BY SHANKARI CHANDRAN
At a recent parents’ drinks, I was asked by a mother whether I had made my daughter do any practice NAPLAN* tests. Naturally, I lied like the relaxed mummy that I most certainly am not.
This week my little Prima (aged 8 ) has NAPLAN. It’s her first brush with standardised education and also mine, as a parent.
More importantly, it’s a reminder to myself that Prima might not make the standards set by others or myself.
You see, I can “do” most forms of standardised testing (except reverse parallel parking tests). All you have to do is tell me what the expected standard is, point me in the right direction, and like a greyhound, I will mindlessly chase after the mechanical rabbit. I can’t help it; it’s some weird Pavlovian reaction.
During the Christmas holidays, I printed off a NAPLAN test from the site and I asked Prima to do it. I returned 45 minutes later to find that she had answered a handful of questions and then illustrated the rest of the exam booklet beautifully.
I’ve had years of life coaching (courtesy of a former employer) to control the over-anxious achiever within me and to “learn a new and more constructive dialogue with myself and others”. For example, I almost religiously repeat the following mantra to my children:
-Your marks are not important;
- It’s about doing your best not being The Best;
- It’s about being the best you can be, not being The Best;
- Mummy will be happy if you try your hardest (alternatively insert “best”);
- Learning and having fun is the most important thing Mummy wants.
I wonder if my children sense I am faking it; that despite what I say, their grades really do matter to me. To put this into context, my (fully extended) family and community (you know who you are) are the kind of people who:
- instinctively want to get “full marks” on all tests, including driving tests, eye tests, apgar tests and blood tests;
- ask “What happened to the other 2%?” when you manage a grade average of 98%;
- don’t really believe doing your best is good enough if Your Best is not The Best, despite what that life coach keeps saying.
I have 4 children, which means that our family will collectively sit NAPLAN 64 times ie. 4 (children) x 4 (Years 3,5,7 and 9) x 4 (subject areas); plus 104 school reports plus the HSC = OMG.
So I need to get a grip now. Prima’s NAPLAN is far more a test for me than for her. Prima may answer her NAPLAN questions, she may illustrate them. Who knows? Together we have a long road of education ahead and I want her to love it. I want her to value herself for her strengths and find her own definition of success, instead of being tied forever to the standard one. She’s not a greyhound and lucky for her, she’s not me.
*This piece is not about the merits of NAPLAN, that debate was held last year on Mamamia and it is an excellent read. Nor is it a discussion about the current education paradigm and whether it’s working well or out-dated. If you’re interested, you should check out Sir Ken Robinson:
It’s 11minutes long and more informative than the things I usually search on Youtube (did you know you can watch Knight Rider re-runs on Youtube?).
Shankari Chandran is a recent returner to Australia after ten years in London. Formerly a social justice lawyer, Shankari chronicles the day-to-day of her family’s return on her blog here.
Do your child’s grades matter to you? Do you tell them it’s just the effort that counts? Are you faking it?
Comments
170 Comments so far
My children always do really well on Naplan (which of course I am thrilled about) This year I have one in year 9, and one in year 7 sitting the tests. My younger sons school p&c gave the students “Naplan Survival Kits” (a little box with treats in it) I thought it was a lovely idea. Older son was very jealous
They both do some Naplan practice at school – but the emphasis seems to be on becoming familiar with the format of the test and the type of questions rather than the content. I don’t make them do extra at home.
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Shankari, I am you.
I can’t write any more for fear of incriminating myself. My children have no idea how much I want them to do well. I mean REALLY well. In my mind, I too will question that 2%.
My eldest daughter is 7. It’s going to be a long road.
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This is so me and not just with academic stuff. Last year in prep my daughter came very last in the cross country. I know athletics won’t be her thing but i was shocked. She’s a good swimmer and very good ballerina so I didn’t expect it. It’s okay, I said the right to her. Did that stop me trying to train her down at the park this year? Hell no!!
You’ll be pleased to know she came second last this year
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Funny! Prima came 67th in cross country, she was thrilled. I love the way she runs. I used to come last which added to the mortification of having to run in skungees. Seriously, who invented those things? Thank you for reading and commenting to you and InKL, I feel less like crazy mummy!
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Really liked your honesty!! I think I’m exactly the same – mainly because I know as a child it was those students who “won” or came “first” who got all the accolades. It’s riduculous what are we rewarding – genetics?? Even if it is sheer hard work that has resulted in excellent results is this really a desirable trait? Working hard to be better than other people?? What a shame there isn’t the same prestige surrounding kindness, respect, resileince, effort etc as there is around winning!
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My son recently had interviews for two private schools in our area for Year 7 for 2014. Both of these schools asked for a recent report and a copy of his last NAPLAN results which were Grade 3 so some time ago. NAPLAN is seen by them as an external reporting tool.
