Wednesday, 12 Feb 2025
At the start of the 2025 school year, use this guidance to help you prepare for PAT testing and get the most out of your results.
Review staff access and permissions
To make the most of the assessments and resources your school uses, we recommend giving individual online account logins to each staff member supporting the administration of assessments or working with the results.
In most cases, staff members will require at least the Report Generator role, which will allow them to generate reports within the online system. If a staff member also requires the ability to add or edit student details, or to assign tests, they will need to be assigned the additional role of Candidate Manager.
Only staff members who are responsible for purchasing or managing other staff members' access should be assigned the Client Administrator role.
We have recently improved our interface for managing staff – review the updated instructions.
Update student information for the new school year
Prepare your account now to ensure student details are correct in time for testing. To make updating your data a little easier, we suggest:
1. Complete the year level rollover across all your students following the steps outlined in this support article.
2. Edit and update your students as required. Guidance on performing this task is included in this video.
3. In a separate upload, add any new students for the year. You can view the steps in this short video.
Register for our free webinar sessions
The School Engagement team offers free webinars throughout the year, providing training on PAT assessments, resources and reports. Notable sessions for 2025 are listed.
Term 1
18 February: The PAT Teaching Resources Centre: supporting teachers with the next steps after assessment
19 February: PAT administration: account setup tips and tricks
26 February: PAT interviews: exploring the context of PAT in a school setting
Term 2
6 May: From research to assessment: diving into PAT Reading
7 May: From research to assessment: diving into PAT Maths
21 May: Supporting the delivery of differentiation using PAT data
Term 3
23 July: PAT interviews: ACER leaders discuss PAT
20 August: Understanding PAT Norms
3 September: Analysing and interpreting ACER’s PAT reports for linear assessments
4 September: Analysing and interpreting ACER’s PAT reports for adaptive assessments
Term 4
15 October: PAT administration and testing guidance
22 October: PAT interviews: school leadership – hear how other schools are using PAT
5 November: Predicting PAT learning growth
Additionally, the team conducts in-person and virtual workshops across Australia to unpack PAT in more detail and supporting educators to implement best practice in their schools. Browse available sessions and register.
For more guidance, reach out to our team
We are always here to help you get the most out of PAT. Contact us at school.support@acer.org and we will ensure you receive the guidance you need.