KS2 SATs 2016Parents Information Evening

In the summer term of 2016, children in Year 2 and Year 6 will be the first to take the new SATs papers. These tests in English and Maths will reflect the expectations of the new national curriculum. There will also be a new marking scheme to replace the existing national curriculum levels.

At the end of Year 6, children will sit tests in:

Reading

Maths

Spelling, punctuation and grammar

These tests will be both set and marked externally. Your child’s marks will be used in conjunction with teacher assessment to give a broader picture of their attainment.

New tests for 2016…

When will the tests take place?

The Year 6 KS2 SATs will be administered in the week commencing 9 May 2016.

How will the tests be marked?

The previous national curriculum levels no longer apply, and instead children will be given scaled scores. 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 national average. 

Scaled scores help test results to be reported consistently from one year to the next. National curriculum tests are designed to be as similar as possible year on year, but slight differences in difficulty will occur between years. Scaled scores maintain their meaning over time so that two pupils achieving the same scaled score in different years will have demonstrated the same attainment.

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.

KS2 GPS Test

As in previous years, there are two papers, Paper 1: questions and Paper 2: spelling.

Paper 1: questions consists of a single test paper. Pupils will have 45 minutes to complete the test, answering the questions in the test paper. The questions are worth 50 marks in total.

Paper 2: Spelling consists of an answer booklet for pupils to complete and a test transcript to be read by the test administrator. Pupils will have approximately 15 minutes to complete the test, but it is not strictly timed, by writing the 20 missing words in the answer booklet. The questions are worth 20 marks in total.

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.’

The new grammar, punctuation and spelling test has a greater focus on knowing and applying grammatical terminology with the full range of punctuation tested.

The new national curriculum sets out clearly which technical terms in grammar are to be learnt by pupils and these are explicitly included in the test and detailed in the new test framework. It also defines precise spelling patterns and methodologies to be taught, and these are the basis of spellings in the test.

KS2 Reading Test

The reading test will be 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.’

The English reading test will have a greater focus on fictional texts. There is also a greater emphasis on the comprehension elements of the new curriculum. The test consists of a reading booklet and a separate answer booklet.

There will be a mixture of genres of text. The least-demanding text will come first with the following texts increasing in level of difficulty.

Pupils can approach the test as they choose: eg working through one text and answering the questions before moving on to the next. The questions are worth a total of 50 marks.

Creative ways of ensuring daily reading at home

KS2 Maths Test

Children will 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

Some example questions from the arithmetic paper

Science

Not all children in Year 6 will take science SATs. However, a number of schools will be required to take part in science sampling: a test administered to a selected sample of children thought to be representative of the population as a whole. (Monday 6 to Friday 17 June is the science sampling test period in which your child might sit the tests.) For those who are selected, there will be three papers:

Biology: 25 minutes, 22 marks

Chemistry: 25 minutes, 22 marks

Physics: 25 minutes, 22 marks

Growth mind set.Encouraging children to understand that intelligence can grow.

Mindset is often more important than your initial ability in determining whether you succeed in the long run.

Growth Mind-Set

Fixed Mind-Set

View mistakes as an opportunity to develop

Think about how they learn

Higher Attaining PupilsHard Working Pupils

Believe that effort creates success

Resilient

Believe that talents can be developed and great abilities can be built over time.

Prefer to stay in their comfort zoneAre fearful of

making mistakes

Believe that talents and abilities are set in stone, you either have them or you don’t.

Believe that talent alone creates success

Think it is important to ‘look’ smart in front of others

Reluctant to take on challenges

Lower Attaining Pupils

Well behaved pupils

Thank you for coming!