Message from the 

Head of the Junior School

NAPLAN 2021

Parents of Year 3 and 5 students have received individual student reports of NAPLAN results this term. The following summary provides a report regarding the excellent results achieved by Year 3 and 5. Overall in Year 3 and 5 our NAPLAN results remain strong, as evidenced in the comparison tables (KWS compared with Statistically Similar Schools and State Schools). What the tables below do not show is the most important picture of individual student growth when comparing our Year 5 students with their Year 3 results, or the growth of our Year 3 students whose progress we have been tracking since they began at KWS. 

NAPLAN results rarely contradict what is already known about students. This is supported by leading education researcher, Dr Stewart Riddle from University of Southern Queensland, who states NAPLAN can show no evidence as to a child's or school's academic performance that teachers didn't already know.

As in years past, this year’s data will influence teaching and learning programs. As Robert Randall, ACARA’s Chief Executive Officer 2012-2019 has stated:

By itself, NAPLAN does not improve the quality of education, but it gives us a national snapshot of how our children are doing in those important skills of literacy and numeracy. NAPLAN is important to your child as it provides information for school authorities and schools to review the effectiveness of their programs and to address any areas requiring improvement. It is important that you know as early as possible about your child’s strengths or if your child needs assistance. NAPLAN helps with this.

In unpacking our data and looking at our school trends overtime our reading results in Year 3 and 5 this year show encouraging growth. Literacy has been a focus in the Junior School as an element of our current Strategic Plan KWS Strategic Plan 2019-2023 by Kinross Wolaroi School - Issuu and the upward trend is significant in 2021.

This year is the last year the Junior School will be completing NAPLAN as a paper-based test. In 2022 all students will move to the online test. In readiness for this move our current Year 3 and Year 5 students will undertake a NAPLAN Readiness exercise. This is not a test, rather an opportunity for the school to test its technology infrastructure. A note will be coming to families once we have finalised a date with NESA. 

In unpacking our results, it is important to note it is not just where the students sit at the top or bottom of the scale, but the students who have moved in the middle due to Junior School’s targeted programs (before-school ‘boost groups’ and targeted in-class support). This year we have been looking very closely at our approaches to learning and have identified key areas for professional development for staff in 2022 and changes to some of our current approaches to teaching and learning. A big focus in 2022 will be numeracy as we undertake a yearlong study with the AIS (Australian Independent Schools Association). We are currently reviewing our approaches to spelling and the links between skills, strategies and editing skills in using accurate spelling in our writing. 

Performance in each Domain

The NAPLAN average or mean score for a school are estimates of school performance based on the students who were tested in the school. Those estimates are more accurate when the number of students tested is large and when the students perform at a similar level. As means are the measure of the middle, half of the over 1600 primary schools in the State will be below the mean. In a year group with fewer than 10 students it is difficult to use the mean as it can be influenced by 1 student performing exceptionally well or poorly. In our case at KWS we have small grades. For small cohorts the use of growth data is more appropriate as is looking at the individual student numbers in each of the bands.

Performance Bands

The tables below identify what bands our students achieved in. NAPLAN results are reported using a scale that has an average score across all students of 500. The spread of scores has been set so just over two thirds of students’ scores lie between 400 and 600. NAPLAN scores provide an indication of students’ achievements, but they provide only one snapshot of selected aspects of what students know and can do. In interpreting results, there are three important considerations:

• In comparing the performance of schools, it is important to take into account, differences in student intakes.
• NAPLAN tests sample only a part of what students learn during the year.
• No test is able to perfectly measure a student’s level of achievement and all tests are subject to a certain amount of measurement error. This means there will always be a margin of error surrounding a school’s average score. In general, the smaller the number of students tested, the larger the margin of error

Each scale spans all year levels from Year 3 to Year 9. A student score point on each scale is determined by the student’s total test score rather than the most difficult item correctly answered. Each NAPLAN scale is divided into up to ten bands used to report student progress through Years 3, 5, 7 and 9. Band 1 is the lowest band and Band 10 is the highest band. A band contains a range of scores and is not a specific point. With the move to online testing each year level is reported against all of the bands. This is a change from the paper test where student are only assessed against 6 Bands The white spaces on the table reflect where specific bands were not utilised by ACARA.

The ‘traffic light’ colours below provide us as a School with a snapshot as to where our students are doing well and where we may need to look at our programs to better support students in their learning. 

For example, in Year 3 our students are progressing well in reading with 76% of our students in the top 2 Bands and no students identified in Bands 1 and 2. We know however from our internal assessments and in class observations that there are students who do need some additional support beyond the class teachers program and may be included in one of our ‘Literacy Boost Groups’ or access additional in class support through our Learning Support team. In class support is available for all students across the learning continuum. In 2021 the Junior School has started to implement a more rigorous approach to tracking our students reading and comprehension of what they read. We will continue to look at this in 2022 developing further links between what we learn from assessments and what this means for the programs we deliver in the classroom for individual students. 

The School has the ability to access a large amount of data that enables us to analyse cohort responses to individual questions.  We are continuing to look at these to better understand the finer aspects of our teaching and where we may need to place more focus in 2022. For example, in Year 3, in the area of writing our students would benefit from looking at paragraphs, character and setting. Whereas Year 5 the focus is more on cohesion. This type of information is included for Individual students on the results report families have received. 

The idea of NAPLAN as a ‘snapshot’ is an important one. NAPLAN is often spoken about as ‘one test on one day’ and this is worth remembering. NAPLAN results are not useful as the only measure of a successful education and the best thing we can do is continue to partner with parents, talking together to develop a much richer ‘snapshot’. If there is anything in the NAPLAN information that families wish to discuss, please contact your child’s class teacher, along with myself and Ms Dodson. We will be able to help you understand the detail behind the numbers. Your child’s teachers are interested in providing your child with a good education; that is, a holistic approach, teaching the skills students need in order to be committed, courageous, resilient and inclusive young people who exercise respect for themselves, others and their world. NAPLAN does not test that.