It's that time of the year again - NAPLAN

This week children in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 across all states of Australia will sit the suite of NAPLAN tests. NAPLAN is an acronym for National Assessment Program in Literacy and Numeracy - however, we rarely say all that, and like many acronyms NAPLAN has almost become its own word!

NAPLAN is not a test of content (says the official website). NAPLAN is a test of the literacy and numeracy skills children learn in the year levels previous to the one they are currently in, for example, the Year 5 Test primarily assesses children's ability to write, spell, read and compute based on curriculum covered in Year 4 and built on from learning in Prep to Year 3.

There is always a lot of press about the Tests - who they are for, why they are bad, why we should and shouldn't be doing them, etcetera, etcetera... In the end, we have to do them, and over the years teachers have learned to make the best of it.

Our teachers work hard to ensure that that the curriculum offerings give children multiple chances to learn the skills that are tested. They prepare solid and sequential programs based on the Australian Curriculum, they streamline the programs to match each child's level, they continually assess children's development and make adjustments for gaps, misunderstandings and misconceptions, and they ensure children develop a certain test literacy to develop familiarity with the tool.

On the day, the tests will assess what children know using only one format with no room for asking the question in a different way, giving a child extra time to think or providing a clue or a hint - this is totally alien to the way in which teachers present their lessons every day but the children have had practice at this - probably since the start of the year.

In other words, providing parents have done their bit with sending children to school every day possible, getting them to bed early on the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights, ensuring they eat a proper nutritious breakfast, and making sure they are at school by 8.30am with their pencils sharpened, then they are as prepared as they are ever going to be. (Actually, it wouldn't be bad if this happened every school day - not just in NAPLAN week!)

At the end of the day, NAPLAN is just one point-in-time assessment that contributes to the total picture of each child's learning. It's not the sum of the picture and it's not a matter of life and death. It's just three short mornings out of the 203 days of the school year - and all children have had the opportunity to be well prepared for it - no matter what their level of achievement.

Best of luck to all our Year 3, 5 and 7 students this week - I know you will do your best, and this is all we ask.