Home educators
General information
The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) assessments are conducted in schools during March each year.
Home educated students registered with the Western Australian Department of Education and enrolled in Years 3, 5, 7, or 9 are eligible to participate.
Home educated students who participate in the NAPLAN assessments will sit online tests, except for the Year 3 writing test, which is a paper test. However, alternative format tests are available to students with disability who are unable to access online tests.
The NAPLAN Individual Student Reports provide parents and carers with information about the achievement of their child in relation to the performance of students in the same year level across Australia.
NAPLAN online tests are tailored or adaptive. Students at each level start with a similar set of questions. Depending on each student's answer, the next set of questions may be easier or more difficult, giving students greater opportunity to demonstrate what they know. Students click, drag and drop, draw lines between objects, type and, for Years 7 and 9 students, use interactive tools such as a ruler, protractor and calculator.
NAPLAN assesses literacy and numeracy skills that are essential for every child to progress through school and life. Four learning domains are assessed, and all items are linked to the Australian Curriculum.
Further details about the NAPLAN online assessments can be accessed at the ACARA website: www.nap.edu.au
Students’ writing skills are assessed through an extended writing task which requires them to write either a narrative or persuasive text.
Students read narrative, informational and persuasive texts. Skills assessed include locating information, identifying the main idea of a text, connecting ideas, drawing conclusions, sequencing events, and identifying the difference between fact and opinion.
Aspects of spelling, grammar and punctuation are assessed. The test is in two sections. The first section has spelling questions and the second has grammar and punctuation questions.
The spelling section is a ‘locked’ section, which means that once students move to the grammar and punctuation section, they cannot go back to the spelling section.
Students are assessed on number and algebra, measurement and geometry, and statistics and probability.
Years 3 and 5 students do not use a calculator in the numeracy test.
Year 7 and 9 numeracy tests have two sections. There is a short non-calculator section, in which students are required to demonstrate arithmetical calculation skills. For the remainder of the test, calculators are permitted, even if they are not necessary to answer the questions.
For further information about the tests, go to nap.edu.au/naplan/whats-in-the-tests.
The public demonstration site contains practice tests to allow students to become familiar with the type of questions they will encounter during NAPLAN, see nap.edu.au/online-assessment/public-demonstration-site.
See also https://nap.edu.au/resources for brochures, infographics, handbooks and videos.
Parents and carers of home educated students are responsible for providing education to their child, including making decisions about assessment of their child’s progress.
Students whose age corresponds to the age of students enrolled in schools in Years 3, 5, 7 or 9 and are enrolled with the Department of Education as a home educated student are eligible to sit NAPLAN.
The level of curriculum being taught does not determine NAPLAN eligibility.
As a home educator, you make the following decisions about NAPLAN:
- whether your child participates in NAPLAN
- whether to enrol your child for NAPLAN as a home educated student or to approach a school to host your child
- whether to share the student report information with your child or with anyone else.
If your child is not eligible, your NAPLAN registration will be rejected.
The following activities must be completed by test supervisors and home educated students to be able to participate in NAPLAN:
| Dates | Activities |
|---|---|
| From December 2024 | Register via the webform prior to 6 February 2025. Information about supervisor training will be emailed on 7 February 2025. |
| 7-13 February 2025 |
Complete the 30-minute online supervisor training course prior to 13 February 2025. This includes booking NAPLAN test sessions held in March. Take a screenshot of your bookings for your reference.
Check the suitability of your child’s device via device requirements. Note that Chromebooks are not supported. Install the latest version of the Locked Down Browser (LDB). The NAPLAN assessments are only available via the LDB. |
| 25-27 February 2025 | Participate in one of the compulsory practice tests. The practice tests do not need to be booked. Information will be emailed on 14 February to users that have completed the supervisor training prior to the deadline. |
| 14 March 2025 | NAPLAN test session bookings will be locked on 14 March 2025. Any changes to your test bookings must be made prior to this date. |
| 20-26 March 2025 | Participate in booked NAPLAN test sessions. More information about the tests is available from NAPLAN tests. |
By registering your child to sit the NAPLAN online tests, you are accepting responsibility for supervising the tests in a non-school location (e.g. at home). You can decide to withdraw your child from the NAPLAN tests at any stage of the process.
If you miss the cut-off date for NAPLAN registration, fail to complete the online supervisor training course, or do not participate in the compulsory practice test, your child will not be able to sit the School Curriculum and Standards Authority (SCSA) administered NAPLAN tests at a non-school location. In this case you may approach a school of your choice and arrange with the principal for the school to host your child.
Adjustments are permitted to support students with disability to access the tests on an equivalent basis to students without disability.
If a student usually has adjustments in their everyday learning and assessment activities, in most cases, the same adjustments may be applied during the NAPLAN online tests. There are several adjustments available within the Locked Down Browser itself. You may explore these options via the Public Demonstration Site.
Disability adjustments will be determined on a case by case basis and home educators must email naplan@scsa.wa.edu.au to apply for adjustments after submitting the registration form.
The following adjustments are available for the NAPLAN online tests.
- Audio alternative questions replace audio files for spelling dictation with text passages for proofreading.
- Visual alternative questions simplify or enlarge images, including text within images, for easier viewing in the reading and numeracy tests.
- Colour themes display black text against a selection of five different colour backgrounds (white, blue, lilac, green or yellow). An inverted colour theme (white text with black background) can also be applied.
- Extra time can be added to a student’s test and tests can be paused and resumed while the student has a rest break.
Other adjustments, such as a support person, a scribe for the writing test, or Braille and other alternative format test materials, are also available for NAPLAN. Detailed information about the provision of adjustments for disability is available at the ACARA webpage Adjustments for students with disability.
You will receive an Individual Student Report (ISR) that shows your child’s achievement for each NAPLAN test.
The ISR contains information for each of the five assessed areas in relation to:
- your child’s achievement against the four proficiency standards
- the national mean
- the range of performance of the middle 60% of Australian students
- the skills assessed at each year level and in each proficiency level.
The assessment results have the most value when they are considered in conjunction with your own ongoing assessment of progress that occurs throughout the year.
Information in the report will be a useful supplement to your own judgement of achievement and can provide a practical basis for planning future learning experiences.
If your child is sitting NAPLAN as a Year 9 student, you will also receive information about Online Literacy and Numeracy Assessment (OLNA) requirements along with the ISR. Information about OLNA prequalification through Year 9 NAPLAN achievement can be found here.
Reports are expected to be available at the beginning of Term 3. For further information, go to NAPLAN results and reporting.