NAPLAN

The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) forms part of Australia’s National Assessment program.

NAPLAN tests the skills that are essential for every child to progress through school and life, including:

• reading
• writing
• spelling
• grammar
• numeracy.

NAPLAN places additional information in the hands of teachers. This allows for more targeted support for students to make sure they’re gaining important literacy and numeracy skills. 

Dates for the NAPLAN test window can be found on the NESA website.

NAPLAN improvements

In 2022, Australian Education Ministers agreed to improvements to NAPLAN.

From 2023, NAPLAN takes place in Term 1 (rather than Term 2).

This gives teachers the additional information they need about student performance earlier in the year.

In 2022, new proficiency standards were also introduced. From 2022, student achievement in NAPLAN is reported using proficiency standards for each assessment area at each year level. The standards are set at a challenging but reasonable expectation of what students know and can do at the time of testing. There are 4 proficiency levels:

• Exceeding: the student’s result exceeds expectations at the time of testing
• Strong: the student’s result meets challenging but reasonable expectations at the time of testing
• Developing: the student’s result indicates that they are working towards expectations at the time of testing
• Needs additional support: the student’s result indicates that they are not achieving the learning outcomes that are expected at the time of testing. They are likely to need additional support to progress satisfactorily.

NAPLAN training

The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), state and territory education departments, and non-government school authorities work with schools and systems to ensure they are well prepared for the annual delivery of NAPLAN.

We work with NESA and the other NSW education sectors to prepare for participation in the delivery of NAPLAN in Catholic schools.