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Honestly? The only reason I care how my kids go in NAPLAN is because it might affect where they go to high school. Once they’re in I could barely be bothered looking at the results because I think they mean so little. That said, I think it’s outrageous private and independent schools ask for NAPLAN results in the first place. It’s lazy and opportunistic and the government must ban the practice. Then the test can go back to being what it was meant to be – a snapshot to identify the kids and schools that need help.
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I think it’s outrageous private and independent schools ask for NAPLAN results in the first place. It’s lazy and opportunistic and the government must ban the practice.
I’m not sure why you feel that?
At my kid’s private school they wanted the NAPLAN test results, and a copy of their last three years school reports. The school also then did their own blanket testing of all the years eight students in all the school subjects in the first two weeks of high school.
The school wanted the primary school results and then did their own testing in order to stream the students into the right academic streams for them.
No parent wants their child in a position where they can’t cope with the workload and high school is a stressed misery, anymore than any parent wants wants their child bored to death in the classroom because the work is to easy for them.
Our school had students with a wide range of academic abilities. Of the 140 in the year level, only around twenty were very bright. They were the kids who went on to do subjects like physics and calculus.
The rest of the student body fitted elsewhere in the scheme of things. Not every child can be academic. About 50% of the students don’t do the Universiy Entrance Exams because they weren’t interested in going to university, they did a VET course and became things like mechanics and plumbers.
I don’t think that my kid’s private school was an exception to the rule. Schools can’t base their selections on just the very bright academic kids because there aren’t enough very bright academic kids to go around all the schools. Far more kids aren’t bright than are bright (IMO).
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I think it’s outrageous because the info is being paid for by the government and private schools are being lazy and using it to choose the kids who test best. I applied for places for two of my kids at private schools – no interview, no independent testing – just reports, NAPLAN and if I say so myself, a killer application form. They were accepted but I subsequently declined the places for a number of reasons. I think the concept of NAPLAN is a good one but, to Shankari’s point, the pressure it puts on families is unnecessary. You know, I really wouldn’t be bothered if my kids were tested and I wasn’t told the results. If the data is really for resource planning purposes, not rating schools and students I can’t see why it should be shared.
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An interesting point. I wonder if the government considered structuring NAPLAN differently so that the results were given to the school, but not linked to students? So the school knew how many students scored each level of achievement, but not which students they were.
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Yes. Exactly
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I applied for places for two of my kids at private schools – no interview, no independent testing – just reports, NAPLAN and if I say so myself, a killer application form.
All private schools would have their own selection processes so I can only comment on the private Christian high school that my kids attended.
There were only 140 kids in the year level but there were hundreds on the “waiting list”, the school chose their students from that list.
The selection process the school used were 1/3 of the students were practising United Church Religion (It was a United Church School), 1/3 of the students were practising Christians from other religions and the last 1/3 were non religious students.
My kids got in on the ‘practising Christians from other religions’ intake. Those students were chosen by the report into the family that was give by their Parish Priest. You had to do more than just go to church you had to be actively involved in the church parish type programs i.e. be actively involved with something like the ‘Vinnies’, and be on the counting rosters etc.
I have no idea what selection criteria the school used to choose the non religious kids.
It was only after my children were formally accepted by the school and as part of the actual enrolment that we had to supply the NAPLAN results and their school reports.
By then their results good or bad would have made no difference as they had already been given a place in the school. The school needed that information to help it stream the incoming students (plus they did their own testing).
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Regarding private and independent schools requesting NAPLAN results, it depends.
If the school doesn’t enroll children who aren’t achieving benchmarks, or even preferences children with better results – that is very worrying.
However if they are using them to identify students who will require extra support (which is what my husband’s State School do) I don’t have a problem with it.
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But why do they need to “identify students who will require extra support” before those students have been accepted & enrolled?
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In the case of my husbands school, they are a state school and are required to accept everyone. They liase with the feeder primary schools (NAPLAN is one of the pieces of data they look at, but not the only one) to identify students most at risk. These students are invited to join a special program (they can enter the normal stream if they prefer) Places in the program are limited, so the school try to identify the students who need it the most.
I am only using the example of one specific school here, I understand that other schools may use data to discriminate.
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Because many private schools especially expensive, elitist schools want to pick high performers, or at least no poor performers because their VCE/HSC marks are one of their biggest marketing points. Some in Melb set their own entrance tests as well.
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There are very simple ways for schools to ascertain which students will need support or extension – interview the students and/or look at the school reports that have been very carefully prepared by their teachers.
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For me, NAPLAN just got me thinking more generally (and long term) about my own reactions to education and results. I want the children to do well for the obvious reason that it will help them get into the schools (I want?) and the career that they want much later in life.
The results in that sense are more the tool to achieve that, although I loved my education and the process/experience of it was just as important to me, if not more so, than the outcomes and end places it got me.
