If it’s used in the right way then Naplan can help those children who are falling behind. Unfortunately, there is a lot of pressure put on schools to pass that they have lost sight of what it is meant for. It’s tricky but is created from a need but schools are judged on their results so it can then be flawed.

I think there is nothing wrong with having this test. I came from different country where everything about education was waaaay harder than here. I had tonnes of homework and there was no chat gpt or other information but books. We had a lot of tests and different assessments. I would say that probably the education there was too much of a deal and here it’s too easy on kids. They literally don’t do anything, which upsets me.

I still don’t know what I think about naplan… I mean I know some people are against it and say it’s a waste of time but I feel like any information can be used as helpful information. I like to see how my kids are going but I definitely don’t put much stress into it. I don’t have my kids practice for it or anything

The Naplan Quiz was harder than I expected, things I had forgotten like Mean & Medium. I might be stressful for some kids but tests are tests and we all have to go through them. Just encouraging our kids to do their best and not stress over it is important.

Naplan is just a meassurement of a child on a certain day to get a picture what progress is made in literacy and numeracy, it gives an idea how well the school is performing and what learning strategies they use. I always told my kids it’s just a test and the results won’t really directly impact them. For my youngest who has a cognitive delay we always opt out

I understand the value of NAPLAN for administrators, but I honestly don’t know that it’s very helpful for individual kids. I know I’m privileged to say that, as my kids usually do well, but I’m not sure it’s very meaningful at all. We don’t practice and I tell my kids to just do their best.

The rates of literacy and numeracy have substantially fallen over the last two decades. What are we actually doing?! We’ve got teachers with university entry scores under 50 teaching our children to begin with. That was a fail in my day! Then we’ve got make social issues making teaching harder again. Then there’s the bureaucracylike NAPLAN tests… we’re not doing any of it right.

I don’t know if I want to find out how I’d do in the Naplan quiz.

I’m sure a lot of adults would flounder with a naplan test but that’s not the point really. It has taken over how the teachers educate at times. They are teaching to the test so the school rates better. Not what it was meant for. I’m sure they could identify those children needing more help without doing such a big test.

Amazing insight Fleur! My twins scored below average in their most recent NAPLAN exams and I finally decided to start tutoring. I think it really helped and was super convenient plus affordable. For mums local to the inner west Sydney area, couldn’t recommend Owlearners Tutoring enough – give them a squiz https://www.owlearners.com.au/ 🙂

I agree these tests pose anxiety on young kids. Didn’t know adults could give them a go too

Interesting parents can do the testing too

That was very interesting. Happy to say I’m above average with a score of 8. I’m assuming maths would have let me down!

To be fair, I did that parent’s quiz and some of those questions are so poorly worded it is confusing to understand what they are actually asking. And also, each of those 4 options for “which sentence has a doing verb” had a verb in them. By definition, a verb is a “doing word” … and so how is this question not confusing for anyone?

I’m proud my kids do well in Naplan, but I’m not sure it really achieves anything

I think naplan is a waste… schools spend too much time propping kids for naplan. Just let the teachers teach

I don’t remember Naplan being important when I was a kid and I don’t know if the school I work at makes a big deal of it either. I think tests can give us data and info and that’s it they don’t tell the whole story.

I remthe stress when I was in school
I wish I could go back and tell myself to just do what I could and not stress so much about it as much as I did.

My daughter is in the middle of naplan right now. I tell her to do her best, I think that’s all we should do for our children is encourage them, there’s already enough stress

I just tell my kids to have fun and do their best. I don’t want them stressing over NAPLAN.