Key Facts:
NAPLAN test window is 11-23 March, 2026 for all students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9
NAPLAN provides a snapshot of literacy and numeracy skills, augmenting teacher assessment
Megan Daley, award-winning teacher- librarian, author of Raising Readers, and co-founder of Your Kid's Next Read (a national literacy voice of 38,000 strong community members), stresses that daily reading habits underpin NAPLAN outcomes
With NAPLAN testing under four weeks away, the national assessment is once again set to dominate headlines.
Award-winning teacher librarian, author of Raising Readers and co-founder of Your Kid's Next Read (YKNR), Megan Daley is urging parents and schools to prioritise consistent reading habits over short-term test preparation, saying NAPLAN reflects years of learning, not last-minute coaching.
Recent results show around one in three Australian students are not meeting expected standards in literacy and numeracy, prompting renewed focus on how to lift achievement and close gaps.
"NAPLAN isn't a test you can cram for; it reflects skills developed over time," Daley says. "Daily reading builds vocabulary, comprehension and understanding of language structures that students need across every part of NAPLAN and across the curriculum more broadly."
As schools prepare for this year's testing cycle, Daley warns that increasing test-style practice may do little to strengthen the underlying skills the assessment is designed to measure.
"Reading forms the foundation of both literacy and numeracy outcomes," she explains. "Understanding instructions, interpreting data, and unpacking word problems all depend on strong comprehension. If students struggle to read the question, they're already at a disadvantage."
Research and classroom experience indicate that consistency matters more than intensity. Even fifteen to twenty minutes of reading for pleasure every day can have a significant cumulative impact on language development and confidence.
"Students who read widely and regularly over time are far better prepared than those relying on last-minute test practice," Daley says.
Daley, who co-founded YKNR in 2017 alongside award-winning children's authors Allison Tait and Allison Rushby, is now a community of more than 38,000 members dedicated to helping young readers find their next book, says fostering a genuine love of reading is critical.
"Alongside phonics and explicit teaching of reading skills, children need motivation. The desire to keep reading is what drives growth," she says.
That philosophy underpins their new junior fiction series Your Next Read launching later this month. Combining the teams extensive experience in classrooms, libraries, and children's publishing, it is built around one core belief: keeping children reading is just as important as teaching them how.
By combining quality storytelling, entertaining content, and engaging illustrations from some of this country's best talent, Your Next Read builds the bridge between learning to read and choosing to read.
"Reading for pleasure increases reading volume and reading volume is what drives the very skills NAPLAN is designed to assess," Daley says. "Ultimately, if we want stronger results, we need stronger reading habits."
About us:
Founded in 2017 by Megan Daley and Allison Tait, with Allison Rushby joining in its infancy, Your Kid's Next Read is now a community of 38K, a podcast, and a newsletter, all aimed at growing readers and writers. Between them, Tait, Daley, and Rushby, possess extensive academic wealth, give considered advice based on experience, and recommendations backed by research and evidence gained in their respective fields.
