Academic Focus
NAPLAN ONLINE IN 2022
At Trinity, we focus upon understanding assessment as an opportunity for students to show what they CAN do. When we think about assessment in this way, it is about celebrating growth and identifying next steps for learning. This week, as I usually do at this point in the year, I’d like to frame the coming NAPLAN tests as another opportunity to celebrate learning growth – and provide some information about the 2022 online NAPLAN tests.
The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) assesses literacy and numeracy skills that are essential for every child to progress through school and life. Students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 participate in the annual NAPLAN tests 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 a school’s assessment and reporting process – it does not replace ongoing assessments made by teachers about student performance and it is not used for class placements or formal semester reporting at Trinity.
Like the vast majority of students across Australia, students at Trinity’s Preparatory School, Junior School, Summer Hill and Field Studies campuses will sit NAPLAN online. One of the main benefits of NAPLAN online is its capacity to deliver tailored testing, where the test automatically adapts to an individual student’s test performance by presenting questions of higher or lower complexity. This allows all students to work at their own point of challenge and allows the test to measure student achievement more precisely.
The assessment window for 2022 NAPLAN online is between 10 and 20 May (Term 2 Weeks 3 and 4). Precise scheduling information will be provided to each Year group early in Term 2.
Students in Year 3 will hand-write their writing test and will use School devices and school-supplied headphones, in their own classrooms, to complete the other tests. Students in Year 5 will use School devices and school-supplied headphones to complete all tests. The School will ensure all devices are set up with the software required for the testing, and Specialist IT support will be available during all testing windows. Practice opportunities will be available to students in classroom settings before the end of Term 1.
Students in Years 7 and 9 will use their own devices for NAPLAN online. This will require the installation of a ‘lockdown browser’ to ensure the security of the testing platform. Instructions for downloading the lockdown browser have been provided by email to students and parents. Parents of students in Years 7 and 9 are asked to support their sons’ access to the online environment by ensuring the lockdown browser has been installed. A practice session next week, Week 9, will check the lockdown browsers and provide opportunity for students to familiarise themselves with the test platform. Students will require a fully charged device and a set of headphones to suit their device, so they can comfortably participate in the practice sessions.
The public demonstration site contains FAQs and access to some practice items to allow students to become familiar with the layout of the online tests.
More information about NAPLAN Online 2022 is available for students in Years 7 and 9 in this letter from the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), for students in Years 3 and 5 in this letter and for parents in this letter.
Parents and carers may find this information from NESA useful. You are warmly invited to contact your School campus if you have further questions about NAPLAN online in 2022.
Deborah Williams | Academic Dean
