NAPLAN testing yesterday was a breeze for these first timers from St Philomena's Primary School.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Year 3 students were among one million Year 3, 5, 7, and 9 students across Australia to sit the controversial literacy and numeracy tests over three days.
And while there was no hint of controversy for these students who completed their first day of their NAPLAN test yesterday, some said they were not sure why they were doing it.
Identical twins Hannah and Ruby Dunn, along with William Varian, Tony Palucci and Lara Farraway, all said the writing test was "easy".
"You should have made it harder," William said.
Hannah said she liked the writing and punctuation in yesterday’s testing.
“You had to pick the missing word in the sentence,” Ruby said of one part of the exam.
For Lara, she said she knew exactly why she was being asked to take the test.
“It’s for the teachers not for us, it’s to tell the teachers where we’re up to,” she said.
For the first time the writing test was kept secret so students could not prepare in advance, this was introduced following much talk over recent years of excessive coaching.
St Philomena’s Primary School principal James Farr was not concerned about the secretive nature of the writing test.
“They had sealed bags but it made no difference,” he said.
Mr Farr said he not fazed by the controversial NAPLAN tests, but said the information collected can be useful for school’s to adjust their curriculum if needed.
“Last year we discovered we needed to do a bit more inferential reading,” he said.
“They [students] need to look beneath what the words are saying.”
Mr Farr said this will benefit students by helping them to problem solve throughout life.
“Kids expect things to be given to them and if something stumps them they need to read between the lines,” he said.
Mr Farr downplayed pressure put on children by parents, teachers and schools, and said at St Philomena’s Primary School the day is considered like any other.
“We don’t make a big deal of it ... it helps us measure performance but it doesn’t tell us anything we don’t know,” he said.
“It’s just another test, just part of the school year. It tells us what they’ve learnt in the past.”
NAPLAN testing continues with reading tests today and numeracy tomorrow.