But you know me, I try to question and challenge some of my impulses (especially the crazy ones) and reactions – I don’t want my own definitions of success and my own expectations to undermine the children as they work these things out for themselves.
I loved your piece on NAPLAN last year btw, and agree with the diagnostic value of the test. If our school or any of my children need extra help then I want to know about it so the school and I can do something about it.
I recently got a form for a high school for Prima which asked for her NAPLAN results – I was completely confused why this was relevant (we’re still new to the party here) and now that it has been explained to me, I resent it. Selective testing just defeats the intended purpose.
As always, thank you for reading.
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Shankari – if you don’t mind me asking, did you still enrol/ put Prima on the waiting list for the high school asking for NAPLAN results? Just curious, as I am also struggling with these issues at the moment…
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Hey JuiceyJ, I did still enrol her but the forms went in before NAPLAN happened (ie I didn’t have to include them). I am not sure I would have had the courage to say “It’s actually none of your business what her 3rd Grade NAPLAN results were, do your job and teach her”. Good luck with it. x
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Well done! My daughter is in year 4 and did NAPLAN last year so I reluctantly sent in her year 3 report along with the high school application. She did well, so it isn’t that I want to hide her results, but I do resent having to send them to what is supposed to be a non-selective high school.
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My child’s grades mattered a lot to me, especially their maths and English grades.
If they got their maths wrong because they couldn’t understand the concept; that was fine as it wasn’t their fault and they could be taught how to do it. However if they got their maths wrong due to careless mistakes I let them know that I was very disappointed in their efforts.
In their primary school years I didn’t trust the local Government primary school to cover the basics in maths so both my children also did Kumon English and Maths for the seven years that they were in Primary school.
At the end of my children’s primary school years I wanted them towards the top of the heap so that when they went to their private high school they would get into the top extension classes in all subjects which would in turn lead them into the “right” stream to do subjects like calculus and physics in their final years of high school.
That in turn would open up the choices that my kids had in their chosen career paths.
Maths is very much a year by year process and each year feeds off the previous year. If your kids don’t quite get maths in grade three and you don’t ‘fix’ it. And I mean “you” don’t fix it as in not relying on the teacher to ‘fix’ it, you can wipe your child off doing calculus in year 12.
To that end I really liked NAPLAN, I liked the feedback on how my child was performing.
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Very disappointed in their efforts when they made careless mistakes? That is very harsh.
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I read careless mistake as the child wasn’t putting in their best effort. I see nothing wrong with encouraging a child to take an exam seriously enough to give it their best attempt, regardless of the outcome. Our kids know that all we expect from them is to try their best, we don’t pressure them about the marks
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But that’s not how I read her post.
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Well, clearly we both read it differently
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I will add though that the second part of the original post does bother me with tutoring for extension classes, etc. In my opinion, she’s got the wrong idea of what extension classes are even for
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I will add though that the second part of the original post does bother me with tutoring for extension classes, etc. In my opinion, she’s got the wrong idea of what extension classes are even for
I’m not sure what tutoring you are referring to from my comment.
Is it the “Kumon?” I didn’t do the Kumon in primary school so that my kids could get into an extention class in high school. I did it for the maths.
Re the “Kumon”: My son started in year 3. I had never heard of “Kumon” but they contacted our school and offered a scholarship to 2 students from grade three. They wanted a real smart kid and a kid that was struggling so they could use the progress made by both students as a way of advertising their program. They wanted to prove that it worked for both types of students.
The school offered the “smart” spot to me for my son. My daughter was in year 1 so I also enrolled her and paid for her.
I think that Kumon is great, my kids loved the challenge and they still have all their maths and English trophes in their bedrooms.
At our private high school the extention classes were to keep the top 20 students together so that they could work as a team and give support to each other. The top students was a flexible thing and over the years kids moved in and out of it. Some students who didn’t get in initially got in later and some students who didn’t show their initial promise or didn’t like the work load opted out of it.
she’s got the wrong idea of what extension classes are even for
I don’t know what the extension classes were for or like at your school. But I would be interested in hearing about it. I’m interested in how other schools operate.
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Very disappointed in their efforts when they made careless mistakes? That is very harsh.
Careless mistakes is a bad mindset and habit. You have to be aware in life and not be careless and make mistakes. You may think me harsh but well, that’s life.
If you can’t do something that’s fine, but if you are slap dash and put in no effort that’s not fine
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Catgirl I don’t know you or your children so I’m trying not to make judgements on your family dynamic, or what works for you or your kids, based on the few comments you have made here. Perhaps your children share your focus and ambition and deal well with pressure?
But I know that it can be very easy, particularly for teenagers, to become hyperfocused on school results and get into a mindset where their success in life and future happiness comes directly from a test or HSC results. Your comments make me uncomfortable because they seem like they could encourage that unhealthy mindset.
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Perhaps your children share your focus and ambition and deal well with pressure?
