When Should You Start Preparing for NAPLAN? A Year-by-Year Guide

By Pascal Press I February 10, 2026

The start of a new school year is an exciting time, with new routines, new goals and new opportunities to learn. But it can also feel overwhelming as families prepare for the return to the classroom.

From organising schedules to refreshing key skills, getting ready for back to school is about more than just new stationery. Helping your child feel confident and prepared from day one can make a real difference to how they settle into the year ahead.

NAPLAN prep doesn’t have to mean pressure

NAPLAN is designed to assess the literacy and numeracy skills students build across school, and the best preparation is strong, steady learning over time, not cramming. In fact, NAPLAN itself is based largely on skills students are expected to have learned in previous years, with some content drawn from the year of testing and the year ahead.

A helpful way to think about preparation is “foundation → confidence → familiarity” as students move through the year levels.

Year 3: Build confidence and familiarity

For many Year 3 students, NAPLAN is their first experience with a national assessment. The goal here is comfort and confidence, not test-pressure.

What helps most:

• • Daily reading to build vocabulary and comprehension (even 10–15 minutes).
  • Gentle practice with sentence structure, spelling and punctuation.
  • Building number sense and explaining “how you know” in maths.

Reading and language development in early years is strongly linked to later reading success. Studies show that early vocabulary and grammar are meaningful predictors of later reading outcomes.

Year 5: Strengthen core skills and start light NAPLAN-style practice

By Year 5, students benefit from more targeted practice, still skills-first, but with some gradual exposure to the kinds of questions they’ll see.

Focus on:

• • Reading for inference and meaning.
  • Writing with structure (beginning–middle–end; clear paragraphs).
  • Numeracy with multi-step problems and interpreting information.

A meta-analysis of reading strategies shows consistent relationships between strategy use and reading comprehension, supporting explicit practice in understanding, monitoring and making meaning from text.

Year 7: Apply skills more independently

In Year 7, students are expected to apply skills across a wider range of texts and tasks, often with more independence.

Helpful areas:

• • Consolidating grammar and punctuation.
  • Building stamina for extended writing.
  • Practising numeracy in real-world contexts (rates, data, measurement).

At this stage, it’s also useful to build effective study habits using evidence-based learning strategies.

Year 9: Refine and consolidate

Year 9 preparation is often about accuracy, clarity and confidence under time conditions.

Support students with:

• • Clear, well-structured writing and editing.
  • Interpreting more complex texts.
  • Numeracy practice that includes time, accuracy and reasoning.

Reading and language development in early years is strongly linked to later reading success. Studies show that early vocabulary and grammar are meaningful predictors of later reading outcomes.

When preparing for NAPLAN, consistency matters more than intensity. Research shows that spreading practice over time is far more effective than cramming, giving students the chance to build skills steadily and feel more confident. A calm, gradual approach helps learning stick and reduces unnecessary stress.

Is Your Child Ready for their NAPLAN test?

Preparing for NAPLAN is most effective when it’s gradual and consistent. By focusing on steady skill development over time, students can approach the assessment with confidence, familiarity and a clear sense of readiness- without the pressure of last-minute preparation.

Click here to explore our full range of NAPLAN*-style Workbooks to support your child’s NAPLAN preparation and give them the confidence they need to succeed!