Teachers and students across the Macleay prepare for NAPLAN as testing begins

"It's just another test so the government can see [how we're going]," said Sophie

"It's not like my future depends on it so I just give it my best go."

"NAPLAN can be good but it can be a bit boring," said Makayla.

Students in the Macleay will be part of the 1.3 million students in year three, five, seven and nine across the country taking part in this year's NAPLAN testing starting this Wednesday (March 15).

The program which has garnered criticism over the years, will be testing students on reading, writing, conventions of language (grammar and spelling) and numeracy.

It's St Paul's Catholic College math teacher Jodie Day's first year as the school's NAPLAN coordinator, and with the first day of testing soon approaching, it has been a hectic few weeks.

As tests are now all online, Ms Day has had to ensure that the 144 year seven and 90 year nine students have their own login for each of the four tests, and that the lockdown browser is correctly installed on their laptops to prevent them from using google or a calculator during the tests.

In amongst that is also checking what students have withdrawn, and making sure other aspects such as extra time for certain students has been ticked off by coordinators.

"There is a lot of organisation in the building up to the test," she said.

"The help I've gotten from the other staff has been incredible."

This year marks the first time the NAPLAN assessment is taking place in March instead of in May.

NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said it was a positive thing that the tests have started earlier in the year.

"Previously the kids were sitting the tests in May, we weren't getting any decent results back until October," she said.

"It was too long to implement change for those children who needed it the most so I took a bit of a push to the national meeting of education ministers and said we need to look at moving this earlier.

The test is now fully online so we'll be looking at getting results back much more quickly."

Ms Day who only started at the college this year said she could see the benefits of completing the tests in term one.

"Not only do [the students] get results back, we are able to see the results and go 'okay we need to look at this one,' she said.

"Time-wise it's a nightmare but what you get out in the long run, I can see it's benefits."

For her students, the earlier start time hasn't affected them.

"I honestly think it doesn't really matter when it happens because you don't really remember it until it comes up again," said Izzy

"If you just finish this off, it's done."

The three student's advice for student's starting NAPLAN this year was simple.

"Take it easy, don't worry about it," Makayla said.

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