STUDENTS on Yorke Peninsula began their NAPLAN testing today (Tuesday, May 10).
The National Assessment Program — Literacy and Numeracy assesses the key learning areas of reading, writing, numeracy and conventions of language of students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9.
For the first time, testing will be completed almost entirely online, with year 3 students the only set to complete a handwritten writing test.
Schools have also been granted extra time and flexibility to complete the testing, with the program extending until Friday, May 20.
At Ardrossan Area School, there are 10 year 3 students, 21 in year 5, 20 in year 7 and 10 in year 9 who will complete the assessment.
Principal Margaret Roads said the school is always well prepared for the yearly testing program.
“We have had consistent growth during the past couple of years as a result of the evidence-based practices implemented across the school, including InitiaLit and Heggerty Phonemic Awareness at reception, year 1 and year 2 and reciprocal teaching,” she said.
“It will be interesting to see if the challenges of Covid impact the results but regardless we will use the NAPLAN results, along with our other data sets, to inform our teaching and learning plans across the year levels.”
More than 300 students will complete NAPLAN at Kadina Memorial School, the most of any school on the peninsula.
“In total, 50 NAPLAN sessions are planned for years 3 to 9 students to cover the four aspects — Writing, Reading, Conventions of Language and Numeracy,” head of middle school Tarryn Germein said.
“If a student is absent for the day, they then need to catch up the missed test when they return to the school and all tests are completed in an online environment, apart from year 3 writing which is handwritten.”
Minister for Education Blair Boyer said it’s important to remember NAPLAN isn’t about passing or failing.
“It is just one tool that is used by schools and teachers to determine how a student’s learning is developing,” he said.
“NAPLAN is tailored to each age group in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 to evaluate how skills are developing in writing, reading, spelling, grammar, punctuation and numeracy.
“We just need to remind our kids we only ask they do the best they can on the day.”