New Yorkers United for Kids

How to request alternative activities during school testing days

When NAPLAN testing season approaches in Australian schools, many families feel uneasy about the pressure placed on children in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9. Consent forms come home, posters go up in corridors, and the school week rearranges itself around the assessment schedule. For parents wary of high-stakes standardised testing, the window can feel like a moment when their educational values are pushed aside.

Australian schools operate under a federated model, with state and territory Departments of Education shaping most day-to-day policy. In Victoria, the Department of Education oversees NAPLAN; in New South Wales, families deal with NESA. Across Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the ACT, similar bodies determine how schools manage the testing window.

The key is recognising that asking for an alternative is not the same as opting out. Most state guidelines allow parents to withdraw their child, but the focus here is on the hours of the school day not used for actual testing. That window is where your request has the most traction.

Across Australia, conversations about NAPLAN at school often focus on whether to sit the tests at all, but there is a quieter question that gets less attention: what should the rest of the school day look like for children who are testing?

Understanding the testing landscape

NAPLAN is compulsory for schools, though not for individual students, and is run by ACARA. Tests run over a three-day window early in the school year, with Western Australia and the Northern Territory scheduling their tests slightly later than the eastern states. Outside of those mornings, schools are free to structure the rest of the day as they see fit.

This detail tells you where your request fits. You are not asking the school to break the rules; you are asking it to use its existing discretion about non-testing time. Schools in Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide routinely run special programs during the testing period, such as visiting authors or sports clinics.

Preparing your case

A successful request usually starts with information, not argument. Gather the testing timetable from the school newsletter, parent app or class teacher. Find out which year levels are testing on which days, and what the school currently does with the non-testing periods.

Read your school's policies on assessment and student wellbeing. Many schools in Sydney, Perth and Hobart publish these online. If the school has a stated commitment to student wellbeing, that language gives you a bridge between your request and the school's own values.

Information to gather before contacting the school

Framing a constructive request

Schools respond best to requests framed around the child's wellbeing and learning, not around political opposition to testing. Begin by acknowledging the school's hard work, then describe the specific outcome you want. For example: "I am writing to ask whether Year 3 students not sitting NAPLAN on Tuesday morning could be offered a hands-on STEM workshop in the library."

Australian parents often find that principals are more receptive when the alternative benefits the whole class. Propose something practical and curriculum-aligned: a kitchen-garden session, a creative writing workshop, a maths puzzle challenge, or a quiet reading circle tied to the class novel.

It also helps to reference the school's own documentation. Parents cannot compel a school to abandon NAPLAN, but they can remind schools that non-testing hours remain school time and should remain focused on learning.

Building support across the parent community

A single request can be quietly set aside; a shared request usually gets a meeting. Share your thinking with a small group of like-minded families. A quick chat at the school gate in Brisbane, a conversation during parent-teacher night in Canberra, or a post in a private Facebook group can quickly surface several families who feel similarly.

In many Australian schools, the Parents and Citizens (P&C) association or School Council advises the principal on school policy. Bringing your request through that channel adds legitimacy and reduces the chance of the principal feeling personally challenged.

The way teacher evaluation systems interact with test results is a familiar point of debate overseas. A why the new york state teacher evaluation system appr relies on test scores analysis explains those dynamics. Australian teachers do not face the same high-stakes appraisal structure, but the underlying principle still applies: when professional reputation is tied to a single test, it quietly reshapes how the surrounding hours are treated.

Alternative activities you can propose

If the school says no

A refusal is not the end. Ask the principal to put the decision in writing and to identify the policy being applied. If the reason is tied to supervision ratios or curriculum guidelines, you can negotiate a smaller change, such as a shortened testing morning or a longer break.

You can also escalate through the regional office of your state Department of Education. Families seeking inspiration sometimes study how other regions have successfully advocated for change, and the work of expanding telecommunications access in remote interiors shows how patient local advocacy can reshape services that once seemed immovable.

Start the conversation early, frame every suggestion around the child's experience of school on testing days, and treat the first request as the beginning of an ongoing dialogue rather than a single event. Persistence paired with good documentation tends to land results over several terms.

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