End of year testing in Year 6 Preparing for the tests…

The Primary Curriculum (ages 5-11) At Birstwith, we allow you child to grow in an unique environment that enables them to flourish and sets the foundation for the demands of life in the future. Primary school days are exciting and rewarding times and we aim to develop the children in terms of their emotional, social, physical and intellectual abilities. We follow the National Curriculum and recently (2014) this was revised though we still measure how much progress a child makes year on year as well as during each academic year. A new ‘expected standard’ (a higher standard than previously), along with new national curriculum tests in English reading and mathematics have been introduced, with outcomes reported as scaled scores ranging from 80 to 120, rather than the previous levels.

About the Key Stage 2 Tests (SATS) Even though a huge range of subjects are taught during your child’s primary education, the National Curriculum Tests assess Reading, Mathematics (both arithmetic and reasoning) and English Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling (EGPS) All of these tests take place over one week and each test paper is scheduled for a particular day. 60 mins 45 mins 15 mins 30 mins 40 mins

Preparing for the tests Although they are not the ‘be all and end all’ of your child’s education, the tests can potentially be quite stressful. Providing your child with some simple ‘steps to success’ will improve their confidence and help them to feel prepared. Create a ‘learning planner’ with your child, focussing on areas within the tested subjects that they find more challenging. Vary the subjects daily and stick to a specified time and duration each day. Talk to your child and see how they feel about their knowledge. Ask them where they need help and what they feel they may be struggling with. Encourage you child to stay calm, use breathing techniques, open conversation and even meditation. Make learning fun and relevant and try and use everyday contexts to reinforce areas of learning. Most importantly- make sure your child is rested and properly fed the morning of the tests. This includes hydration!

Further prep… We will obviously be working on past papers and exam technique in class, but there are a wide variety of home help books and apps out there. Time efficiency is a vital skill. The tests are short but are crammed with comprehension –Both Literacy and maths. Children really need to know how to pick out the detail of the question and answer it precisely. Carol Vorderman has published a series of grammar books, alongside her maths one (Help your kids with….) which are useful. There are other publishers that have produced new curriculum revision support for all areas of testing. The Government posts useful information too and you can download and access their past papers easily – for free.

Common errors from previous tests Missing 2 pages of questions due to turning multiple pages in haste (Lost 12 marks!) Answering a question wrongly by using information from other books they had read by the same author (Lost 3 marks) Finishing in time but not checking their answers correctly – Using the inverse operation or even a different method to rework the question could save a lot of marks. Not putting the answer in the box (Lost 5 marks) Underlining instead of circling or ticking instead of crossing (lost 6 marks) Not giving enough information to match the mark count (3 marks) Not showing their workings ( 2 marks) Underlining 2 words when it asks for 3 or vice versa ( 1 mark) Only answering the first part of a question ( multi-step maths) (4 marks)

Some examples of past questions EGPS EGPS

Maths reasoning Maths arithmetic

More maths reasoning

Examples of the reading paper questions… make a note of the depth of inference.