Yeah they did. They were very academic and they liked being “smart”.
where their success in life and future happiness comes directly from a test or HSC results.
I think that a satisfying life and thus a happy life comes from being successful in your chosen field.
Does money make you happy? no it does not. But what money does for you, is what makes you happy, having money to pay your rent and not having to worry about your next power bill, having food on the table and being able to buy shoes for your children is what brings you happpiness.
These days at school you don’t need to be academically bent to have a satisfying and rewarding school life that leads you to success in your chosen field.
As I mentioned in one of my other comments at my kid’s private school only about 50% of the kids do the University Entrance Exams, the rest of the kids who aren’t academically bent do VET classes which leads them into tafe or they get apprenticeships.
I think that we are all born with a certain potential and as parents we should help our kid reach their potential where ever it may be. If my children’s potential wasn’t to be academic all the maths coaching in the world wouldn’t have made it possible for my daughter to do University economics, all it would have done is drive my daughter over a cliff.
Your comments make me uncomfortable because they seem like they could encourage that unhealthy mindset.
I hope that I’ve put you mind somewhat at rest
I’ve written a few comments in reply to what other people have said to me because this subject is of a lot of interest to me. If you read them you’ll see that for my years my daughter was heavily into growing up to be a musician, so you can see I didn’t have her tied down to her chair as I force fed maths into her 
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This is the paragraph that made me uncomfortable
At the end of my children’s primary school years I wanted them towards the top of the heap so that when they went to their private high school they would get into the top extension classes in all subjects which would in turn lead them into the “right” stream to do subjects like calculus and physics in their final years of high school.
That in turn would open up the choices that my kids had in their chosen career paths.
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yes, how can the child know what career they want in Primary school ?
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yes, how can the child know what career they want in Primary school ?
Of course you don’t but it’s good to keep their options open for them. When my daughter was in year 4 she discovered how shiny a saxophone was, and she decided then and there she was going to be a famous saxophone player when she grew up. She begged me for a saxophone and lessons.
So I found a good music teacher who told her a sexophone would be too heavy for her to play, but he would teach her to play a clarinet and after a few years when she grew bigger if she had practised her clarinet every single day he would teach her to play a sax.
So she ended up having clarinet lessons for 9 years plus saxophone lessons for 7 years, but then she decided that there was no money in music unless you were very lucky.
Good thing that during all those years she kept up her maths because she decided to play music for fun (she plays in a jazz band) and she is doing Environmental Economics at University.
It’s all about keeping your children’s options open. As a mother I did what I could to make her dream of growing up to be a musician possible, whilst making sure she had other options.
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Ohh glad your not my mother……
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Ohh glad your not my mother……
Well you can have that opinion based on a couple of comments that I’ve made on an Internet forum if it suits you.
But I’m relatively sure that my children wouldn’t agree with you. They both appear to love me…funny that
My son is now nearly 23 years old, he graduated from UWA with a double degree, spent time at studying at a University in Java, is now working for an International company. Still lives at home (so I can’t be that bad of a mother) has a lot of friends and is a happy productive member of society.
My daughter is doing her honours at University. She is doing Environmental Economics.
In her spare time she plays Sax in a jazz band. (thanks to years of private lessons that I paid for, the Sax that I paid for and all the countless hours of practise that my daughter did)
I assure you my children could have a had a much more unfortunate life than having me for a mother.
She has many friends and a nice boyfriend. She too still lives at home…
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I spoke to a mum last week whose son at a boys private school in Yr9 had been doing naplan practise since halfway through last year….obviously the school is under huge pressure as the massive fees are not reflected in their below average results. She also thought that many private school principals are offered naplan bonuses if their schools results improve. Crazy.
My kids are doing naplan this week and they’re all really relaxed.
Personally I think it should be random. Any day, without warning. This way it will honestly catch the results its supposed to catch. Not what it is now, which is capturing skewed results that kids have been coached for and programmed to do.
Same for selective school entry exams. They should be set in a way that its impossible to be tutored for because often the best kids miss out on spots because they’re too busy having a well rounded life playing sport and going to parties on the weekend, rather than spending all weekend at tutoring.
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Just out of curiosity Lu, have you ever seen a selective school test? I tutored a girl for about 6 months leading up to this year’s selective school test, for about 45 minutes a week. And I can tell you that these are not tests which could be sat for successfully without some form of help, whether that is in fact Mum or Dad, tutoring or the student doing extra work themselves.
In the 6 months I tutored, I saw many improvements in my student. This came about through her hard work and efforts. While I was providing the practise materials, I would guide rather than spoon feed, unless a concept or term was completely unfamiliar to her. See, that test doesn’t simply test year 5 or 6 content, but tests harder concepts and also has an expectation that students have a very broad vocabulary and general knowledge.
