Assessment
Reception Baseline Assessment
The purpose of the reception baseline assessment is to provide an on-entry assessment of pupil attainment to be used as a starting pint from which a cohort-level progress measure to the end of KS2 can be created. The baseline assessment is taken by pupils during their first half term in reception. Further information for parents can be found here.
Year 1 Phonic Screening
The Phonics Screening Check demonstrates how well your child can use the phonics skills they have learned up to the end of Year 1, and to identify students who need extra phonics help.
The checks consist of 40 words and non-words that your child will be asked to read one-on-one with a teacher. Non-words (or nonsense words, or pseudo words) are a collection of letters that will follow phonics rules your child has been taught, but do not mean anything.
Children who do not meet the required standard in Year 1 will be re-checked in Year 2.
Year 2 Statutory Assessments (SATs)
Key Stage 1 SATs are no longer mandatory.
Year 6 Statutory Assessments (SATs)
In Year 6 children will take the end of Key Stage 2 SATs papers.
These tests will be both set and marked externally, and the results will be used to measure the school’s performance (for example, through reporting to Ofsted and published league tables). Your child’s marks will be used in conjunction with teacher assessment to give a broader picture of their attainment.
At the end of Year 6, children will sit tests in: Reading, Maths, Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar.
Year 6 KS2 SATs are administered across one week in May.
KS2 Reading Test
The reading test will provisionally be a single paper with questions based on one 800-word text and two passages of 300 words. Your child will have one hour, including reading time, to complete the test.
KS2 Grammar, Punctuation & Spelling Test
The grammar, punctuation and spelling test will consist of two parts: a grammar and punctuation paper requiring short answers, lasting 45 minutes, and an aural spelling test of 20 words, lasting around 15 minutes.
KS2 Maths Test
Children will sit three papers in Maths:
- Paper 1: arithmetic, 30 minutes
- Papers 2 and 3: mathematical fluency, solving problems and reasoning, 40 minutes per paper
KS2 Science Test
A number of schools will be required to take part in science sampling: a test administered to a selected sample of children thought to be representative of the population as a whole.
Scaled Scores
The old national curriculum levels have been scrapped, and instead children will be given a scaled score at the end of Year 6.
Each Year 6 pupil registered for the tests will receive:
- a raw score (number of raw marks awarded)
- a scaled score (converted from the raw score)
- confirmation of whether or not they attained the national standard.
National Curriculum tests are designed to be as similar as possible year on year, but slight differences in difficulty will occur between years. Scaled scores are designed to 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 the scale 100 will always represent the ‘national standard’.
