Today, millions of school kids in grades 3,5,7 and 9 will be sitting the first of the Naplan tests.

There are 4 tests: language, writing, reading and numeracy. Each test is 40-45 minutes. I think there are several aims of the test. Firstly, it measures where a student lies according to national standards. Secondly, it measures where a class or school lies according to national standards. Thirdly, it shows areas of strengths and weaknesses for a student or class or school. Finally, and I hate to say it, but it measures a teacher’s performance – to a degree. There are other purposes of the test, I’m sure.

As a parent of a child sitting her first ever Naplan test today, I must say that I’m not excited by the idea of putting my daughter through the stressful process of testing. I’m not impressed that she’s so stressed about it. Kids should not be getting stressed about tests at the tender age of eight. Or ten. Or twelve. Or fifteen. Or ever, in my opinion. It’s totally unnecessary to feel stressed about it, in my opinion. We place too much strain on our youth and then wonder why mental health is at such critical levels. We place our kids in stressful situation and then wonder why we are so stressed as adults.

I know my Georgia is a good student. I don’t really need a test to see that. I know she can read well and her literacy and numeracy skills are good. I know that she is happy and confident at school and for me, for my 8 year old, that is enough to know.

I know that the test is measuring more about what she learned last year than this year. I know that by the time we get the results of the test, it will be closer to Christmas than May, and there won’t be much scope for making changes that would enhance her performance in this year’s test. Moreover, the results will be so out of date by the time we get them; she will probably know the things she didn’t know in May, making the results redundant – and too late to be informative or reliable.

When I come to think of it, however, I am interested to see where she lies on the national spectrum of standards, but I must remember that this is justone test and it is not the only test.

Tomorrow I’ll talk about how I feel about Naplan from a teacher’s perspective.