While I do not yet know the results of the test, I do know my student danced, socialised, was school captain and the only assistance she received was the 45 minutes per week. At the end of the day, it won’t make much difference if she gets in or not; I went to a non-selective high school and got a UAI in the high 80s. A friend of mine went to a selective school and got a low enough UAI to have to do a bridging course to get into a teaching degree. Now, both of us are employed in casual/temp positions. At the end of the day, it really doesn’t make much difference. Tutoring will only take someone so far. The rest is up to them.
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Emma, that was a really interesting comment.
My eldest is only 5, so this is not something I have thought much about…but I am curious, do you think if the child just had a well-rounded life at home in terms of learning, that that would be enough to pass a selective high school test? What I mean is, if the child read a lot of books, went to museums and galleries, had hobbies, played sport, talked to people often, was generally curious and interested in things, and did well at school, would that be enough? I guess it would sort of be like involving the tutoring side of things in to every day life, rather than a sit-down session once a week.
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You know, I think the kind of well rounded life you describe would help immensely. The difficulty with the selective schools test is that through the types of questions it asks, it is looking for a certain kind of thinker and problem solver. But having said that, this was the first (and probably only) time I’ll be tutoring in that area, so my observations are from a somewhat limited experience.
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That’s the point though – they need to be that kind of thinker to go to a selective/OC. You wouldn’t keep up day to day in class otherwise. Those tests are to see if you CAN extend yourself and your thinking in something you haven’t encountered before.
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Yes, but what is wrong with a little bit of help? I guided, rather than taught and never left extra work to do. The girl I worked with was identified as bright enough to do it by her teacher. I get that things were different back in the day, but why begrudge those who get a little help to manage the test? What you are doing is making a huge generalisation that all students who get academic help prior to getting into a selective school need more help all the way through. If that was the case, I’d be tutoring a lot more than I am!
Also, government selective schools at least have to follow the BOS curriculum in NSW…so at the end of the day, students in government schools are all learning the same content. The presentation and activities related to this will differ. This alone does not mean these students are thinking differently or more about a certain topic. From my experience, the top kids are more worried about what they need to do to get top marks and stay in the box, than they are in independent thought and expressing their own ideas.
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No, I’m not making that generalisation. Please don’t put up a strawman to justify your having trained someone for it and to suit your points. I don’t begrudge anyone anything, I feel sorry for them if they need that training to make the grade in the first place, and then to carry on keeping up. OC and Selective schools aren’t the be all and end all, as you yourself point out. I actually think some kids do better as a big fish in a little pond – I’ve been in both situations, and both had their positives and negatives. The fact still remains though, OC and Selective kids do do more challenging stuff, and they are expected to grasp it quicker than the average bear, so it would be a shitty existence to have to go to tutoring *just to keep up*.
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Good to see that educational elitism is alive and well and that age, not experience (yes, I am a teacher) determines if you are right or wrong. Put simply, I’m guessing Kris that it was 20+ years ago since you did the OC or any selective test. All I am saying is that I have more up to date knowledge and that educational procedures and systems change over time. And may I politely point out that doing a teaching degree at the moment does not mean one knows everything about a topic. My experience is that the less you assume to know about education, the more you can learn from such a career path.
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Emma, you have no idea of my experiences either at uni, school or actual life experience. You seem to be making a LOT of assumptions about me and again, just throwing them out there. I can only assume in an attempt to put up strawmen again.
Re educational elitism – you’re the one working as a private tutor. What do you call that if not educational elitism? Working for the greater good?
Must try harder. B.
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Lu has commented before that she went to OC (like me) and a selective school. I know I never got coached in how to do the test to go to OC, and I doubt anyone would have been back in our day. We got identified and they had us sit the test. I feel really sorry for kids who are coached to even get into OC or selective schools and then have to be coached to keep up. That’s no way to live. I don’t have a problem with tutoring if you have a specific problem area, but not for everything just to keep up in OC or at a selective school.
One of my tutors at uni had an OC class, and she said it was really common for the kids to go from school to tutoring every day. And she gave them projects to develop them socially because they had ended up so focussed on academics that they had bugger all social skills.
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I also went to OC and got a place at North Sydney Girls. At this stage the tests were open to everyone (I’m 23), and there were practice tests/books around but my mum didn’t think it was necessary.
I completely agree with you re coaching – I saw “coaching to keep” up in my semi-selective (private) high school in extension maths, chemistry, physics etc and it’s sad – the parents clearly couldn’t accept that their kids were talented in other things than purely academics.
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one of good friend’s son’s has been doing naplan homework in year two for year three. again it was a private school whose results were pretty bad, although not a really expensive school. she was really annoyed that it was being sent home for homework and therefore something she had to do!
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I actually went to a selective school so my feelings come from my own experience. I went through before it was the humungous deal it appears to be amongst some parents today. We went to school in Yr6, sat a test and our parents were sent the results in the mail a few months later. None of us knew it was coming up or knew what it was for and none of us were coached for it.
