Year 6 SATS Information
Year 6 SATs Information
At the end of Year 6, children take SATs in:
- Reading
- English grammar, punctuation and spelling
- Maths
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.’
English grammar, punctuation and spelling
Usually, the GPS 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 GPS test includes 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.’
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
When will the KS2 SATs take place?
Due to the new bank holiday in 2023 (to mark the King's coronation) the Year 6 KS2 SATs will take place a day later than usual, starting on Tuesday the 9th May instead of Monday the 8th.
The SATs timetable runs as follows:
Tuesday 9th May
English GPS Paper 1: questions
English grammar, punctuation and spelling Paper 2: spelling
Wednesday 10th May
English reading
Thursday 11th May
Mathematics Paper 1: arithmetic
Mathematics Paper 2: reasoning
Friday 12th May
Mathematics Paper 3: reasoning
How will the tests be marked?
These tests are both set and marked externally and results are returned in July.
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.
Are there any practice papers for KS2 SATs?
The official 2018, 2019 and 2022 KS2 SATs papers are available to download for free from the website below