From next week, students at our school in Years 3 and 5, will sit the NAPLAN assessments. 

As was the case over the past three years, the assessments with the exception of Year 3 writing, will be conducted online.  It is important that students in Years 3 and 5 are at school on time. 

The schedule for tests is as follows: 

For further information about NAPLAN, visit the NESA website.

NAPLAN will be conducted in Weeks 7 and 8 of this term. The assessment program takes place over three days with ‘catch-up’ days, if required, near the end of Week 8. 

NAPLAN seems to cause concern amongst a number of students and families, when in fact it should not. It is one aspect of an ongoing assessment regime within a school. It was originally set up as a diagnostic tool to provide data, which can assist schools in planning to support students in their learning. Typically, the data was released in September but now that all schools are online and conducted in Term 1, schools and parents will receive those results by the end of Term 2. Schools will be able to look at the data and triangulate the information to both formative and summative assessments they have already carried out. NAPLAN support materials then provide information about how teachers might support students to further develop the necessary literacy or numeracy skills.

It is important not to place too much importance on the results, as certain elements of the test have changed over time, given it is now online. It is a point-in-time measurement and is to be used for the purpose it was designed for, an assessment of progression over time.

Year 3 students will undertake the writing task using pen and paper. Students in Year 5 will be typing online in a locked-down browser, where spellcheck and other supportive writing elements have been disabled.

Year 5 students have been practising and have been encouraged to increase their typing pace, by using NitroType (www.nitrotype.com) and TypingClub (www.typingclub.com) to develop fluency.

NAPLAN is conducted in designated classrooms under supervision by two or more staff members. Students are encouraged to have early nights, restrict screen time beforehand, eat a high-protein breakfast and focus so that they are able to do their best.

Talking at home about the need for a ‘high’ NAPLAN mark is not required, nor helpful.

NAPLAN is one assessment, on one day out of a lifetime of learning.

If your child will be absent during Week 7 or 8, please contact your child's teacher so that we can arrange a plan for them to complete all the tests in the two-week period. The Writing test must be completed on Wednesday next week with only one backup day for this day on Thursday - the day after.