Australian Education and Training Minister, Jane Lomax-Smith, stated without the “unprecedented transparency” of My School, the government would not have been able to target the extra funding to WAS, and the five other schools that will share the funding.

“It was not initially identified because the Smarter Schools funding was specifically targeted at lower income communities,” Mr Kitto said.

“Woomera and Roxby Downs have quite high average incomes. Many of the ‘like’ schools listed are 15-20 times the size of ours, and this creates issues when trying to draw comparisons.

“This (the funding) will provide our students with access to extra support and allow us to offer the highest quality curriculum … building on the skills of our staff will enable us to improve the achievement of all students across the board.

“Providing more intensive support directly to those students who most need it will also help us to give them the boost they need.”

Mr Kitto said the My School website had some useful information but urged parents to be aware of the limitations the data presented.

“Parents shouldn’t be afraid to approach schools directly to talk about how they can best meet the needs of their individual child.

“There is a lot more to schooling than a summary of how some students did during one week of testing in May last year.”