If your child is in Year 2 or Year 6 then you might be getting anxious about the upcoming SATS exams, and you may have questions about SATs, as this can be one of the most stressful times for your child. In this guide of ours, we will cover every common question parents struggle with.
Starting with…..
Contents
What is SATs?
SATs are standard assessment tests taken by primary schools with the main idea to quantify what pupils have learned in their Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2. KS1 SATS are taken by Year 2 pupils and KS2 SATs is taken by Year 6 pupils at the end of the year. This is why sometimes they are also referred to as Year 6 SATs and Year 2 SATs.
The SATs are used by the government to determine the quality of the education school is providing. These exams are set and marked externally in UK schools by the standards and testing agency. The results of these tests are then processed by the Department of Education (DfE) to judge the performance of each school. These results are then used to create school league tables.
Year 6 SATs results are also used by most secondary schools in their decision-making process to determine the sets or streams for children while grouping them. Along with year 7 CAT exams, SAT results also help your child’s secondary school to put them in the right set to ensure they get the best of their time.
SATs also help teachers to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each child in English, Maths and Science. Due to pandemic, SATs 2020 and 2021 were cancelled but with situations getting better SATS 2022 are going to be held as usual.
Exam format of KS1 Year 2 SATS
The Year 2 SATs papers include-
- Reading SATs
- Maths SATs
- SPaGs SATs
The KS1 Reading SATs:
There will be 2 papers for KS1 Reading SATs, paper 1 and paper 2-
- Paper 1 consists of multiple texts of about 400 to 700 words with questions based on them.
- Paper 2 consists of a reading booklet including multiple passages of text.
Both paper 1 and paper 2 in reading SATs are 30 minutes each. Both tests cover a wide range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry.
The KS1 Maths SATs:
There will be 2 papers for KS1 Maths SATs, paper 1 and paper 2-
- Paper 1 of KS1 Maths is an arithmetic test of 15 minutes and worth 25 marks.
- Paper 2 of KS2 Maths tests reasoning, problem-solving and mathematical fluency. It is a 35-minute long paper and is of 35 marks.
The KS1 SPaG SATs:
Like KS1 Reading and KS1 Maths, KS1 SPaG SATs also have 2 papers-
- Paper 1 is of 15 minutes and consist of a 20-word spelling paper of 20 marks.
- Paper 2 consists of reading booklets that contain different text passages of roughly 900 words.
Exam format of KS2 Year 6 SATS
The Year 6 SATs papers include-
- Reading test
- Maths test paper
- Grammar, punctuation and spelling test
Your child’s mark in these tests will be added with teacher assessments on subjects such as speaking and listening, writing and, in some cases, science. This teacher assessment is used in conjunction with the SATs written exam to judge a child’s performance over a longer period, this gives schools and government a chance to get a broader picture of their ability in a subject, not just what they perform in the test condition.
KS2 Reading test
The reading test is a single one hour paper including reading time, the questions are based on three passages of text. Question types in this will include multiple-choice questions, ranking/order, matching, labelling, find and copy, short response, and open-ended response.
The reading content of the Year 6 SATs is designed in a way to closely link it with the National Curriculum tests to ensure children can rely on their knowledge when answering reading comprehension questions.
KS2 Grammar, punctuation and spelling test
The grammar, punctuation and spelling tests include two papers.
- Paper 1 is a grammar and punctuation paper it is for 45 minutes with 50 marks available and includes grammar, punctuation and vocabulary.
- Paper 2 is of 15 minutes approximately and has a 20-word spelling test.
The test further includes two subtypes of questions selected response and constructed response. Selected responses include questions where pupils have to identify the adjective in the sentence and in constructed response they are asked to either ‘Correct/complete/rewrite the given sentence,’ or is given a question with missing punctuation and has to explain why the missing punctuation is needed.
KS2 Maths test
For Key Stage 2 Maths, children have to sit three papers-
Paper 1 is based on arithmetic and is of 30 minutes; it consists of fixed response questions, where children have to give the correct answer to calculations, including long multiplication and division.
Paper 2 and paper 3 are on reasoning, both 40 minutes each. These include multiple-choice questions, true or false, constrained questions (questions where pupils have to complete a table or chart or give the answer to a calculation), and less constrained questions (where pupils have to explain their approach to solve the problem).
