Last week included the annual NAPLAN testing for the Year 5s. It was interesting that several non-year fives also sat the test, because they wanted to check their own progress with both Literacy and Mathematics. The 5's themselves seemed to take everything in their stride and our on-the-spot assessment was that most kids did pretty well. We have copied all the writing responses and can share them with parents at the Three Way Conferences early in Term 3. The drawing here was completed by one student after she'd finished, was feeling bored and decided to fill in her time with a personal reflection! This student always does well on such tests and explained that she felt it didn't really measure what she knew. Several students expressed similar thoughts when we debriefed later. Overall we felt this was a positive experience for the kids and also a valuable data gathering exercise for us. We use this data in conjunction with our own range of assessments to both plan further learning, and to report on student progress.
