1. SATs Meeting for Year 2 Parents
Monday 7th March
AMY
Aim of the evening – provide you with knowledge of the changes to the curriculum and assessments, when assessments are happening and how you can support your child.

2. The New National Curriculum
Higher expectations
No longer report or assess using levels
Teacher Assessment
AMY
Last year the government decided to overhaul what was being taught in primary schools and to bring in new standards.
They raised the expectations of what they expect an average 7 year old to be able to do and a significant amount of what is part of the Year 1 and 2 curriculum was previously from a much higher level/key stage 2.
The government have also changed the assessment system and your children are the first year to be assessed using the new system. In previous years it was expected that a child should reach a level 2b. This no longer exists. In July, when reports come out, you will be told whether your child has met the expected standard or has not achieved the expected standard for the end of key stage 1. Sample papers have been released (some examples of which we will show you later this evening) but the expected standard has not been shared by the government yet.

3. What assessments will Year 2 children complete?
Maths
Paper 1: Arithmetic
Paper 2: Reasoning
NATALIE and ANDREA
The Maths assessments will consist of 2 papers- Paper 1 Arithmetic and Paper 2 Reasoning.
The children will not be allowed to use any apparatus for any of the papers therefore confidence with jottings, written methods and mental maths skills
is VITAL! Our school website shows examples of the St Christopher written methods (on school website).

4. NATALIE and ANDREA
The paper 1 Arithmetic test ……marks/ time-recommended is context free, consisting of just mental maths questions or number sentences. The children can still use jottings and written methods and some questions will allow 2 marks for accurate working out shown. Therefore it is extremely important that children are confident with the written methods we have taught them.

5. Paper 2-Reasoning- consists of problem solving questions presented in a wide range of formats e.g. multiple choice, matching, true/false, constrained (e.g. completing a chart or table; drawing a shape) and less constrained (e.g. where children have to show or explain their method). (flick through examples)- this allows the children to demonstrate that they can apply their skills in a variety of ways.
75-85% of these questions will focus on number, particularly children’s ability to work with larger numbers and apply basic number facts. There will also be a high focus on calculating and fractions, as well as assessing children’s knowledge of shape and measures.

6. What assessments will Year 2 children complete?
Reading
Paper 1: Combined reading prompt and answer booklet
Paper 2: Separate reading booklet and reading answer booklet
NATALIE and ANDREA
Difficulty levels of paper 1 and 2
The children will be completing 2 reading papers. Both papers are in line with our higher reading bands (purple onwards).
Paper 1 is a combined test and question/answer booklet. This is the shorter text of the two and is slightly easier than paper 2.
Paper 2 is the more challenging paper and consists of a separate reading and answer booklet.

7. What assessments will Year 2 children complete?
What will the assessments consist of?
Drawing on knowledge of vocabulary to understand texts.
Identifying key aspects of fiction and non fiction texts.
Explaining and identifying sequences of events.
Making inferences and predicting what might happen.
NATALIE and ANDREA
Both papers will focus on the children’s understanding of vocabulary/comprehension skills.
For example….
(read bullet points)
We will share how you can help your child with preparing for this at the end of the presentation.

8. Retrieval- locating answers directly from the text.
Deduction- reading between the lines of a text/ looking for the clues.
NATALIE and ANDREA
Both papers consist of a lot of retrieval and deduction questions.
Retrieval questions require the children to locate answers directly from the text.
An example of a paper 1 retrieval question–– ant example
The children will also be assessed on deduction questions. These are more challenging as they require the children to read between the lines of a text and look for the clues- e.g. understanding that finding a boat makes the characters lucky.

9. NATALIE and ANDREA
Paper 2 examples
There is a strong focus on assessing the children’s understanding of vocabulary. For example, this paper 2 question requires the children to read the points on the table and then to answer question 11 understand that poisonous means dangerous. Therefore it is really important that we are widening the children’s vocabulary where possible to ensure they are confident with these question types.

10. What assessments will Year 2 children complete?
Grammar, punctuation and spelling
Paper 1: Spelling
Paper 2: Grammar and punctuation questions
NATALIE and ANDREA
The children will now be assessed on their English grammar, punctuation and spelling.
Paper 1 will be a spelling test and Paper 2 is a grammar and punctuation test.

