Fix Year 5-6 Grammar & Spelling Mistakes Before NAPLAN
You're sitting at the kitchen table, your Year 5 child has a NAPLAN test coming up in March, and you're quietly wondering whether their spelling and grammar are up to scratch. Maybe they mix up "their" and "there", or they're not sure where to put a comma. It's a common worry — and you're not alone in Googling it.
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Here's the reassuring part: spelling and grammar are skills your child builds every day, not just in test prep. The best thing you can do isn't to drill worksheets for weeks on end — it's to build good habits consistently, starting now.
This guide walks you through exactly what NAPLAN (the National Assessment Program — Literacy and Numeracy) tests in spelling and grammar, where children typically struggle, and what you can actually do at home to help.
What NAPLAN Actually Tests in Spelling and Grammar
NAPLAN assesses students in Years 3, 5, 7, and 9 across four domains: reading, writing, numeracy, and conventions of language — which is the domain that covers spelling, grammar, and punctuation. That last domain is what most parents mean when they ask about "spelling and grammar help".
Since 2023, NAPLAN has been administered in March (moved forward from May), with results returned earlier in the school year so teachers and families can act on them sooner. Tests are now delivered online with a tailored design that adjusts questions based on how your child is responding — except for Year 3 writing, which remains on paper.
An important note: NAPLAN is not a pass-or-fail exam. Your child won't "fail" NAPLAN. Results are reported against proficiency levels to show where your child sits relative to national benchmarks — a progress snapshot, not a verdict on their intelligence or future.
The Most Common Spelling Mistakes Children Make on NAPLAN
Spelling is one of those areas where patterns matter. In our tutoring sessions at RHZ, we see the same types of errors come up again and again, and most of them fall into predictable categories.
Homophones are among the most frequent traps — words that sound identical but are spelled differently, like their/there/they're, to/too/two, and affect/effect. Children often know these words in conversation but haven't locked in which spelling belongs where.
Silent letters cause consistent confusion. Words like knight, write, Wednesday, and psychology trip up students because the letters don't match the sounds. English is full of these, and they simply require familiarity through reading.
Double consonants are another consistent weakness — necessary, accommodation, beginning, recommend. These don't follow an obvious rule and need to be memorised.
Prefix and suffix confusion also features heavily. Adding -ing, -ed, -ful, or un- to words often requires a spelling change (dropping the final e, doubling the consonant), and students who haven't been taught these patterns will guess.
The good news: these patterns are learnable. Reading widely is the most powerful spelling tool there is — the more your child encounters words in context, the more naturally the correct spelling sticks.
How to Actually Help Your Child With Grammar at Home
Grammar doesn't have to mean worksheets and rules. According to the NSW Department of Education, grammar is best taught through real language use — conversation, reading aloud, and discussing how sentences work — rather than isolated drills.
Here are practical things you can do at home, without needing to be an English teacher yourself.
Read together and talk about it. When you read a book, newspaper, or even a recipe together, point out an interesting sentence. "Why do you think the author put a comma there?" You don't need to know the technical term — the conversation itself builds awareness.
Play "fix this sentence". Write a sentence with a deliberate error (a missing capital letter, a wrong verb tense, a misplaced apostrophe) and ask your child to find and fix it. Kids often enjoy spotting mistakes — it's like a puzzle.
Name the parts. When your child writes something, gently ask: "What's the doing word in that sentence?" (verb) or "What's the describing word?" (adjective). You don't need to use formal grammar terms — but nudging them to think about how words function helps.
Focus on sentence variety. One of the most common grammar issues we see isn't about rules — it's about boring, repetitive sentence structures. Encourage your child to start sentences differently, use connecting words (however, although, because), and vary their sentence length.
Check agreements. "The dogs was barking" is the kind of subject-verb agreement error that NAPLAN picks up. Help your child get into the habit of reading their own writing aloud — the ear catches errors the eye misses.
How Much Time Should Your Child Spend Practising?
This is the question most parents ask, and the honest answer is: consistent short sessions beat infrequent marathon study sessions every time.