KS2 Science sampling
Approximately 1900 schools have to take part in science sampling in selected years. This science sampling is a test administered to a selected sample of children thought to be representative of the population as a whole. The selected students have to give three papers.
- Biology
- Chemistry
- Physics
Each of these paper is of 25 minutes and consist of 22 marks each. The questions are based on the biology/ chemistry/ physics context. For the year 2022, the Department of Education has confirmed there will be no sampling tests for the 2021/22 academic year.
Dates for Year 2 KS2 SATs 2022
The dates for the KS1 SATs vary from school to school, as the school choose their dates within a specific range.
| Day | subjects |
| May 2022 | KS1 English Reading Test Paper 1 |
| May 2022 | KS1 English Reading Test Paper 2 |
| May 2022 | KS1 English grammar, punctuation and spelling Test – Grammar/Punctuation |
| May 2022 | KS1 English grammar, punctuation and spelling Test – Spelling |
| May 2022 | KS1 Maths Paper 1 (Arithmetic) |
| May 2022 | KS1 Maths Paper 2 (Reasoning) |
Dates for Year 6 KS2 SATs 2022
The SATs timetable runs as follows:
| Date | Day | Paper 1 | Paper 2 |
| May 9th 2022 | Monday | English GPS Paper 1: questions | English grammar, punctuation and spelling Paper 2: spelling |
| May 10th 2022 | Tuesday | English reading | |
| May 11th 2022 | Wednesday | Mathematics Paper 1: arithmetic | Mathematics Paper 2: reasoning |
| May 12th 2022 | Thursday | Mathematics Paper 3: reasoning |
Result day for the Year 2 SATs 2022
Like the KS1 Exam dates, the KS1 result date also varies from school to school. The parents will be informed of the result of the child’s tests and the school should show the child’s results in comparison with other children in school and nationally.
The KS1 tests are marked internally by teachers under the mark scheme provided by the standards and testing agency. Schools are not obliged to share the results, it’s up to them to decide if and when they share the results. Most schools include a summary of the test in the school’s year-end report.
Result day for the Year 6 SATs 2022
The exact date for Key Stage 2 Year 6 SATs changes each year. The SATs results in 2018 were released on 10th July, and SATS results in 2019 were released on 9th July. Considering them, the results for SATs 2022 will be out sometime between the first two weeks of July.
Before the result day, the raw SATs marks are converted into a scaled score. Parents are informed whether their child is meeting the expected standard in both versions of their score. Along with this, the child’s school shares how their result is compared to the national average.
How will Key Stage 2 Year 6 SATs be marked?
Unlike before now, the national curriculum levels uses the scaled scores. Parents will be given their child’s scaled score; this scaled score will reflect whether their child has reached the expected standard set by the Department for Education or not. The ‘NS’ in the result means the expected standard was not achieved, and ‘AS’ means that the expected standard was achieved.
The scaled score for the Year 6 SATs test ranges between 80 to 120. Where 80 stands for the lowest scores and 120 is the highest. The expected standard for each test is a scaled score of 100 or higher. Scaled scores of 99 or lesser mean that the child has not achieved the expected standard in the test.
Top tips to prepare for SATs
SATs can be a good way to determine your child’s learning in the KS2. You can use the following ways to prepare your child for their SATs.
Find their strengths and weakness
The first step to prepare your child for their SATs is to find their strengths and weaknesses so that you can help them prepare for the exam smartly. If you are unsure about what they are, you can ask your child’s teacher. They can help you understand what areas of Year 2 or Year 6 SATs revision your child need to work on. After knowing the problem areas, you can create their personalised revision plan.
Add worksheets to the plan
Giving your child real-time experience is a very important part of the practice and revision process. The KS2 SATs worksheets help kids understand what they are going to face in the exam and how prepared they are. Get unlimited KS1 and KS2 SATs worksheets and tutor support with kidSmart.
Use past papers and practice papers
SATs being one of the most important papers for the school, your child’s teacher may plan a series of mock exams (also referred to as SATs revision papers)for them to take in school before the exam. These papers can help them get an idea of the SATs format and the type of questions they are going to face in their Year 6 SATs paper and can help the child feel prepared.
