Key Stage 1 SATs Information

In England, National Curriculum KS1 SATs are optional from Summer 2024.

What are SATs?

SATs is short for Standard Assessment Tests. They are designed to help parents and teachers learn more about their child’s strengths and weaknesses in Reading, Maths, Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation. Children are tested on what they have been learning at school and to assess the national curriculum.

At the end of Key Stage 1 (Year 2) children may be assessed on English grammar, punctuation and spelling (GPaS), Maths and Reading. These tests are designed to enable pupils to demonstrate their attainment and are not strictly timed since the ability to work at pace is not part of the process. Teacher assessment is used to judge children's performance in a subject over a longer period of time. The results of teacher assessment are equally important, as the teacher may feel your child is doing better in a subject as a whole than in the parts of it covered by a test.

Key Stage 1 SATs cover:

For more information about KS1 SATs please watch a video released by the DfE: 

How to support your child at home:

• Talk about the SATs and tell them not worry about them. The school will also do this, too, but it makes a bigger impact if school and parents do this together. Children perform best when they are relaxed.
• Reading is a key part of primary education so keep encouraging daily reading whether your child reads on their own or if you read together. Discuss the books, the characters, the storylines and encourage your child to express their own opinions on the book. This is important to their long term development as well as SATs test.
• Play mental games when you are on the way home whether you are walking or driving. Playing card games, Uno, Monopoly and dominoes all help with Maths. Whereas games like hangman, Boggle or Scrabble will support with literacy,
• You can download practice test papers from the DfE. Your child will be doing lots of practice in school so only do more if your child enjoys the challenge. If your child doesn’t like them, it is counterproductive to force them to do more!

• Try to keep everything else running normally. So whether its sport, music lessons or Scouts and Guides; sticking to your normal routine supports your child.
• Keep it in proportion. These are primary-school tests to gauge the education in the school.
• Stay positive. Many children enjoy taking the tests as they see it as a challenge.

Remember you do not have to more tests with your child or teach them. The most important thing is to give your child lots of praise as they will be doing their very best.