 Hi, I'm Rob Randall, Chief Executive Officer of Akara. If you have a school-aged children in years 3, 5, 7 or 9, you'd be aware that they took the NAPLAN tests, that's the National Assessment Programme in Literacy and Humorcy, in May this year. Testing children at school is not new. It happens every week in most schools. However, NAPLAN is a national test that is specifically designed to provide a snapshot of your child's learning in literacy and numeracy. Reading, writing and mathematics are basic skills that help us all get on in this world. School work and life become hard if you can't read, write and work with numbers. As a parent, I want my children to be able to read the bus timetable to catch the bus home, or know how much change they should get after buying food at the school canteen. These simple activities rely on literacy and numeracy. And like all parents, I want to know if my children can do better, and I want to know that as early as possible. The results for this year's test will be with you over the coming weeks, earlier than in previous years. Sometime in August or September, the exact timing varies from state to state. You will receive your child's NAPLAN report. In the NAPLAN report, your child's results will be shown against six levels of achievement. The black dot is your child's result. The black triangle is the average result for all Australian children in that year level. If your child's black dot is close to the black triangle, it means your child is performing at a similar level to other children of a like age. If your child's black dot is well above the black triangle, they are doing better than children in their year level across Australia. And if it is much lower, they aren't doing as well as children in their year level across Australia. If you're happy with what you see in your child's NAPLAN student report, take the time to explain the results to them and encourage them in their areas of strength. If you aren't so happy with what you see in your child's NAPLAN student report, here's a couple of things to think about. Firstly, NAPLAN takes place every second year, so you could go back and look at your child's previous school reports. Is NAPLAN showing you the same thing you see in them? Or is NAPLAN not reflecting what you know about your child? NAPLAN is a snapshot of your child's abilities in literacy and numeracy, so it's good to compare what you're seeing in the NAPLAN report against other school reports before reaching any conclusions. And secondly, think about how your child deals with tests. For some children, tests are a breeze, while others may struggle. Although NAPLAN isn't a pass or fail test, it's still a test. Perhaps your child is normally good at reading, but for some reason, the NAPLAN results show the opposite. And after you've considered these things, you might make a time to have a talk with your child's teacher. Talking to your child's teacher will help you put the NAPLAN results into context and understand what you and the school can do with the results and how to assist your child in the areas that they may need help in. Remember that NAPLAN is only a snapshot of how your child was going in literacy and numeracy at that point in time. Whatever you do, don't stop any activities your child enjoys, and don't focus your child only on reading, writing and mathematics. All activities are crucial to the school program and contribute to developing informed, happy children who are confident in their own abilities.