SATs 2022 - Parents Guide KS2 

What you need to know about SATs for 2022. 

KS2 Reading Paper

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.’

KS2 Grammar, Spelling and Punctuation Paper

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.’

KS2 Maths Test

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?

The Year 6 KS2 SATs will be administered in the week commencing 9th May 2022.

The 2022 SATs schedule is as follows:

How will the SATs be marked? 

The previous national curriculum levels have been scrapped, and instead children are given scaled scores (read our parents’ guide to primary school grading and SATs codes for more details).

You will be given your child’s raw score (the actual number of marks they get), alongside their 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.

SATs Guide for KS1 Parents

What are KS1 SATS?

SATs are a series of assessments in maths and English, carried out in two stages during your child’s primary education.

Key Stage 1 SATs consist of formal assessments in maths, reading and spelling, punctuation and grammar that take around 3 hours in total to complete, plus informal assessments in science that take place throughout the year.

SATs are just one aspect of the KS1 assessment process. Your child's teacher will be taking all their work in Years 1 and 2 into consideration in order to build a full, accurate picture of how well your child is doing. The full, teacher-assessment report about your child's progress in maths, English reading, English writing and science should be sent to you by the end of the summer term.

When will my child take the tests? 

Maths and English SATs usually take place in May (they're not date-specific as KS2 SATs are, so you probably won't know in advance when the tests are due to take place) and are not given all at once – assessments are spread out over a period of time, and teachers try to work them into the normal routine in such a way that students may not feel like they’re being tested.

KS1 SATs are not timed.

How do I know how my child has done?

KS1 SATs results show where your child’s academic knowledge ranks against the national average.

The grading system involves children's raw score – the actual number of marks they get – being translated into a scaled score, where a score of 100 means the child is working at the expected standard. A score below 100 indicates that the child needs more support, whereas a score of above 100 suggests the child is working at a higher level than expected for their age. The maximum score possible is 115, and the minimum is 85.

KS1 SATs papers are marked by your child’s teacher. Schools don't publish KS1 SATs results, and they are not sent to the government. You won’t receive your child’s KS1 SATs results from school automatically, but if you’d like to see them you can ask for them.

Children will also be matched against ‘performance descriptors’ such as working towards the expected level, working at the expected level and working above the expected level, when being assessed by their teachers at the end of Key Stage 1.

How can I help my child prepare for the tests?

There are a number of ways in which you can work on literacy and numeracy concepts at home that will help your child in the classroom, which in turn will give them the confidence to achieve the target level for their age group. Review what they’ll be learning in Year 1 and Year 2 to be ready with relevant activities and worksheets.

For a complete guide to what is tested in the SATs, look through learning objectives reviews click here for KS1 maths and KS1 English. Here you can follow a link to a KS1 SATs Learning Journey, a complete revision course packed with fun worksheets and activities.