I always withdraw my DD from it. I decided that back in Prep. She’s yr 5 this year. The school sent home the form for withdrawal last week when I requested it. I just had to sign and date it. The rest was filled out. DD has ASD and is on an individual curriculum plan so she hasn’t even covered the yr 5 material yet anyway.
Apparently in Qld state schools the staff can’t suggest to parents that they can withdraw their child from Naplan testing but if they are asked directly about withdrawing they can answer the parent’s question and give them the information needed.
I didn’t even realise it was so close to Naplan testing until I read about in the school newsletter and realised I hadn’t signed a withdrawal form yet. Like I said, the school can’t suggest withdrawal to a parent, even when they know my standing request is to withdraw her. The form was already prepared and waiting though, and sent home the next day.
DD’s school doesn’t seem to GAF about Naplan testing. The children do one maybe two practise tests so they can be familiar with the procedure and structure of the testing but there’s no teaching to the Naplan test material. The school usually does pretty well anyway. The only time the testing has been useful was to see the increase in the reading/writing scores after the school introduced a new literacy programme. The scores went up significantly for both years 3 and 5.
