KS2 SATS INFORMATION

Statutory Assessment Tests.

• End of Key Stage 1 (at age 7).
• End of Key Stage 2 (at age 11).

What should my child achieve?

• A “typical” 11 year old is expected to achieve age expectations within the National Curriculum standards.
• Some children will achieve below age expectations.
• While others will be working at greater depth within their age expectations.

How are children assessed?

There are two sorts of assessments:

• Teacher Assessments
• SATs tests

What does teacher assessment involve and how different is it from testing?

• Teacher assessments draw together everything the teachers know about a child, including their performance within daily lessons, ongoing observations, marked learning and school summative assessments.
• Teacher assessment is not a ‘snapshot’ like tests, and is therefore more reliable.
• Due to the above, there can be a difference between teacher assessment results and test levels.

Teacher assessments will be made in the following subject areas:

• English: Reading and Writing
• Maths 
• Science

When do KS2 tests happen?

• In 2019, the test dates will be from Monday 13th to Thursday 16th May.
• This will be a busy week!
• Please avoid taking your child out of school during this time, and in the weeks leading up to the tests.

What do tests involve?

There are two tests for English:

• Reading.
• Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling (SPaG).
• The reading test has one paper, and the SPaG test has two papers.

English – The reading test

• The reading test lasts for 1 hour.
• During this time, your child will be given three to four different texts to read –a mix of fiction, non-fiction and poetry – and a separate booklet of questions to answer about the texts.
• We are teaching your children strategies for tackling this paper, such as answering the questions about each text one section at a time.
• The reading answer booklet will comprise of approximately 35 to 40 questions (a total of 50 marks).
• The questions will consist of:
  • shorter, closed response questions (such as multiple choice and matching questions);
  • shorter, open response questions;
  • longer, open response questions, which require children to explain and comment on the texts to demonstrate a full understanding of their comprehension of the texts.

  Questions are worth 1, 2 or 3 marks.

English – The Grammar, Spelling and Punctuation Test (SPaG)

Paper 1: Grammar, punctuation and vocabulary

• Paper 1 assesses grammar, punctuation and vocabulary.
• This is an area that has changed significantly in the new curriculum and questions will refer to both the children’s knowledge of grammatical terms (such as pronoun and conjunction) and the use of language in the right context.
• Some questions will also require children to put in the appropriate punctuation marks to show clauses or sentences, or to use a particular sentence structure.

Paper 2: Spellings

• Paper 2 assesses spelling and requires children to spell 20 words.
• Each word is read out as part of a sentence that is printed in the answer booklet. Your child will be asked to write the missing word into the gap.
• The words in the test will be based on the spelling rules taught across Key Stage 2.

There are 70 marks altogether, made up of the scores from both papers to achieve an overall score for grammar, punctuation and spelling.

Mathematics

This year, the mathematics tests consists of three separate written papers:

• one arithmetic paper, lasting 30 minutes.
• two mathematical reasoning (non-calculator) test papers, each lasting 45 minutes.
• Children’s marks from all three tests are combined to calculate their overall mathematics score.

Paper 1 – Arithmetic

• The arithmetic paper will test your child’s understanding of number and their mental and written calculation skills.
• The test will have around 40 questions and will be worth 40 marks, making up just over one-third of the total marks available for mathematics.
• Some of the questions will require children to know a range of number facts (such as multiplication and division facts), and others will test their use of formal written calculation methods.
• Towards the end of the paper, there are some more challenging calculations -such as those involving fractions, or written calculations with larger numbers.
• For some written multiplication and division questions, 2 marks will be available. If your child’s final answer is incorrect, they may still earn 1 mark for showing correct use of the formal long multiplication or long division methods. This ‘method mark’ is not available though, if they use any other calculation method than the expected formal one.

Maths – Papers 2 & 3 Reasoning

• The questions on these papers, as with the arithmetic one, are set out in approximate order of difficulty, so children who are less confident with more challenging mathematics may not finish the whole paper.
• The reasoning questions often include some background information, such as solving problems to do with purchasing things in a shop, or dealing with measurements such as weight or area.
• These test papers cover the wider areas of mathematics such as geometry and statistics, as well as using arithmetic and number knowledge to solve problems.
• Several questions are likely to involve more than one step and so will be worth 2 marks.

Overall, each reasoning paper is worth 35 marks.

How is SATs week organised?

• A timetable is issued to all schools, telling us on which days tests must be administered.
• We can determine at what time tests begin.
• Tests are completed in classrooms, with any displays that may help covered over.
• The Local Authority monitor around 10% of schools per year.

Children are divided into groups for test administration to ensure they are properly supported and feel secure.

How can YOU help?

• As always, take an interest in your child’s learning and progress, giving plenty of positive encouragement!
• Look at some websites together, such as: Mathletics; Times Tables Rockstars; Maths is fun; BBC Bitesize.
• Avoid putting your child children under too much pressure.
• Ensure your child arrives to school each day on time, which will be at 8.30am for breakfast* during SATs week.
• Provide your child with a drink and snack each day.
• Ensure that they go to bed at a reasonable time each night.

*The school will provide FREE breakfast (toast with jam or chocolate spread, crumpets), but if your child requires a different option, please make sure you give them breakfast before they leave for school.

2019 Test Timetable

Marking and Results

• All of the tests will be carried out in school.
• Following this, they will be sent to be marked by a central agency and returned shortly before the end of the summer term.
• Once the results are returned to the school, we will report these to you.
• The way that your child is assigned a result has changed significantly from the national curriculum levels used in the past.
• This year, your child’s score will be converted to a scaled score to allow it to be compared to other children’s scores across the country. Scaled scores will normally range between 80 and 130.
• The scale will be set so that reaching a score of 100 will indicate that your child is working at the expected standard for the end of Key Stage 2.

We hope that this has been helpful and not too daunting!
Please just ask us if you have any questions at any point through the rest of the year.

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