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However, as highlighted by ACARA, the NAPLAN results identified an average of 10.3% of students placing at the ‘Needs additional support’ level for reading and 9.5% for numeracy. The results also show that, on average, one in three Indigenous students are in the ‘Needs additional support’ level for both reading and numeracy, compared to one in ten non-Indigenous students.  

These are areas where greater support will assist students, and for the past two years, NAPLAN tests have been run earlier in the year to give educators more time to use these test results to inform and guide their teaching and learning programs.  

To support this, Education Services Australia’s (ESA’s) range of high-quality, curriculum-aligned and inclusive resources are available to educators freely, when addressing the results of NAPLAN testing and improving student outcomes.   

Planning for mathematics and numeracy 

The Mathematics Hub provides support for mathematics and numeracy teachers of Foundation to Year 10 students through: 

• a free planning tool 
• inclusive education resources, including Universal Design for Learning (UDL), students with disability, linguistically diverse students, and gender-inclusive teaching, along with resources to support extension and enrichment
• resources to support Embedding Indigenous Knowledges 
• Professional Learning materials 
• Explicit Teaching in Maths resources 
• lesson plans and activities, including 80 new lesson plans that have been developed for the new content descriptions in the Australian Curriculum: Mathematics V9.

A package of support for literacy

The Literacy Hub provides a package of support for educators to learn about the evidence base behind effective literacy instruction and offers a range of tools for implementation, including: 

• information about the research that backs a systematic synthetic phonics (SSP) approach to reading and spelling 
• support for school leaders in implementing a whole-school approach to literacy instruction
• free professional learning for educators 
• practical, ready-to-use classroom resources such as a phonics progression, instructional model, sample lesson plans and student worksheets 

Together, the Literacy Hub and Year 1 Phonics Check reinforce the teaching-assessment loop, helping educators to assess how students are progressing, and providing support and advice to help turn assessment results into action. 

Digital teaching and learning resources 

Scootle is Australia’s national portal for digital teaching and learning resources aligned to the Australian Curriculum. Find lesson plans and create learning paths which you can use to support your literacy and numeracy instruction.