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NAPLAN and the Seven Steps
What does NAPLAN value?
Good news! NAPLAN values great writing. Out of the possible 47 (48 for Narrative) marks, 36 (or 37 for Narrative) are attributed to author-focused criteria like Ideas, Audience, Cohesion, Character & Setting, Persuasive Devices, etc. The ‘secretarial’ side of writing (Spelling and Punctuation) meanwhile only accounts for 11 marks.
As you can see from the NAPLAN Marking Guides for narrative and persuasive, they value writing that is well-rounded and engaging. So, focus on teaching students how to become engaging writers and see the impact that it has on their results.
Build your students’ authorial skills with the Seven Steps
The Seven Steps focuses on teaching students the authorial side of writing – originality, creativity, the craft of writing. Why? Because that is what makes for fantastic writing that readers love.
‘Our Writing result in Year 9 is against the national trend which showed a 1.7% drop from 2014 to 2015, where our result went up by 11.4%. I can guarantee our writing success was due to students being exposed to the Seven Steps of Writing Success. Students love it.’
– Valissa Bauer, Literacy Coach
Resources to help improve your students’ NAPLAN Writing results
NAPLAN Writing Samples
- Narrative and persuasive writing exemplars to help you deconstruct great writing in your classroom.
- See how the Seven Steps help structure and enhance a NAPLAN response.
- Gain valuable insights into the planning, writing and editing of a text under NAPLAN test conditions.
Jen’s NAPLAN Super Summary
Check out Jen’s NAPLAN Super Summary – a handy compilation of her most valuable takeaways designed to help your students plan, write and edit a response under test conditions.
Incorporating these insights and actions into your NAPLAN prep is a sure-fire way to help your students approach the writing test with the confidence they need to perform at their best.
Putting It All Together for NAPLAN
Here’s our suggestion on how to help students pull everything they have learnt together to create an entire text, on their own, in 40 minutes. Feel free to speed up or slow down this test practice process with your students based on their ability level.
NAPLAN Insights
This collection of NAPLAN resources includes Jen’s Insight videos from her time sitting NAPLAN, as well as resources to help you track and assess NAPLAN preparation and exemplars to model Seven Steps techniques in a test environment.
Resources to help track your students’ NAPLAN Writing Success
Narrative Results Spreadsheet – NAPLAN
This simple spreadsheet is designed to be used alongside the NAPLAN narrative marking guide. Record and compare your students’ pre- and post-test results for each of the NAPLAN criteria.
The spreadsheet breaks down the data and graphs the results to show the overall improvement in your students’ NAPLAN scores after implementation.
You can also measure the improvement in their levels of confidence and enjoyment.
Writing Improvement Agenda – Example
This Writing Improvement Agenda from Allenstown State School shows how the school amalgamated the NAPLAN marking criteria with the Seven Steps in a fortnightly scheme of work across one term. This approach was modelled on a similar plan implemented by Crescent Lagoon State School in 2014.
NAPLAN and the Seven Steps – Narrative
The Seven Steps can dramatically improve students’ results in the NAPLAN writing task. This resource shows which Steps relate to each of the NAPLAN marking criteria for narrative writing.
Use the table to identify which Steps to focus on to improve particular aspects of students’ writing in preparation for NAPLAN. You can also use it to address any areas of weakness identified by their past NAPLAN results.
NAPLAN and the Seven Steps – Persuasive
The Seven Steps can dramatically improve students’ results in the NAPLAN writing task. This resource shows which Steps relate to each of the NAPLAN marking criteria for persuasive writing.
Use the table to identify which Steps to focus on to improve particular aspects of students’ writing in preparation for NAPLAN. You can also use it to address any areas of weakness identified by their past NAPLAN results.
NAPLAN Writing Success
Resource Packs and Video Guides
Help your students approach the NAPLAN writing test with confidence!

NAPLAN insights and stories
Practical tips and insights to help prepare your students for NAPLAN writing.
“I can tell you our Year 5 NAPLAN writing results (which was the only thing going downwards in our results) has improved so much (particularly amongst the targeted boys) that our auditor initially did not believe our data!! He wanted to take it home and study it. Wow!”
Literacy Coach
Our writing result in Year 9 went up by 11.4%! I can guarantee our writing success was due to students being exposed to the Seven Steps. Students love it.
Literacy Coach

School Packages
Become a Seven Steps school
Training and resources to transform student engagement and writing data.
