OLNA and NAPLAN (Systemic Assessment)

As many of you would be aware, we have just concluded the first round of the Online Literacy and Numeracy Assessment (OLNA) for students in Years 10, 11 and 12 who are yet to achieve ‘Category 3’. This is the benchmark level of literacy and numeracy taken from the Australian Core Skills Framework (ACSF).  Level 3 is regarded as the “minimum required for individuals to meet the complex demands of everyday life and work in the emerging knowledge-based economy”.  The Australian Core Skills Framework (ACSF) is the common national reference point for assessing performance in the core skill areas; language, literacy and numeracy from Pre Level 1 to Level 5.

NAPLAN, the National Assessment Program for Literacy and Numeracy is, similarly, a national program to set developmental benchmarks and measure student progress in literacy and numeracy over Years 3, 5, 7 and 9. Achieving Band 8 or above in Year 9 NAPLAN is equivalent to meeting the ACSF Level 3 benchmark, and pre-qualifies students for OLNA (meaning they do not need to sit the OLNA assessment and have met the English Language Competency requirement for WACE.

NAPLAN Online will run again in May from Tuesday 11 – Friday 21 May, after being cancelled in 2020 during Covid disruptions. The testing schedule is as follows:

Parents and students are encouraged to access the example tests available at the NAP Public Demonstration Site at https://www.nap.edu.au/online-assessment/public-demonstration-site in advance of the assessments taking place. Students in Years 7 and 9 will be taking practice tests with their English and Maths teachers in advance of NAPLAN in order to familiarize themselves with the test environment.

Carlos Notarpietro
Associate Principal