March 2018

My School: a new and improved website for 2018

A revamped My School website has been released today, giving the most up-to-date information about all of Australia’s schools.

“The My School website has been updated with the most recent NAPLAN results and other information for schools across Australia,” said ACARA CEO, Robert Randall.

“Based on stakeholder feedback, we have taken the opportunity to redevelop the site to make it mobile-friendly, easier to use and more engaging for visitors.

“In revamping the My School website, we have set out to make it more accessible and understandable. The presentation of some data has been made easier to understand, including in areas of ‘gain’ in NAPLAN scores – a key indicator of how successful a school has been in improving literacy and numeracy learning,” said Mr Randall.

For parents, My School provides a wealth of valuable information to help make informed decisions about their child’s education. For educators, My School allows for the sharing of information about school achievements with the aim of supporting and driving improvement across the nation.

“We know that schools are more than just their NAPLAN results. However, literacy and numeracy are the fundamental skills all our children need to be successful in and beyond school. The information provided on My School, including a school’s NAPLAN results, is a valuable source of data for parents and educators,” said Mr Randall.

“The focus of My School is about enabling fair comparisons between schools and celebrating success where we see schools have achieved gain in results over time. It is not about league tables or ranking.

“By looking at what individual schools are doing at a local level to improve literacy and numeracy outcomes, those learnings can be used by other schools to lift achievement across the board,” said Mr Randall.  

Some of those learnings are available in a series of short case studies on our website, written by principals of schools that have demonstrated substantially above average gain in NAPLAN 2017 

The 2018 My School update contains:

• 2017 NAPLAN results for schools
• 2017 school profile and population data
• 2016 school financial information, including capital expenditure and sources of funding.

Visit the My School website for more information.

OECD 2030 

ACARA has been working with leaders of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Education 2030 project. This project aims to help countries find answers to what knowledge, skills, attitudes and values are needed for today's students to thrive and shape their world, as well as how instructional systems can effectively develop them.

A central part of this OECD project is the formulation of a curriculum framework to address the education needs of students across the world in the year 2030. View the framework, titled ‘The Future We Want’, on the OECD website.

Primary Matters

ACARA's Curriculum team has released Primary Matters, its first quarterly update in 2018. In this issue:

• new Literacy and Numeracy Learning Progressions
• Digital Technologies in Focus project
• the ways schools are implementing the Australian Curriculum: Digital Technologies.

Preparation continues for the transition to NAPLAN Online 

The gradual roll-out of NAPLAN Online commences this year with some schools moving online this May, and all schools to be online by 2020. Transitioning schools have completed readiness activities to ensure they are prepared.

A recent statement by the Education Council noted that education ministers "welcome the many benefits that online testing can deliver to students, their parents and teachers through improved diagnostics and the faster turnaround of NAPLAN results".

The Education Council also determined that automated essay scoring will not be used for the marking of NAPLAN writing scripts (read the Education Council media statement, PDF 334 kb).

NAPLAN Online: technical requirements

Students, teachers and parents can become familiar with NAPLAN Online by completing mini-tests available on our public demonstration site, located within the NAP website. Visit the NAP website to find out the minimum technical requirements for completing NAPLAN Online.