Aims of tonight. Give you a taster of some of the tasks your child will be facing in their SATS in the week starting Monday 12 th.May. Provide some suggestions as to how you can help your child at home in terms of literacy. Highlight what your child should be doing in literacy by the end of Year 6.

Grammar. In the May SATS, your child will have to sit a grammar paper which tests them on their knowledge, and skills, of the English language. They need to know definitions of terms such as proper noun, adverb and pronoun to name but a few! Their punctuation skills need to be spot on as they will also be tested on their knowledge and application of these. They need to be using the full range of punctuation, such as brackets and colons, not just capital letters, full stops and commas.

Spelling. In addition to the grammar paper, there will be a spelling test, 20 words that get progressively more difficult. Children need to know common spelling rules, i.e. rules for plural words, adding a suffix such as ‘ful’ etc. Encourage them to break unfamiliar words into the syllables, or parts, they are made from, for example, the word ‘particular’ has 4 syllables – par – tic – u – lar.

Writing. Being able to talk clearly about want they want to write down on paper is crucial for being a good writer. Encourage your child to talk about EVERYTHING!! Try and develop their interest and knowledge in the wider World around them so that they can discuss, and write about, topical issues. Your child should be using interesting vocabulary in their writing because this will help them write descriptively and in detail. You could have a ‘word of the week’ that the whole family tries to use in conversation.

Reading. Good readers make good writers!!! Your child should be reading every day to help them with: fluency, gaining ideas that they could use in their own writing, increasing their vocabulary, seeing words regularly that will help them with their spelling. They should be able to talk about what they have read clearly, re-telling the plotline in detail. Ask your child questions about their book where the answers are not obvious, for example, “How do you think the main character was feeling? What bits of the text give you that impression?” Using evidence from the text to back up their answers is a vital skill that they will be required to do in their SATS.

Thank you! Thank you for coming this evening. Year 6 is a tough year – for everyone, not just the children!! We need you to work with your child at home to make sure that in their SATS they really show what they are capable of. Encourage your child to develop their organisational skills which will help them with their revision. Talk to your child about their self-motivation. Setting realistic goals for themselves, and then new ones when they have achieved existing ones, will help enormously.