End of Key Stage Assessments

KS2 SATS

SATs are for:

Providing parents with information about how children are doing in relation to National Expectations
Providing assessment information to the secondary schools (often to help with grouping and setting next steps in learning)
Showing how schools perform in relation to other schools

Our approach to these is to ensure children don’t dread them, and see them as an opportunity to show how much they now know. We encourage parents to express to children that all they can do is try their best, and if they’ve done that, they can be proud. We do not recommend ‘prize money’ or rewards for ‘levels’ but if they are keen to use rewards as an incentive, then rewarding effort and extra work is much better

We typically run an information evening for parents to explain what happens during the process and how they might be able to help at home.

KS1 SATS

These are used as part of the regular assessment class teachers in Year 2 do, including marking of children’s work, listening into their conversations, routinely asking questions throughout their learning, in order to form an overall judgement to be reported to the government about how they’re doing in the core subjects.

We do not make a big deal of them and the children are barely aware that they happen. We don’t report on scores but are happy for parents to ask us if they want to know specifics. We do not want parents doing revision with children – these, again, are a check for the government rather that a gauge for us, because we already know how well they are doing. They tend to do test papers in May and June. There is not a fixed schedule like there is for KS2.

YEAR 1 PHONIC CHECK

Year 1 will be assessed on their learning of phonics in the summer term. We will let you know whether they passed the check or not. Again, this is for the government’s purposes, to gauge school performance. We already track which phonics children are proficient at, and use that information daily to fill gaps and to plan next steps.

YEAR 4 TABLES CHECK

In Year 4, children get to complete a tables check, showing which of their times tables they know. The test is on the computer, and they could be asked any table up to 12X12. We will let you know how well they did. Clearly, keeping up with tables practise at home really benefits them (and is often set as their homework). The most important thing to say is that knowing their tables is vital for their maths work – it’s not just so they pass the test!

A good first step for learning tables is for them to know the counting songs. Found here …