I'd be delighted to see the back of NAPLAN. Who's with me?

Anxiety and stress ruined my son’s last year of school. So I’ll be high-fiving if today’s talk of scrapping school rankings is followed through with action.

There’s a simple reason you should want school rankings to be scrapped, and this is it:

It makes kids stressed and anxious and and puts too much pressure on families. Kids and families like mine. 

In theory, the MySchool website sounds like a good idea. Schools are ranked using a testing system called NAPLAN which allows prospective families to choose the best school possible for their child to attend.

Except the system is flawed.

Last year, my son Philip had to participate in NAPLAN. I was contacted twice by his teachers. They had been practising NAPLAN style testing in class (instead of learning the Year 3 curriculum as they should have been) and Philip had shown weakness in a certain area.

I was asked to practice during the school holidays.

When school returned, Philip hadn’t improved. He started to pick up on the fact that something was going on.

“Mum, why is NAPLAN such a big deal?”

“It’s not really,” I explained. “NAPLAN is a way that schools are tested. The school has to do well. It’s not something you should worry about. Just do your best.”

But still, he was clearly worried.

During a parent-teacher interview it was suggested that Philip has an anxiety disorder. Yes, he has a tendency to stare like a deer in the headlights when he is in trouble or doesn’t know the answer to a question, but he was 8 at the time. If he was still doing it by the time he was 14, I might seek help, but he’s just a kid and he shouldn’t be experiencing exam stress so young.

Introducing a system that ranks schools in terms of achievement was always going to fail, because what school isn’t going to do all it can to maximise their results? Especially when their results determine the amount of resources they will receive.

Students in Years 3 and 5 undergo NAPLAN testing and these results are posted on the MySchool website. What some schools are doing to improve their exam results is always not in the child’s best interest.

Year 3 students are aged 7 and 8. They are too young to be able to cope with exam pressures, even if those pressures are subtle.

Year 5 has to sit NAPLAN too. These kids are 10 and 11 and it can be argued that they are better equipped to deal with exam pressure, but not when they realise the reputation of the entire school is at stake.

Then, there’s the parents. We receive a copy of the test results and it shows our child’s results compared to the school and the rest of the country. It can be really confronting if your child hasn’t performed well compared to an entire nation but once again, not something we should have to worry about while our children are 8.

An Senate inquiry into the MySchool website and NAPLAN has been completed and it’s been recommended that the ranking system be removed. That’s due to the litany of complaints received over the testing system, reports of schools asking learning-delayed children to stay home on testing days, pressuring some children to perform better, kids crying, breaking down, stressed, pressured. The report stated, “If substantial resources are allocated to schools on the basis of NAPLAN results, then schools understandably deem them to be of significant importance.”

“For this reason the committee would still like to see the data published, but some of the core ranking and comparative functionality removed from the website.”

However the inquiry fell short of scrapping NAPLAN. Testing will still take place, but the result won’t be used to rank schools which will hopefully stop the competition that occurs between schools.

This is disappointing.

Australian Greens senator and inquiry member Penny Write says evidence shows the tests affect the wellness of students and teachers. “That is disappointing for the Australian Greens because the evidence was very compelling that the ability to rank and compare individual schools on the MySchool website has had damaging effects on the wellbeing of students and teachers,” she told news.com.au.

The Whitlam Institute received reports from teachers saying children had been left feeling sick, crying and struggling to sleep.

Philip’s lowest moment came during the NAPLAN English exam. His teacher rang me after to let me know what had happened. Philip had to answer the question, “Who is your hero and why”, or something along those lines. He answered, “My Mum.” Awwww, and wrote a paragraph explaining why.

The teacher, who was not meant to do this, whispered that  perhaps Philip might like to write a bit more so Philip erased what he had written and sat there for the rest of the exam staring at a blank piece of paper, deer in the headlights.

Getting rid of the school ranking system is the only way forward. Then we can go back to judging schools the old fashioned way – by word of mouth, by reputation, by how the school grounds look and by many other factors outside of how smart the kids are and the average income of the families who attend.

I choose my children’s school by looking at:

– Distance from home

– How the school grounds look

– If my children have friends there

– By visiting the school grounds and getting a feel for the students there.

– Asking specific questions relevant to your individual child. I asked about their food allergy program because Philip has food allergies.

This is how I chose my children’s preschools and this is how I chose their primary school. Because happy children perform better, that’s the bottom line. Then they can save stress and anxiety for high school, uni and their first place of work, you know, when they are grown ups and can handle such pressures.

The school ranking system needs to be scrapped now, before NAPLAN takes place this year, to save thousands of 8-year-olds from the stress and pressure placed on them.

Should school rankings be scrapped? Has your child sat NAPLAN tests? How did they cope?

Check out these celebrity yearbook photos to see exactly how relaxed (awkward) our children should be at school: