(Standard Assessment Tests) Year 6 SATs

Presentation Overview

• What are the SATs• What is included in the tests• How you can help at home• What the scores mean

The SATs have changed this year to correlate with the new British curriculum for Maths and English.

What are Year 6 or End of Key Stage 2 SATs?The SATs are intended to show if your child is working at, above or below the target level for their age.

When are the SATs?This year, the Year 6 SATs begin Monday 13th June 2016

Can my child fail a SATs test?Children do not ‘pass’ or ‘fail’ SATs.They will receive a score which shows what they have learned and what they can do.

What are the children tested on? The children can be tested on any of the work from the Maths and English curriculum

What form will the tests take?

English Reading (45 minutes + 15 minutes reading time)

Writing Long (45 minutes + short 20 minutes)

Grammar, punctuation (45 minutes)and spelling (10 minutes)

Maths Arithmetic (30 minutes) Reasoning 1 (40 minutes)Reasoning 2 (40 minutes)

Reading Comprehension

Children have to read through a long booklet containing different types of writing including any of the following …

• factual / information writing • a long story • lists • diagrams • magazine or newspaper articles • an interview • poetry • a play

Questions must be answered fully.

Factual information needs to be quoted directly from the text e.g. describe how the boy looked...

Opinion and personal response must be full, considered and relevant.

What can you do to help?

• Read regularly with your child at home• Ask them questions about what they have

read• Ask them to show you where they found the

information

Writing The children are asked to complete two set writing tasks -one short and one long. They may be fiction or non-fiction. There will not be a choice.

The writing must have : •a good structure •a beginning, a worthwhile middle and a satisfactory ending •interesting vocabulary (not “he said, so I said ...so then we ... then we ...”.) • some correct punctuation (full stops and capital letters.) • an interesting style (writing in ‘ book language’) • lots of description (of the characters, of the setting .....) • it should fit the task (have they done what they were asked to do?)

What can you do to help?

Give your child practice in timed writing

Show how to improve a piece of writing e.g.

from ...“the boy sat on the chair”

to ... “the young, windswept boy threw himself forcefully onto the battered old sofa”

Handwriting• writing should be fluent, look as if it is confidently

written and not laboured, at all times • letters must be correctly formed and joined, at all

times • all writing must be joined up and legible, at all

times • tall letters should all be the same size, at all times • small letters should all be the same size, at all

times

• ... the message is ...

• ... no longer very good some of the time but pretty good all the time

Grammar, punctuation and spelling• The English grammar, punctuation and spelling test has two

components, worth a total of 70 marks:

• a booklet of short-answer questions

• a spelling task

Grammar, punctuation and spelling (paper 1)

Paper 1, the short-answer questions, consists of between 40 and 50 questions assessing grammar, punctuation and vocabulary. Each question is worth one or two marks with a total for the paper of 50 marks.

Grammar, punctuation and spelling (paper 2)

Paper 2, the spelling task, consists of 20 sentences, which are read aloud by the test administrator. Each sentence has a word missing which the child must complete. The task is worth a total of 20 marks.

Maths- arithmetic

• Paper 1: arithmetic replaces the mental mathematics test. The arithmetic test assesses basic mathematical calculations. The test consists of a single test paper. Pupils will have 30 minutes to complete the test, answering the questions in the test paper. The paper consists of 36 questions which are worth a total of 40 marks.

• The questions will cover straightforward addition and subtraction and more complex calculations with fractions worth 1 mark each, and long divisions and long multiplications worth 2 marks each.

Maths- reasoning

• Papers 2 and 3 each consist of a single test paper. Pupils will have 40 minutes to complete each test, answering the questions in the test paper. Each paper will have questions worth a total of 35 marks.

• In some answer spaces, where pupils need to show their method, square grids are provided for the questions on the arithmetic paper and some of the questions on Paper 2.

Scaled Scores

Levels are no longer used to provide grades, scaled scores will be used instead.

For the KS2 tests a scaled score of 100 will always represent the ‘expected standard’.

A pupil’s scaled score will be based on their raw score. The raw score is the total number of marks a pupil receives in a test. The pupil’s raw score will be translated into a scaled score using a conversion table.

A pupil who achieves the national standard will have demonstrated sufficient knowledge in the areas assessed by the tests. This will mean that they are well placed to succeed in the next phase of their education.

The old national curriculum levels are not relevant to the new national curriculum. However, in order to provide some indication of the new standards, we have tried to indicate equivalence in a broad sense. At KS2 this will roughly equate to an old level 4b. Otherwise levels and scaled scores will not be comparable.

Where can we find some past questions? Great websites for Year 6 children to practise past SATs questions. http://www.satsguide.co.uk/what_are_sats.htm

http://www.satspapers.co.uk/ks2.php

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/SATS.html

and finally ... the test results should reflect accurately where

your children are, but we also know that they are just a snapshot of how they have performed on that occasion.

all pupils will have made progress from many different starting points, which is all we can ask from them