Since 2008, secondary school English teachers have been at the receiving end of contradictory advice on how to best prepare their students for the literacy component of the National Assessment Program--Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN). On the one hand, Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) asserts that the 'best preparation for NAPLAN is to continue focusing on teaching the curriculum' (ACARA, 2018a). Yet in Queensland, systems and schools are in the midst of responding to an externally mandated assessment culture (Klenowski, 2011; Hardy, 2014). Our pilot study explores open-answer survey responses from 30 Queensland secondary school English teachers who provided varying accounts of their school's responses to these competing agendas. Employing theories from Bernstein's (2000) sociology of education, we examine what the teacher participants say about (i) NAPLAN's relationship with the English learning area, and (ii) who controls the pedagogic practice for NAPLAN preparation in their school. The article concludes by considering the potential effects of these disparate arrangements.