Good literacy and numeracy skills are important if your child is to thrive at school, at work and in their daily life.
That’s why every year for 9 consecutive days, classroom time for Australian students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 is dedicated to the National Assessment Program for Literacy and Numeracy – or NAPLAN.
This year it will be held during Term 1, from Wednesday 13th March to Monday 25th March.
Read on to find out everything you need to know ahead of the test days…
What is NAPLAN?
NAPLAN is a nationwide measure through which teachers, parents and carers, schools, educational authorities, governments and the broader community can determine whether or not young people are developing adequate literacy and numeracy knowledge.
It’s not a part of the Australian curriculum and its purpose isn’t to see how well students can remember classwork. Its purpose is to determine where students sit against the national average and to see if they are meeting basic benchmarks for their age.
NAPLAN results aren’t deemed as passes or fails, but fall into 1 of 4 proficiency levels:
- Exceeding
- Strong
- Developing
- Needs Support
NAPLAN year 3 students complete the assessment on paper, whilst NAPLAN year 5, 7 and 9 students undertake online NAPLAN tests. The online assessment is called tailored testing, as depending on a student’s answers, the questions get harder or easier as they go. This also gives more precise results.
What kind of questions are on the NAPLAN 2024 test?
NAPLAN tests contain the 4 key areas of literacy and numeracy studies. They are:
- Reading
- Writing
- Language
- Numeracy
On the reading test, students read a passage of informative text and answer specific questions about it. In the writing test, they must write their own passage based on a prompt. In the language test, they will need to show that they understand basic punctuation, grammar and spelling rules.
In the numeracy test, they will need to demonstrate year level appropriate knowledge in the areas of numbers and algebra, measurement and geometry, and statistics and probability.
All tests contain multiple-choice, text entry and technology-enhanced questions (such as drag-and-drop and hot-text).
Can students prepare for the NAPLAN exam?
It’s natural for students to feel anxious about NAPLAN, especially if it’s their first time taking the test.
As their parent, there are a few simple things you can do to calm their nerves and ease their mind going into it:
- Have a positive conversation with them about NAPLAN. Reassure them that they can’t fail and that all of their classmates are taking the test too.
- Ensure they get enough sleep. If they are tired, they won’t be feeling sharp and ready to take the test.
- See to it that they get some solid outdoor time and limit their screen time. Focusing on textbooks, exercise books and computers all day can strain your child’s eyes. When they get home, they should have a break before getting into schoolwork.
- Make sure they don’t cram their study. If your child wants to brush up on their literacy and numeracy skills beforehand (or they just have regular homework to do), they should take their time and spread the workload out. Doing too much the night before will burn them out before they’ve even started.
If they are intent on studying specifically for NAPLAN, there are NAPLAN practice tests they can take and past papers they can look at online.
Once the real tests are over, graded and a report is generated, be sure to celebrate their efforts regardless of the results. NAPLAN only represents their efforts on one particular day, so it doesn’t reflect their whole learning experience so far.
What are the NAPLAN results used for?
As previously mentioned, NAPLAN isn’t part of the curriculum, so each student’s results aren’t assessed alongside their usual work or exams.
However, they are helpful in identifying strengths and weaknesses in the curriculum, as NAPLAN provides general information about how education programs are working (and not working).
Parents can discuss the results with their child’s teachers if they have any specific concerns, and teachers can use the results to better tailor their lessons. If a student has fared particularly badly, it wouldn’t hurt to look into one-on-one tutoring to help get them back on track.
ThriveTutors is an Australian tutoring website created to suit students from Prep to Year 12. Contact us today for more information about being NAPLAN-ready!