KS2 SATS

Year 6 SATs

At the end of Year 6, children sit tests in:

Reading
Maths
Spelling, punctuation and grammar

These tests are both set and marked externally, and the results are used to measure the school’s performance (for example, through reporting to Ofsted and published league tables). Your child’s marks will be used in conjunction with teacher assessment to give a broader picture of their attainment.

The children are also assessed by their teachers for writing.

How to help your child during SATS Week:

So the big week has finally arrived. Your child has been building up for this all year and is ready to perform at their best. Hopefully, they will be feeling confident after all the practice they have done. Remember to show a confident front yourself – don’t act stressed or nervous as this could impact on your child. Stay calm and relaxed, and don’t make the SATs exams into a huge deal (they’re just like the practice ones your has child already done, after all!)

Make sure you take the weekend before SATs week off from all school work and revision. Plan something fun and revision-free. Your child has been working hard all year, so there’s no point cramming in any last-minute revision. As a family, try to relax, have fun and rest in preparation for the big week.

During SATs week:

Make sure you stick to a bedtime routine and your child gets plenty of sleep.
Ensure your child continues to eat a balanced diet throughout the week.
Help your child to get up early in the morning so that you have plenty of time to get ready and get to school on time. The last thing you want is the stress of racing to get to school on time before a SATs exam.
Get out and get active. Hopefully the weather will be good, so make sure your child gets outdoors and does some exercise after school.
Plan something fun for when the SATs tests are over. Your child has worked hard for the whole year in preparation for this week, so ensure they have something to look forward to at the end, such as a cinema trip, a trip to their favourite restaurant or a day out.

You know your child best and will be able to determine how much or how little revision to do and when they need to take a break. Let your child set the pace; if they seem extremely tired, try not to force them to do revision even if it is timetabled. Be flexible with revision. Remember, children do lots of work in school, so use your parental intuition to make the best decision for your child. Also, keep things in perspective! Although SATs are used to some extent to inform secondary schools, when your child moves on to high school the school will use its own internal assessment processes to group pupils in a way which ensures that teaching is matched to ability.

If you have any specific questions please speak to your child's class teacher or Mr Balding, Assistant Headteacher.

The Tests

Key Stage 2 grammar, punctuation and spelling test

The grammar, punctuation and spelling test consists of two parts: a grammar and punctuation paper requiring short answers, lasting 45 minutes, and an aural spelling test of 20 words, lasting around 15 minutes.

The grammar and punctuation test will include two sub-types of questions:

Selected response, e.g. ‘Identify the adjectives in the sentence below’
Constructed response, e.g. ‘Correct/complete/rewrite the sentence below,’ or, ‘The sentence below has an apostrophe missing. Explain why it needs an apostrophe.’

Key Stage 2 Reading

The reading test is a single paper with questions based on three passages of text. Your child will have one hour, including reading time, to complete the test.
There will be a selection of question types, including:

Ranking/ordering, e.g. ‘Number the events below to show the order in which they happen in the story’
Labelling, e.g. ‘Label the text to show the title of the story’
Find and copy, e.g. ‘Find and copy one word that suggests what the weather is like in the story’
Short constructed response, e.g. ‘What does the bear eat?’
Open-ended response, e.g. ‘Look at the sentence that begins Once upon a time. How does the writer increase the tension throughout this paragraph? Explain fully, referring to the text in your answer.'

Key Stage 2 Maths

Children sit three papers in maths:

Paper 1: arithmetic, 30 minutes
Papers 2 and 3: reasoning, 40 minutes per paper

Paper 1 will consist of fixed response questions, where children have to give the correct answer to calculations, including long multiplication and division. Papers 2 and 3 will involve a number of question types, including:

Multiple choice
True or false
Constrained questions, e.g. giving the answer to a calculation, drawing a shape or completing a table or chart
Less constrained questions, where children will have to explain their approach for solving a problem

Key Stage 2 Writing

Writing is assessed by teachers within schools. This is so that teachers can assess children’s writing ability and skills over a range of different texts they have written such as news reports, stories, non-chronological reports and much more. Several schools throughout the country will be selected at random for moderation. This process involves the local authority sending moderators to at least one quarter of their schools to check that children’s writing has been assessed accurately. The moderators undergo rigorous training to ensure they are accurate in their assessment of children’s writing.

A test in science is also carried out in some selected schools to check national standards

How will the SATs be marked?

You will be given your child’s scaled score and whether they have reached the expected standard set by the Department for Education (‘NS’ means that the expected standard was not achieved and ‘AS’ means the expected standard was achieved).

The range of scaled scores available for each KS2 test is:

80 (the lowest scaled score that can be awarded)
120 (the highest scaled score)

The expected standard for each test is a scaled score of 100 or more. If a child is awarded a scaled score of 99 or less they won't have achieved the expected standard in the test.

When Will You Receive the Results?

Schools receive the provisional results for their pupils before the end of July. It’s then down to each individual school to decide how the results are fed back to parents. At Veritas we send home an individual summary of results for parents. National, Local Authority and school results are published in December each year.

Veritas SATs Success Parent Meeting Presentation

Information for parents assessment results at the end of key stage 2.pdf