Brightstar is a free NAPLAN practice platform for students in Years 1 to 5. I'm a parent in Sydney and I built it for my own daughter after finding that almost everything available was either paywalled or wanted an email address before a child could answer a single question.
A number of schools have since shared it with their families. This page exists so you can check it properly before deciding whether to do the same.
What's included
Practice across the NAPLAN domains
Over 2,000 questions across reading, conventions of language and numeracy, with an explanation on every wrong answer. Writing is supported through prompts and AI feedback rather than practice questions.
AI writing feedback
Students submit a narrative or persuasive piece and receive a score against all ten official ACARA criteria, with specific praise and one improvement.
Printable worksheets
An unlimited generator producing maths and English worksheets with answer keys — useful for homework packs or screen-free practice.
Timed practice tests
Shortened timed practices for Year 3 and Year 5, so students meet the format and pacing before the real thing.
Safe to send home
- No account, no name, no email, and we never ask children for personal details. No learner logins. Progress saves in the family's own browser; a privacy-minimised daily AI counter is stored on our provider and deleted within 48 hours
- No advertising and no analytics or third-party tracking on the pages children use
- Nothing is sold, and nothing is shared for anyone else's purposes. There is no commercial model behind it. Two features send data to our providers to work at all — AI writing feedback sends the writing, and the optional parent report sends practice scores and topic names, never the writing — and both happen only when a parent asks for them (details)
- The AI marks a child's writing; it never writes for them. There is no open chat and no free-form conversation with the AI
Why some schools have shared it
- Genuinely free — there is no paid tier, no trial and nothing to upgrade to
- Nothing to administer — no accounts, licences or logins for staff to manage
- Works on any device with a browser, including older tablets
- Reading questions teach the skill behind each answer, not just right or wrong
- Content is current — it uses the 2023 proficiency levels, not the retired band scale that many resources still reference
- Printable option for families who would rather keep practice off screens
On preparation: our guidance to parents follows ACARA's own position — students aren't expected to study for NAPLAN, and over-preparation can raise anxiety without helping. We recommend short, regular practice and explicitly advise families to stop in the final week.
📄 One-page summary for your school
A printable A4 summary you can forward to staff, attach to a newsletter, or add to a parent portal.
Download the PDF →Newsletter text you're welcome to use
If it's easier, here's wording you can copy straight into a newsletter or parent email. Edit it however you like.
Short — for a newsletter sidebar
Free NAPLAN practice: Brightstar (brightstarprep.com) offers free Year 1–5 maths and English practice, printable worksheets, and NAPLAN practice tests for Years 3 and 5. No signup or cost, and no student accounts, and no personal details are collected from students.
Longer — for a parent email or portal
Families looking for extra practice at home may find Brightstar useful (brightstarprep.com). It is a free Australian resource offering maths and English practice for Years 1 to 5, printable worksheets with answer keys, and timed NAPLAN practice tests for Year 3 and Year 5. It also provides feedback on student writing against the official NAPLAN marking criteria.
There is no cost, no signup, no advertising, and no personal details are collected from children — progress is stored on your own device. Brightstar was created by an Australian parent and is independent of ACARA.
Common questions from schools
Is it really free, or is there a paid tier coming?
Genuinely free. There is no paid version, no trial and nothing to upgrade to. It costs a few dollars a month to run and there is nothing being sold, so there is no reason for that to change.
What data do you collect from students?
No learner accounts and no logins, so we hold no profile of a child. A child's progress, streak and mistake list are stored in their own browser and are not sent to us — clearing browser data deletes them permanently. Three things are processed off the device: site-usage analytics (Google Analytics, which sets cookies), anything a child types into an AI feature, and a privacy-minimised daily AI counter that holds a one-way hashed identifier and a count, deleted within 48 hours.
What happens to writing that students submit for feedback?
The text is sent for marking and the feedback is returned. It is not stored on Brightstar servers. Under Anthropic's commercial API terms it is not used to train models. We do not ask for a name, school or location — but anything a child types is sent, so we ask them to keep identifying details out of their writing.
Is Brightstar endorsed by ACARA?
No. Brightstar is completely independent and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or approved by ACARA. Brightstar content is original, and writing feedback is structured around publicly available NAPLAN writing criteria. We do not reproduce ACARA copyright test material.
Can we link to it from our school website?
Yes, please do — no permission needed. If you'd like the one-page PDF hosted on your own site instead, you're welcome to download and re-upload it.
We found an error. Who do we tell?
Send it through here. Teachers and parents have found real errors in our questions and every one has been fixed, usually within a day or two. That feedback is the main reason the content has improved.