Towards the end of high school, as the profile of selective schools started to increase, we had a large intake for Yr11. As we got to know them we discovered that they had all been tutored to get in and then had to continue to be able to maintain their results. None of these girls could come to birthday parties or to see a movie because they all had to go to tutoring or study. They struggled socially because they couldnt enjoy a normal teenage girls life and school was a challenge for many of them. We were all secretly thrilled that the girl who duxed our year was a girl who was so brilliant she didnt need tutoring. And thats my point. Selective schools were designed for gifted and talented kids who needed extending beyond what is offered in the mainstream school environment. I drove past a tutoring college on Saturday and there was a queue at the door of kids with bags and satchels waiting to go in. I’m sure their parents think they are giving them a fabulous opportunity, but when weekends are spent doing school work, that potential opportunity is at the expense of playing a Saturday morning sport or going to see a movie with friends. If the kids were naturally bright enough to get into a selective school they could enjoy being a kid and do well at school as well. I just think the whole world of kids being tutored to get into a selective school has become crazy. Selective schools were for the brightest kids who are bored at a regular school, not the kids who have been tutored to get the highest marks.
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Sorry, Lu, commented above before seeing your response!
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Great point Lu, if you are not bright enough to go to a selective school why would you want to go there anyway? People should embrace their unique skills and go after the things they find enjoyable and are actually good at.
I am an academic tutor for year 12 students myself, but I can only work with the clay I am given to mould, and I would never recommend forcing a child down a path of academic rigour unless they truly love it. You will end up spending hundreds of thousands of dollars and they will just bomb out at uni anyway. Academic tutoring is certainly helpful for kids who have a slower learning curve or don’t do well in the group learning situation of schools, but constant tutoring from a young age just restricts the mind in my opinion. Especially all that repetitive crap that kumon does.
I remember sitting the scholarship tests in year 6 without having any tutoring, alongside a girl who had 2 years of tutoring and had to earn homework points to be able to play with her friends. You can’t force a kid to be bright and needless to say it wasn’t the tutored girl who got the scholarship!
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Knight rider? Really? That’s it, now I definitly won’t get any work done.
I thought my reaction to my 8 year old sitting NAPLAN would be very similar to yours but I am actually finding I don’t see the merits in this test so I am not feeling the pressure for my son to do well. I wonder if I will change my mind if the results actually come back and he has done badly. I suppose only time will tell.
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Shankiri, thanks so much for your story. I am the mother of an autistic boy who is 8 years old. I was in 2 minds about doing the test and not doing it. I was in the “no” camp until the principal of his school rang me and said they are applying for special consideration and his aide would be there to read out the questions. Naplan is not a competition. It is simply a diagnostic tool for schools to assess their curriculum. We should stop putting so much pressure on our kids to “perform”.
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Thank you Amber for your comment. I think it’s wonderful that your school will support your son doing the test. I agree with you about its diagnostic value and unnecessary pressure. I want to make sure that I don’t add to that pressure inadvertently or otherwise, given the high pressure environment high school seems to have become. I am a competitive person and what I would really like for my children in this area is an enjoyment of competition, some perspective on it and most importantly the ability to deal with disappointment. Schools go a long way, especially primary schools, to teaching our children how to cope with pressure, how to react and how to participate. It sounds like yours is a good school with a healthy attitude to it. I think (and hope) ours is the same – it was lovely to see all the kids come out of NAPLAN yesterday laughing about as they should be and then getting on with the usual business of planning playdates.
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All 3 of my kids are doing Naplan this week – Years 5, 7 and 9.
Both schools have done some preliminary work in the lead up, but it has appeared to be more about familiarising them with what they will be doing rather than drilling them.
I just tell my kids to do their best, and that is all that matters.
I can’t ask for any more than that, and I’m certainly not going to make them feel it is the be all and end all.
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lol! My children are still small and not at test sitting stage yet- but I envision myself similarly ‘faking’ nonchalance over marks. I am definitely the sort of person who aims for full marks and feel as though I’m failing if I achieve anything less then High Distinction. With three small kids at home while studying for my BA I’m trying to focus on the mantra ‘P’s get Degrees’- so who knows maybe I really will have mellowed out by the time my kids hit NAPLAN… we’ll see
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Ah Emily, that was me from preschool right through to, you know, well, yesterday. Mellowing is one of my life objectives. Good luck with the BA!
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Oh Shankari, I am just like you.
I really want to be the relaxed supportive mum who just wants them to do their best but deep down I cant help but want them to do really well. This is what I would want for myself if it was me doing the test. I set ridiculously high standards for myself so it is really hard to let go and not impose them on my kids. But we have to.
I am too scared to read the book “Tiger Mom” because I am afraid that I will see myself in it.
