The national testing season begins on Tuesday May 12th as children in Year 3, 5, 7 and 9 around the country sit the writing, spelling and grammar tests of the National Assessment Program for Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN). Reading and numeracy will follow on Wednesday and Thursday.

NAPLAN is not a test that children can prepare for in the same way they might prepare for an end of term test. NAPLAN tests skills that develop and improve over time. These are skills that should be continuously developed throughout the year and not just in the lead-up to NAPLAN.

Sydney has a raft of exclusive private schools, many of which are among the best performing in the country. While research has shown private education isn’t necessary for academic achievement, the connections made in a good school often prove to be useful later in life, particularly in Sydney business circles. Here's a list of the top ten private girls schools in Sydney, based on their 2014 HSC performance through data on the Better Education website, and the percentage of students with Distinguished Achievers results.

You can move house. You can pay for years of tutoring at up to $100 an hour. But to get a start in year 7 at one of Sydney's best performing high schools, none of that counts if you don't perform well enough in the selective high schools placement test.

The majority of those kids end up being:

• Doctors
• Dentists
• Nurses
• Accountants
• Lawyers