1. Year 6 SATs Meeting

2. When do they happen? Monday 14th May 2018
Key stage 2 English grammar, punctuation and spelling test, Paper 1, short answer questions.
Key stage 2 English grammar, punctuation and spelling test, Paper 2, spelling.
Tuesday 15th May 2018
Key Stage 2 Reading Paper
Wednesday 16th May 2018
Key stage 2 mathematics, Paper 1 arithmetic test.
Key stage 2 mathematics, Paper 2 reasoning.
Thursday 17th May 2018
Key stage 2 mathematics, Paper 3, reasoning.

3. What is different?
The children have been taught the New Curriculum since September 2014 and this year children will be assessed based on the New Curriculum content to form the “new” SAT’s. They will be the second cohort to take these tests.
* From 2016, KS2 national curriculum test outcomes will no longer be reported using levels. Scaled scores will be used instead, these will be reported to school and passed on to parents.
Each pupil registered for the tests will receive:
a raw score (number of raw marks awarded)
a scaled score
confirmation of whether or not they attained the national standard
Children now complete different papers for maths and grammar than in previous SAT’s; the reading test remains predominantly the same.
Writing is assessed using teacher assessment and criteria set by the government.

4. Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling
There are two parts to the grammar, punctuation and spelling paper.
The first paper contains short questions linked with punctuation and grammar and can involve a range of activities from circling adverbs within a sentence, turning a question into a command or ticking the sentence that requires two commas.
This paper is 45 minutes long.
The second paper is the spelling paper and contains 20 spellings. The word is said out loud, then within the sentence for context/homophones etc and then out loud again by the teacher.
We encourage the children to:
Think carefully about what the language means
Identify what will make it make sense
Read the question carefully and give as many examples as stated
Check you have answered the question fully (look out for clues)

5. Reading
The reading paper is one hour long. The children have to read a text carefully and then answer questions based on it – they can refer back to the text as much as they like. The texts tend to become harder throughout the booklet.
We encourage the children to:
Read the question carefully
Think about the important language and what the question is asking them to do
Write down the answer
Check it makes sense.
Do I need to retrieve a few words to make the answer accurate?
Have I given a clear answer and provided evidence from the text if needed?
Have I given an opinion supported by what I have read? do I need to retrieve a few words to make the answer accurate

6. Maths
The arithmetic paper (Paper 1) is 30mins long. The children will be asked to answer a range of questions using mental arithmetic, jottings and written calculations and are provided with squared paper.
We encourage the children to:
Read the question carefully
Think - Can I do this in my head?
Will jottings help me?
Do I need to use a formal written method
Paper 2 and 3 are Reasoning and Problem Solving Papers where the children will need to read and apply mathematical knowledge in a range of contexts including word problems, missing numbers, explaining how they know something is true or false and provide evidence for that etc. Both of these papers are 40 minutes long.
* Read the question carefully
Identify and underline the important information – think about what this means
Complete each step to the problem – find an answer and check it makes sense when linked back to the question
Use jottings, written methods to help you.

7. Scaled Scores? What about levels?
As the government has abolished the use of levels and reformed the way school’s assess children they are now using a scaled score to determine whether a child has achieved the National Standard and is Secondary ready.
“Scaled scores are used all over the world. They help test results to be reported consistently from one year to the next. We design national curriculum tests 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 on two different tests will have demonstrated the same attainment. For example, on our scale 100 will always represent the ‘national standard’. However, due to the small differences in difficulty between tests, the ‘raw score’ (ie the total number of correct responses) that equates to 100 might be different (though similar) each year.
We can’t give full information about what the scale will look like yet. We need to wait until pupils have taken the tests and the tests have been marked before we can set the national standard and the rest of the scale. We can’t set the scale in advance; this cohort is the first that has reached the end of key stage 2 having studied sufficient content from the new national curriculum. If we were to set the scale using data from pupils that had studied the old national curriculum, it is likely it would be incorrect.
We do know the scale will have a lower end point below 100 and an upper end point above 100. Once we have set the national standard we will use a statistical technique called ‘scaling’ to transform the raw score into a scaled score.” (DfE)

8. Writing Assessment
The children’s writing is assessed across a range of criteria – the children have to show evidence of each objective across a range of independent written pieces.
I then have to assess whether they are working towards the standard, are working at the expected standard, or working at greater depth within the standard.
This assessment is moderated within school, with other schools and is subject to an external moderation from the LA.

9. Supporting Your Child Complete activities linked with weekly homework
Talk to the children about how they know the answer
Use reading books as an opportunity to work on grammatical terms
Don’t panic! The children are all working extremely hard and will get practise in school/support on specific areas in English, maths and intervention sessions. If you have any questions please ask me or send a note so I can assist where possible.
Use revision books and practise papers to support the children at home. I will also continue to send papers we complete in school home after we have been through them in class.