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I’m struggling to understand. As far as I know Naplan is no passport for the kids, doesn’t affect their university entrance requirements etc, nor their applications as 15 year olds to work at Maccas. I try to achieve and I think my kids are like that too but I wouldn’t bother with naplan because I think it’s irrelevant.
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Replying to myself now I read above about private schools asking for Naplan results for entry. Luckily we like state education better, and it’s a lot cheaper.
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totally agree!
whatever happened to the old boy/girl mentality? i thought private schools prided themselves on that?
i really can’t imagine ‘son of previous head boy’ not being allowed into the school based on poor naplan results?
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Everyone knows with the selective private schools you put them in in year 5 so they don’t have to sit the year 7 entrance exam (except Grammar). But I guess Naplan puts a spanner in the works – maybe you have to commit from kindy now!
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As far as I know Naplan is no passport for the kids, doesn’t affect their university entrance requirements etc,
You’re right in that the piece of paper that parents get with their child’s Naplan results dosn’t get looked at as part of the University entrance requirements.
BUT what the Naplan results show is your child’s ability in maths and English. And your child’s ability in maths and English certainly has a big stake in whether or not your child gets into university.
But of course your child always have the choice to go and work in the fast food outlets.
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One’s ability in maths or english can vary a lot over the school years…I wouldn’t make judgements on a 8 or 9 year old in year 3, saying that their english is terrible, maybe they should get a job at a fast food outlet.
I have never done NAPLAN as it began a year or two after I finished school. However, I did ELLA and SNAP tests which is basically the same thing, but not done all in one week. Now, I always did well enough and very well in some sections, but found this style of test confusing. See, I was quite smart and tended to think that there must be a trick in the questions because the tests were pretty easy. Then I got to year 11 and 12, where English is about analysis and essays. I felt much more confident with that style of English, because there were no tricks.
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Wow- a bit harsh there?
I guess if NAPLAN was the only measure that showed how your child was travelling in English and maths, I’d value it a bit more. As it is, my children receive a report from their school every term (all 4) that also gives me this information, and, I feel, in a more balanced manner- it isn’t based just on one test every two years, nor on work my child may not have covered. (I know- because the school has told us- that some of the topic areas on the Yr 7 maths NAPLAN haven’t yet been covered by my son’s year- but that’s OK because they will be later. Nonetheless, that will definitely make NAPLAN results less reliable for those boys. Similarly, when we lived in WA it was well known that the whole STATE hadn’t covered some of the stuff tested by NAPLAN in gardes 3 and 5- there may be a national test but there is not yet a national curriculum.)
NAPLAN is at best a ballpark estimate of where my child is. I prefer to receive more accurate information from his/her school reports, regular school test and direct communication from their teachers. Just because I don’t put much emphasis on NAPLAN results doesn’t mean I don’t value my child’s education, or aren’t monitoring just what they are (or aren’t) achieving.
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As it is, my children receive a report from their school every term (all 4) that also gives me this information, and, I feel, in a more balanced manner
My primary school teachers always told me that they were not allowed to give a negative comment on a child’s school reports. They had to give a good result in order to cater to the child’s self esteem.
The only way you get to find out how your kid is really doing is to get an independant report. I think that NAPLAN is a good way to get an independant report.
Or of course you can go down to a textbook shop and buy the maths textbooks for your child’s school year and your kid can do them at home, then as a parent you can see yourself how your kid is doing.
In the government primary school that my kids went to they weren’t even issued with a maths book nor did they have a maths book on the school book list. As a parent you had no idea what your kid was supposed to cover in that year level, or if in fact they did cover it. The school did issue reports but they didn’t actually do any maths tests.
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You words are reading as quite intense to me, leading me to think this is more about the opportunities (or lack thereof) you received, and about the way in which you perceive such opportunities to be important for a contented life. Even with high grad post doc degrees most people still end up doing tedious service jobs in Australia at their particular qualification level.
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Independent doesn’t necessarily equal valid, and it’s NAPLAN’s validity that I am concerned with rather than its independence.
I find it terribly sad that you feel you can’t believe the comments on your children’s reports. I certainly don’t feel that way about either of my kids’ schools, and would probably move them if I did. I also feel that I have a good enough rapport with the kids’ teachers that they will approach me if there are any problems, and will be honest with me at formal p/t interviews. And I also supervise both my kids’ homework so I can see if they are grasping the material they are being taught… I guess I’m saying that I use a lot of startegies to keep an eye on how my kids are going and thus don’t rely on one particularly- particularly not a test score every two years from a measure that isn’t necessarily in line with the actual curriculum my children are following.
