NAPLAN 

NAPLAN

In receiving NAPLAN preliminary results this week, our teaching staff worked in Curriculum Teams to review individual student results and compare with teacher judgements and other diagnostic results, including attendance and wellbeing data. Teaching staff will be diagnostically using the reports to look for any gaps in our curriculum delivery. We also use school-based data sets to identify whether the NAPLAN reports identify any students who may need further extension or remediation supports, through one of several programs resourced across the school, such as: Maths Olympiads, Quick Smart Maths, High Abilities program, Tutoring, targeted intervention. Additionally, we are working with Education Improvement Leader Gillian Mosely (North East Victoria Regional support) to further improve our development and implementation of Individual Education Plans for students who are performing well above or below the expected learning level based on all of the data at hand.

NAPLAN is Australia’s only standardised testing, and given it happens once every two years for each child from Years 3 - 9, it is simply a snapshot in time; in some cases students do exceedingly well, in others, they may underperform on the day. Our teachers are available to discuss results with parents (once the hard copy reports arrive at the school and are distributed) , along with clarifying any confusion created by the introduction this year of new proficiency levels (replacing the 10 numerical NAPbands previously used) by ACARA. 

The new standards for NAPLAN reporting are aimed to provide simple and clear information for parents and carers about whether their child is where they need to be in the development of their literacy and numeracy skills: 

Exceeding: the student’s result exceeds expectations at the time of testing; 

Strong: the result meets challenging but reasonable expectations at the time of testing; 

Developing: indicates that the student is working towards expectations at the time of

testing; and

Needs additional support: the student’s result indicates that they are not achieving the learning outcomes expected at the time of testing. 

As educators we use NAPLAN as merely one avenue to reinforce our continuous improvement culture and evidence the successes of our whole-school teaching program. We know that NAPLAN is only one aspect of a student’s overall achievement. 

We celebrate the results that reflect the highest quality of teaching and research-based learning programs where our students are being challenged by a differentiated curriculum in each classroom. With continuing media discussion about NAPLAN, I reflect on the many extra-curricular activities and pro-social programs that make for a positive primary school experience that are not measured by any test. 

Parents/Carers may find this video explaining the NAPLAN results useful: Reading the NAPLAN Individual Student Report - YouTube