Naplan - how hard is this?

[i-need-a-martini]

I have been trying to help my daughter plan and study for Year 7 Naplan and I give up!

The reading task is so complicated and the maths is impossible for me. The latter I can understand as maths isn't my strong point but reading and comprehension is something I have always been good at.

I can only suggest that my daughter (who has a learning difficulty) do what she can but I suspect most of her pages will be blank!

Anyone elses kids doing Year 7 Naplan at the moment?

[azureline**]

No one said it was disability funding.

[i-need-a-martini]

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@krylekathe wrote:
NAPLAN results have nothing to do with funding eligibility. At all. Ever.

Children who miss out out due to absences have to make up the tests that week. Therefore, no one can miss out by being asked to stay home unless they stay home all week.

These are facts.

Parents can be asked if they wish to exempt there children. If a child has a disability they should be, no point stressing them over something that serves no purpose for them to do it.

Parents make that choice. Some choose to make their kids sit it to prove a point - that the child is struggling. However the results don't have anything to do with disability funding, so it's a pointless exercise that makes kids suffer unnecessarily.

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I'm not even sure what you are talking about.  All kids stress over NAPLAN but the test does serve a number of purposes. My child does have a disability but it is as important for her (and us) and the school to understand her positioning.

In regards to funding, something like Naplan is a very good guide for government in regards to funding. Last years results showed some huge disparities between states and between regional and metro areas.

A decade of results will provide incredibly good statistical information for our education departments and where funding priorities need to be.

[lloydslights]

To no one in particular.

Children often reflect the behaviour of adults around them. They copy.  (eg. Struggle Street) 

I believe, children who are stressed about tests is a mirror of talk and actions of their teachers and parents about testing.  And those adults are stressed because they consider they (the adults) are being judged through their children's results.

Of course, there are exceptions.

DEB

[azureline**]

I am pretty old...... but I do remember stressing over the tests that we had to do at school, the State testing, as well as the school tests.

[raptor_rebooted]

stress is normal.

it is not normal when it stops you from

doing the exams.   

but i think in most cases - not doing naplan

suits the parents more than the children.

[krylekathe1]

"Asking children to stay away potentially rips them off with any extra funding that might have come their way if the results indicate it's necessary. "

Incorrect. NAPLAN data and results have nothing to do with funding. Individual disability funding is based on many things. NAPLAN is not one.

Also, a NAPLAN test should never be used to show where a child is sitting in comparison with others in their year level. The school should be using ongoing formative & summative assessment for this purpose. NAPLAN data is a tool to see how a school is going & can be used to guide a schools curriculum.

As a teacher, NAPLAN data can be useful, when looking as a whole school, or even year level. No teacher I know has ever used it as a measure of how a student is going. I'd be very concerned if a teacher was doing this. I'd be changing schools.

Some of the brightest kids struggle with it, and sometimes the lower kids fluke good scores. But that's rare.

[azureline**]

No one has linked Naplan to disability funding.

Funding is always an option in schools that are clearly below the national standard.

[rabbitearbandicoot]

WHY is testing kids so stressful? There have been weekly / monthly tests / Half yearly and Yearly exams ever since Adam was a lad.

What's the problem? Are today's kids different to 10 / 20 /30 years ago? Is it another example of keeping kids wrapped in cotton wool?

[azureline**]

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@rabbitearbandicoot wrote:

WHY is testing kids so stressful? There have been weekly / monthly tests / Half yearly and Yearly exams ever since Adam was a lad.

What's the problem? Are today's kids different to 10 / 20 /30 years ago? Is it another example of keeping kids wrapped in cotton wool?

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It's the media attention that is making it stressful.

Some children with special needs may find it causes anxiety, so their parents choose to withold them from any kind of testing. (that is their right but it isn't the schools right to exclude them)

[rabbitearbandicoot]

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@azureline** wrote:

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@rabbitearbandicoot wrote:

WHY is testing kids so stressful? There have been weekly / monthly tests / Half yearly and Yearly exams ever since Adam was a lad.

What's the problem? Are today's kids different to 10 / 20 /30 years ago? Is it another example of keeping kids wrapped in cotton wool?

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It's the media attention that is making it stressful.

Some children with special needs may find it causes anxiety, so their parents choose to withold them from any kind of testing. (that is their right but it isn't the schools right to exclude them)

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I am talking about ordinary kids not special needs kids. What's wrong with them doing tests / exams? Certainly when they get out of school they are going to have to compete.

My youngest son is a special needs child - there was never any question of him doing any written test - as he cannot read - He was brain and vision damaged at birth.