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I am going to jump in at this point of the chain to comment because talking to you Kylie always makes me feel safe and respected whether we agree or not. In this case we agree. When assessing my children’s progress and abilities in maths/literacy I think I’ll be looking at the whole picture – NAPLAN a little, reports far more and most importantly the teacher feedback I get at informal and formal meetings. Plus I know my children and I want them to be able to read/count not because I want them to ace NAPLAN/HSC but because I want them (a) to have choices in life; and (b) be able to read and count the medication they will need after I’ve parented them. Ours is a lovely school and I could not be more grateful for it and the regular updates I get about the academic progress and social development of our children – they identify the levels of all their kids as much as their resources will permit them, they give extra focus on the most vulnerable as they should, and they teach all of them to achieve their potential. Thank you for reading. x
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Thanks Shanks
Love your work. x
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I suppose the kids could work in a fast food outlet if they wanted – early employment can be a very empowering thing. But I don’t think a naplan test will help their English or Maths. Are you suggesting that I would regard a naplan test as being some form of criteria for how the children will go with English or Maths at year 12 level and I would take some particular action based on its results? I think I can see already how the 9, 14 & 16yo kids are reading and how they work with numbers.
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I know it seems far fetched but studies support that a bad reader in year three will have poor English results in year 12. Now what this means is not that a child who perfoms badly in year 3 can’t do well in year 12 but rather that they are likely to perform badly in year 12.
As catgirl mentioned earlier, each year is a stepping stone to the next and if you’re behind one year, you’re likely to be behind the next year also.
There are exceptions to every rule, but on the whole children don’t miraculously catch up without a whole lot of help from either the school, or their parents, or both.
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Hey G&T, you make me laugh (or is that me making me laugh nervously). I too have not read/bought/borrowed the book, I suspect I am a watered down version (I think children should be allowed to pee during music practice, come on lady).
I think I said it above but I will just put it in again – the NAPLAn thing is just an example of my own attitude to education and the children’s results, which for their sake, I know I need to get a grip on. Obviously acknowledgement is the first step to recovery….
Thank you very much for reading and commenting honestly, I really appreciate it. x
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My children’s school preps the kids for NAPLAN which I disagree with. My kids aren’t stressed, they know to treat it like any other test – try your hardest, read the questions properly….Secretly I would love them to ace any test they do – I am a bit of an over achiever. But I’ve had to accept them for who they are, and they are not me. When it all boils down though, I place a lot of value on education, I feel it’s the passport to the future and to choices. So far my kids like school and like learning – so I’m trying not to mess with it too much! p.s both kids contracted a tummy bug the day before NAPLAN and both have missed the first 2 days
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Year 9 daughter is naplan-ing today. Couldn’t give a rats. Do not understand at all why you would want your daughter to ‘do well’ in them. Sometimes I joke about ‘doing well for her school’ (an ordinary state school), but I don’t care if they run off down the back of the oval to avoid it. Nothing in it for the kids – just a tedious day.
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My son started Year 7 NAPLAN yesterday- thankfully his school has a policy of no practice tests, which I think is 100% appropriate and sensible. How can you get a snapshot of what Aussie kids can and cannot actually do if they’ve all been coached for the test?
Sadly, my daughter’s (primary) school isn’t so laid back. She is in grade 4, so no NAPLAN for her this year- but you know what? She came home last night and told me that her class were given the grade 5 tests to sit as “practice”. What utter rubbish- what sort of practice is sitting a test aimed at a year level above them, covering areas they haven’t been taught, a full 12 months before they sit the test? It’s a recipe for making kids feel pressured and incompetent, and a complete and utter waste of time. I have sent Cam in with a book today. I would rather she sit and read that than do another grade 5 test that means nothing.
*rant over. Thank you for providing a venue! Oh, and there are 5 NAPLAN subject areas/tests at each year level, not 4. Sorry. x
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Sorry Kylie L but there are definitely only 4:
http://www.nap.edu.au/NAPLAN/About_each_domain/index.html
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Four domains, but 5 tests- in Yr 7 my son has/is doing three literacy tasks (reading, grammar/spelling, persuasive writing) and two numeracy tests tomorrow (one with calculator, one without); in grade 3 my daughter did 5 tests too: reading, persuasive writing, grammar, spelling and numeracy. There are definitely 5 tests at year 7 level- possibly there are 4 at grade 3, but they take two separate scores from one. All the NAPLAN result sheets I have had from my kids (4 to date from 2008-2011) show five scores. I just needed to prepare Shankari for that!
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It might be Kylie, that they are doing the test as a way to introduce the students to the format of the exam, rather than practicing the content. As a teacher, I see a lot of the kids struggle just with understanding the way the test is set out, and what they need to do.
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Maybe, except they did NAPLAN in grade 3- and practised that for 2 weeks beforehand so they knew the format. They (the gr 4 class) have also done 5+ practice tests already this year because the grade 3 students in their composite class were doing them. After all that they know the format! And to make them do all 5 papers??? How much practice do they need for a test that is still 12 months away?!
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We don’t do any preparation here. I tell my daughter to do her best and then mostly just help her to deal with the anxiety. She tends to get really stressed about it right from the start of a Naplan year.
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