11. NATALIE and ANDREA
The spelling test is not strictly timed but should take around 15 to 20 minutes to complete. It consists of 20 words. The children will be given each missing word from the sentences in their booklet by their teacher. This will be read on its own and then within the sentence .
There are a lot of challenging words within the test requiring the children to be confident with a range of spelling patterns, for example rules for adding suffixes such as dropping the e before adding ‘ing’ (bake- baking) and also being confident with which graphemes belong to which words, e.g. knowing that it is ‘kn’ for the ‘n’ sound in knew.
Spelling examples – challenging words! Children will need to know which graphemes (e.g. kn for /n/ sound in knew) and spelling patterns (e.g. drop the e before adding ing in baking)

12. NATALIE and ANDREA
The grammar and punctuation paper mainly focuses on word types, sentence types, punctuation and past and present tenses.
It requires multiple choice or short sentence answers, covering areas such as using joining words (because, but, however), using pronouns (I/me/she) correctly, capitalising the correct words in a sentence and explaining why, putting the correct punctuation into a given sentence, writing sentences that illustrate two different meanings of the same word, identifying the verb, adverb, noun and adjective in a sentence and using plurals correctly. 

13. What assessments will Year 2 children complete?
Writing
No writing paper
Teacher assessment using interim framework
AMY
There is not a writing paper – your child’s writing will be assessed by their teacher using something called the interim framework.
We use Big Writing sessions to give the children opportunities to write at length throughout the year and the most recent pieces of writing will be assessed.

14. What assessments will Year 2 children complete?
Working towards the expected standard
Using some capital letters and full stops
Spelling using phonics (sounds)
Spelling some common exception words
Writing lower-case letters in the correct direction and size
Using spaces between words
AMY
This is the interim framework – the guidance the government has produced to show teachers the expected standard. This slide shows the objectives for children working towards the expected standard.
There is a much bigger emphasis on punctuation, handwriting and spelling than in previous years.

15. What assessments will Year 2 children complete?
Working at the expected standard
Using capital letters and full stops for most sentences and using ? and !
Using statements, questions, exclamations and commands
Expanded noun phrases
Using present and past tense correctly
Wide range of conjunctions (joining words)
Spelling most words correctly including common exception words and contracted forms (e.g. don’t)
Adding suffixes –ment, -ness, -ful, -less, -ly
Joining handwriting
Writing capital letters and digits correctly
Using spaces between words
AMY
These are the objectives for children working at the expected standard. Children are expected to use a range of punctuation, word types and sentence types confidently, to use the correct tense and to use joining words. They should spell confidently including contractions and adding suffixes. Miss Myers and Mrs Harrison are working hard to teach the children joined letters so that they can begin to join their handwriting in all lessons.
The children have to meet all of the expectations to meet the expected standard – it is not a best fit judgement anymore as it has been in previous years.

16. When are the SATs happening?
Assessments will take place during two weeks in May (16th to 27th)
It is important that your child is not absent, they get to school on time and have had a good breakfast.
AMY
We will complete the assessments across 2 weeks in May (wb 16th and wb 23rd)
Arriving at school on time and with a good breakfast will mean your child will be ready for the assessments and be able to show the best of their ability. Please avoid keeping your child off school during those two weeks – obviously illness cannot be avoided and the children can take the assessment at a later date – but assessments have to be completed during May.
Although it is important that the children understand that they need to try their best, we do everything we can to ensure the children do not feel anxious about the assessments. They will have completed examples and practise tests beforehand and will be familiar with the format of questions. All assessments are completed in the classroom with their class teacher. We may even have a treat at the end of the two weeks as a reward for their hard work!

17. How you can help your child
Reading
Regular reading
Ask lots of questions (Big Reading characters)
SPaG
Talking about punctuation and word types
Practising weekly spellings
Maths
Rainbow Challenge targets
Practical activities (e.g. telling the time, using money)
Check the written methods policy on the school website
NATALIE AND ANDREA
How you can help your child?
In order to ensure your child feels well prepared for the assessments, support from home is extremely important.
Reading as regularly as possible and asking lots of questions about the text will allow the children to become confident when answering their comprehension questions. During our Spy time sessions the children work with 4 characters who each have a different focus: Retrieving, Exploring, Analysing and Deducting. Asking your child about these characters and focusing on these skills during reading time at home will help support these skills further ????
To help support with the SPaG test, your child may like to talk about the punctuation and different word types they can identify during your reading time at home (something we often focus on during our Spy Time sessions). Practising their weekly spellings up to 3 times a week or just as often a possible would be also be extremely beneficial.
Your child should have come home with their Maths rainbow challenge targets. These targets are to ensure children are developing and embedding their mental maths skills therefore these need to be practised as regularly as possible. The children are tested weekly on these targets and once completely secure and confident with them, they are able to move on to the next colour of the rainbow. They will then receive a certificate, a coloured band and new targets to bring home.
As well as working on these targets, you could support your child with Maths through everyday practical activities such as asking your child to tell you the time at different points in the day, supporting them with counting out the money they need when going to the shops or talking about what fraction of their toast they have eaten for their breakfast!! Again, if you are not sure of the written methods we are using for Maths in school, taking a look at our school website for examples could be a great help for your child and will ensure consistency between home an school.
AMY
Discuss revision packs – not marked by teacher!