St Mary Magdalene Catholic Primary School

Assessment

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)

At the end of Key Stage 1 teacher assessment in mathematics and reading will be informed by externally-set, internally-marked tests.  There will also be an externally-set test in grammar, punctuation and spelling which will help to inform the teacher assessment of writing.  The tests will reflect the National Curriculum 2014 and will be expressed as a scaled score.

There will also be a teacher assessment in science.

The Year 2 KS1 SATs will be administered in May.

KS1 Reading Test

The reading test is comprised of two components; one integrated reading and answer booklet and one separate reading booklet with an associated reading answer booklet. The total testing time is approximately 60 minutes.

KS1 Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling Test

Children will sit three papers:

- Paper 1: Grammar and punctuation, short written task, 20 minutes, 15 marks. Children will be provided with a prompt and stimulus.

- Paper 2: Grammar, punctuation and vocabulary questions, 2x10 minutes tasks, 25 marks.

- Paper 3: Spelling, 20 questions, 10 marks.

KS1 Maths Test

Children will sit two maths papers:

  • Paper 1: Arithmetic, 15 marks, 15 minutes, context free calculations.
  • Paper 2: Fluency, solving problems and reasoning, 35 marks, 35 minutes.

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.

This year, the Year 6 KS2 SATs will be administered in the week commencing 9th May 2022

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’.