For most primary school children (Years 3 and 5), 10–15 minutes of focused literacy activity, four or five times a week, is more effective than a 90-minute cram session on a Sunday. For Year 7 and 9 students, you can extend that to 20–30 minutes, but the principle holds.
The NSW Government's own guidance on NAPLAN is clear: excessive preparation or coaching is not recommended. That doesn't mean doing nothing — it means that the skills being tested are the same skills your child uses every day in the classroom. Building those skills steadily, over weeks and months, is what makes a difference.
Here's a simple weekly structure that works well:
| Day | Activity | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Independent reading (book of their choice) | 15–20 min |
| Tuesday | Spelling practice — 10 words from recent schoolwork | 10 min |
| Wednesday | Grammar activity or short writing task | 15 min |
| Thursday | Read aloud together and discuss | 10–15 min |
| Friday | Timed NAPLAN-style language conventions practice | 15–20 min |
On that Friday session — practising with timed, NAPLAN-style questions is genuinely useful, not because it teaches the content, but because it builds familiarity with the format and reduces anxiety. Our NAPLAN practice tests are structured to match the real test, so your child knows what to expect on the day.
📘 Note
Year 3 and Year 5 students don't need touch-typing skills for the online NAPLAN test — the digital tasks only require the same basic computer skills they already use in class.
Strategies That Make a Real Difference
Beyond the weekly routine, a few specific strategies are worth building into your child's habits.
Use the Look-Cover-Write-Check method for spelling. Your child looks at a word, covers it, writes it from memory, then checks. Simple and effective — far better than just copying a word out five times.
Build a personal spelling list. Instead of generic word lists, keep track of words your child specifically gets wrong. A small notebook works perfectly. Revisit it weekly.
Teach common grammar rules explicitly (but gently). Some rules are worth knowing outright: apostrophes for possession and contraction, capital letters for proper nouns, commas in lists. You can teach these through examples rather than definitions.
Celebrate reading above all else. Students who read widely have stronger spelling, richer vocabulary, and a more natural feel for correct grammar — without ever formally "studying" it. Let your child choose what they read. Interest drives engagement.
Use your child's own writing as the learning material. When they write a story or an email, look at it together. Point out one or two things done well and one thing to work on. That feedback loop is more valuable than any worksheet.
If your child is in Years 3, 5, 7, or 9 and you'd like structured materials to work through at home, our practice papers include language conventions sections that mirror the NAPLAN format closely.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does my child need to memorise grammar rules for NAPLAN?
Not in the way you might remember learning them at school. NAPLAN's language conventions section tests whether your child can apply grammar correctly — identifying the right word, fixing an error — rather than reciting rules. The best preparation is regular reading and writing so that correct grammar feels natural.
What if my child has a learning difficulty or speaks English as a second language?
NAPLAN makes provisions for students who need them. Adjustments (such as extra time or assistive technology) are available for students with significant disabilities, and recent arrivals to Australia may be exempt. Talk to your child's school well before the test to make sure any relevant support is in place.
How will I know if my child is struggling with language conventions specifically?
The Individual Student Report you receive after NAPLAN breaks down results by domain, so you'll be able to see specifically how your child performed in language conventions (spelling, grammar, punctuation) versus reading or numeracy. If their school agrees there's a gap, that's useful information — not a cause for panic, but a clear signal of where to focus.
Are the NAPLAN online tests harder because they're on a screen?
The adaptive online format means the test adjusts to your child's responses — it gets a bit easier or harder depending on how they're going. This isn't something to fear; it's designed to give a more accurate picture of each student's level. Children who use computers or tablets regularly in class are already well prepared for the format.
Spelling and grammar are things every child can improve with the right support and consistent practice — and the most important thing you can do is make literacy a normal, low-stress part of daily life. If you'd like extra support, we offer a free academic assessment for families in Melbourne's western suburbs — just get in touch to book. Our tutors are here to help your child build real skills, not just practise for a test.
Give your child a real head start
RHZ Tutoring's practice papers mirror the real exams and come with full worked answers, so practice actually builds skills — not just last-minute panic.