NAPLAN 2027 runs 10–22 March.

Every published test window

From ACARA’s key dates page, read 2026-09-15. Dates beyond 2029 have not been published.

What the nine-day window actually means

The dates above are the outer bounds of a national window, not a timetable. Inside it, each school schedules its own sessions, including catch-up sessions for students who are away. Years 5, 7 and 9 sit the writing test on day one; everything else moves.

Which is why the single most useful thing to do with this page is stop reading it and ask the school. A parent planning around 10 March when their child’s school has scheduled Year 5 numeracy for the 18th has planned around the wrong day.

Who sits it

Years 3, 5, 7 and 9. Year 3 writing is the last paper-based test left; everything else is online and adaptive, which is the reason no fixed practice paper can reproduce it. Not every enrolled student sits it, and who is withdrawn, exempt or absent is not evenly spread — which matters for reading any published gap figure.

What the date is worth knowing for

Honestly: not much on its own. NAPLAN is not a test a child can cram for, and the date is published four years ahead precisely because nothing about it is meant to be a surprise. The useful version of “when is NAPLAN” is not a countdown — it is whether there is enough time left for ordinary teaching to do its work, which there almost always is.

If you want to use the time, what free practice actually exists is the more useful page, and how the writing test is marked is the one that changes how a parent reads their child’s work. After the results arrive, how to read the report.