This week and next week our students in Year 3 & Year 5 will be assessed in the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN). NAPLAN assesses literacy and numeracy skills in reading, writing, conventions of language (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and numeracy. The assessment provides parents and schools with an understanding of how individual students are performing at the time of the tests. NAPLAN is just one aspect of our school’s assessment and reporting process - it does not replace ongoing assessments made by our teachers about student performance. NAPLAN also provides schools, education authorities and governments with information about how education programs are working and whether young Australians are meeting important educational outcomes in literacy and numeracy.
NAPLAN is not an event we want students to be worried about, so preparation is completed as part of regular class work. At St John the Baptist we believe the best way to prepare students for NAPLAN is to teach them well each and every day.
Results are sent to the school which highlight individual results, school trends over several years, how the school performed compared to other schools in the state and how much the children have ‘grown' between NAPLAN tests in Years 3 and 5.
From the information, we identify students strengths and areas of difficulty so programs can be developed to assist those children. We identify common strengths and challenges across the school to inform class and whole school planning. Target areas are identified for improvement in literacy and numeracy so we are constantly adapting our teaching to suit the needs of our students.
Our goal as a school this year is to continue to build upon our capacity as a staff to collect meaningful evidence that informs planning of future learning opportunities for our students. NAPLAN forms only one part of that meaningful evidence collection alongside teacher observations, pre and post tests, conversations with students, formal testing opportunities etc. It is important that we continue to assess students in multiple ways in order to give them the best opportunities to showcase their knowledge, skills and understandings.
