Information
for parents

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, language conventions (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and numeracy.

The tests provide parents and schools with an understanding of how individual students are performing at the time of the tests. NAPLAN tests are just one aspect of a school’s assessment and reporting process; they do not replace ongoing assessments made by teachers about student performance.

NAPLAN tests also provide 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 assesses literacy and numeracy skills that students are learning through their regular classroom activities. As such excessive preparation or coaching is not required. You can help your child prepare for NAPLAN by reassuring them that the tests are just one part of their school program, and by reminding them on the day to simply try their best. NAPLAN is not about passing or failing, but about assessing learning progress. See the NAPLAN website for examples of the test.

All students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 are expected to participate in the annual NAPLAN tests.

If your child regularly utilises adjustments in their classroom, it may be possible for these to be used. Where applicable you are encouraged to discuss the use of disability adjustments for your child with your child’s teacher.

A formal exemption may be granted for a student with significant intellectual disability and/or significant coexisting conditions, or for a student who has recently arrived in Australia and has a non-english speaking background. Your school can give you more information on disability adjustments or the process required to gain a formal exemption.

Where possible, schools are encouraged to arrange for individual students who are absent at the time of testing to complete missed tests at another time during the testing week. The test timetable can be found on the NAPLAN website.

Please note the facilitation of catch up test for individual student are up to schools’ discretion.

Each individual student that completes NAPLAN is issued with an Individual Student Report. Individual student performance is shown on a national achievement scale for each test.

Students and parents may use individual results to discuss progress with teachers. Teachers use results to help them better identify students who require greater challenges or additional support. Schools use results to identify strengths and weaknesses in teaching programs and to set goals in literacy and numeracy. School systems use results to review programs and support offered to schools.

For more information about NAPLAN, contact your child’s school.

Personal information about children and their parents/carers is collected by the VCAA as part of the administration in Victoria of the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN). This information is collected on behalf of ACARA and in order to enable the VCAA to provide individual student reports to Victorian students.

ACARA’s privacy notice is here, which sets out the purposes for which information related to the administration of the NAPLAN tests is collected and the conditions under which it is collected.

In addition, the VCAA may provide a student’s VSN and NAPLAN test results to any school previously attended, and any school the student attends after the NAPLAN test, in order to both improve learning outcomes for the particular student and improve teaching outcomes at the student's current school, and any school they attended before or attend after the NAPLAN test.

View the VCAA Privacy Policy.

View full collection notice.