Fact sheet

The Best Start Kindergarten Assessment - Information for schools (PDF 162KB) (staff only) outlines the assessment and answers frequently asked questions.

Implementation checklists

The Best Start Kindergarten Assessment - Principal checklist (PDF 111KB) (staff only) identifies tasks to be carried out by schools before, during and after the assessment window.

The Best Start Kindergarten Assessment - Administration checklist (PDF 116KB) (staff only) identifies essential administration activities to complete before starting the assessment.

Administration guide

The Best Start Kindergarten Administration guide (PDF 116KB) (staff only) assists teachers to administer the assessment.

Note: For Best Start Kindergarten 2021, all schools will continue to use the 2019 version of the guide.

Supplementary guide

The Best Start Kindergarten supplementary guide (PDF 414.27KB (staff only) should be used when teachers cannot make the necessary accommodations and adjustments to gather sufficient information about students during the assessment.

Note: For Best Start Kindergarten 2021, all schools will continue to use the 2019 version of the guide.

BSKA and PLAN2 Area of Focus templates

To supplement existing school practices, a series of PLAN2 Area of Focus templates have been designed to identify how students are progressing in specific literacy and numeracy skills that are assessed in the Best Start Kindergarten Assessment.

The templates developed include:

• Creating texts, spelling and punctuation

• Listening, speaking and interacting

• Phonic knowledge and word recognition

• Phonological awareness
  

• Understanding texts and fluency
  

• Number patterns and algebraic thinking
  

• Quantifying numbers

• Additive strategies

These templates were designed using the Areas of focus PLAN2 feature. This allows teachers to:

• create and save a customised set of syllabus outcome(s) and progression indicators for a select group of students
  

• use for explicit teaching of literacy and numeracy across the curriculum

• monitor students' learning

Teachers can then adapt these templates to tailor teaching specifically to student needs.

The following video presents a school-based scenario on how to access and use the PLAN2 Areas of focus templates.

Online tool

Teachers administer the assessment using the online tool for entering student responses. The online tool will be available via the Assessing Literacy and Numeracy website (ALAN) at the beginning of 2021.

Forms for recording responses offline are available for download where required (staff only). Please note that these forms may only be used in specific circumstances.

More information