NAPLAN Results

[MissM]

We received DD's NAPLAN results yesterday. DD is where I thought she would be.

Math is a concern for me. She is below the national average. Now this concerns me for a few reasons:

1. DD is in a private school & feel she should have the support when needed. (Even if she was at a public school, I would still expect support!)
2. Why havent I been notified if she is falling behind? Does the teacher feel she is ok or is she slipping through the cracks?

we did have issues with DD's teacher at the beginning of the year, but I had compromised with DD and things seemed to be ok.

Parent/teachers are coming up so I am going to discuss these issues with her teacher AGAIN

I have organised tutoring for DD but wont start until next term.

Its kind of sad that in yr 3 tutoring is required!

How did your children go? Do you think NAPLANs are important enough to go by?

Oh - DD also told me, that her and a few other kids were taken into another room to do the NAPLAN test. I thought all tests were done in the classroom at the same time?

[kawazuki]

we got ours back
DS did well, but not as well as we expected in writing..

yes they are meant to be done in a room supervised.
the children may of been moved if they felt they may of been distracted for some reason

she may just need a push in yr things do start to progress a bit, once she gets taught the basics properly she will be fine hun

[misty]

To be honest, maybe she just isn't very good at maths??? How is she at the rest of her subjects??

I don't think these tests are the best indication of how your child is going - particularly at year 3. And different people are good at different things. I would go and talk to her teachers and see what they have to say about your DD before deciding anything. I do feel tutoring is probably excessive for a yr 3 student, unless that student is falling way behind the rest of the class.

[MissM]

Thats what I thought Kawazuki - but after a year of online tutoring I am seeing small changes with basic math, such as X's tables addition etc, however, the number patterns, fractions, ratio's, money addition & subtraction, equations - YES, EQUATIONS!!(DD is in yr 3 btw)

Math is really our only concern. She is well above average in all other sub's, just math, I would like to bring her to at least the average line. atm she is below it

[mrsmac]

They do them all together in the same room with a supervising teacher. I find it unusual that they would take some kids out.
DD is in Yr 5 and did average, she was above state average in everything but well below our school average which is very very high.

You have to remember that NAPLAN is one day, if she was feeling off or distracted it will change her results, the teacher may well be perfectly happy with her progress and may be surprised at her results as they aren't really indicative of her ability IYKWIM??
I tutor a yr 3 boy but he is behind and just needs to catch up so its not so unusual to get tutoring at that age as its much better to sort it out when they are younger.

[MissM]

They do them all together in the same room with a supervising teacher. I find it unusual that they would take some kids out.
DD is in Yr 5 and did average, she was above state average in everything but well below our school average which is very very high.

Thats what I thought? ... Might have to raise this with the teacher just to ensure the work was DD's and not anyone else's iykwim?

may be surprised at her results as they aren't really indicative of her ability IYKWIM??
I tutor a yr 3 boy but he is behind and just needs to catch up so its not so unusual to get tutoring at that age as its much better to sort it out when they are younger.

Makes sense, but its still concerning, ya know? I'd rather correct any errors or misunderstandings now, b4 DD falls behind any more.

[kawazuki]

i understand.

we do the excell books with cody of an afternoon, they have helped him.

[mrsmac]

Another thing- the national average means different things depending on what state you are in. In NSW we have the highest results because our curriculum is ahead of other states. When I taught in NT their Maths was at least a year behind NSW so its really unfair to compare our children with those in NT because they aren't actually doing the same work. If you aren't in NSW this means it may be less worrying if she is below national average IYKWIM??

[kawazuki]

ahhhhh thats interesting to know

thanx that may explain why the qld results for some schools we are looking at are not very good

[mrsmac]

Exactly!! Until we have a national curriculum the whole system of NAPLAN is flawed.

[MissM]

oh, so in nsw i shouldnt be worried if she is below ave?

[Trillian]

Nae, don't worry too much about it. I second what MrsMac said 100% it is a snapshot of your child's performance on that day. It gives you a good idea of how they are going, but when kids are assessed for learning, that assessing takes many forms - work done throughout the year, effort, improvement on previous assessments etc so it is best to look at the overall picture of her school reports etc rather than just the NAPLAN.

[Beach Mama]

I would be looking at all of her maths work up until this point including previous reports as well as daily class work before this becomes a major concern. Get her to bring her maths workbook home and have a look at what she has been doing all term/year and what kind of errors she might be making and in what area. NAPLAN is hugely flawed as Mrsmac has pointed out. HUGE. Yes all the students do the work together but if she is in a composite grade for eg. they may have split the kids up or they may have split them up according to ability groups etc. Also sometimes they way they ask the questions in NAPLAN is really confusing. I was working through some things on it with some teachers and there were a few questions that as teachers we had to read 2-3 times to understand so imagine how difficult it would be for a yr3 or yr5 student to figure out under stress of a "test". The language used in some of the maths questions seriously needs to be looked at.

Anyhoo tutoring may help but more so would just getting her to use maths in daily life, helping her find counting patterns, using clocks and time, helping with measurement in cooking, adding up in the supermarket, halving and dividing recipes and dinner and the list goes on. Just finding ways in everyday life to get her think mathematically will assist her more greatly than sitting down and working through a book with tutor, although if she does have very serious gaps in her knowledge then it may assist as well.

HtH.

[*becstar*]

Just to crash...man...NAPLAN!! GRRRR!

MrsMac (seems so funny to me, this is what the kids at school call me ) is so right. You should see how Tassie fares under NAPLAN then!! Shocking!

National curriculum is what's needed!

Anyhoo....I'd agree it's one day, and in all honesty it's not a very honest representation of the national "average".

However if maths is already a concern for you then for sure, take it up with DD's teacher.

I hope you get some direction.

xxx

[MissM]

Thanks everyone, I will raise the issue with her teacher & see what he has to say.

I didnt realise there was such a gap with the naplan's .. what on earth is the point of doing them? Seems a bit absurd to me ... ?

[mrsmac]

That's why teachers don't like it Naenae it IS totally absurd!!

Becstar- when I taught the older kids thats what they called me too! My kindies manage to drag out a 3 syllable name into about 15 syllables!!

[glenny_c]

Naenae- I think the other girls are completely right. NAPLAN is a day. It's a snapshot in time. I am a teacher and I taught year 5 through NAPLAN last year. Often students will do better or worse than predicted and I don't believe that NAPLAN is enough to base your opinion about your child's progress. She should have had a mid year report last term, how did she go in maths there?

Until Australia has a national curriculum (starting to come in next year) the idea of having national testing is rediculous! How can you compare children in different states who are learning different things? Especially sine some states have had a prep year for ages and some have only just started having prep. This is the real reason that teachers are against NAPLAN and Myschool (which compares school based on NAPLAN) it isn't that we don't want to be accountable, we just thinlk it should wait until the system is fairer. Sorry- I'll get off my soapbox now! Oops......

[glenny_c]

Meant to say also, sorry. Some students are taken out to work in small groups if the teacher feels either they are too stressed in the test environment or if they are easily distracted, they can also be taken out if it is felt that they need extra help, such as the test being read to them. However, if your daughter was taken out she absolutely needed to be supervised by a teacher aide or someone. The tests are quite prescriptive, teacers are given scripts for how to explain the tests etc, it would have been unfair for your DH to have been unsupervised. And actually, I think it would make the test unvalid.