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Paula Guerrero Rubio

FOCUS ON SPECIFIC THEME

PREPARING CHILDREN IN YEAR 2 FOR SATS


WHAT ARE SATS?
SATS are Standard Assessment Tests which are given at the end of year 2 and year 6 in
order to show the childrens progress. Students are evaluated and results are compared
to the average score for each age group.
As we were hosted by Year 2C, we are going to focus our attention on how SATS work
at the end of KS1. At the end of infants children are assessed in reading, grammar,
punctuation and spelling and mathematics. These tests take places in May; the school
can decide the exact dates to do the assessment.

OVERVIEW OF THE TESTS


Because in 2014 there national curriculum changed, SATS have also changed so this year
they are taking new tests and tasks. One of the main differences is that this year there
is not a test for English writing and not all the schools are testing Science, just the ones
that the administration requires.
Regarding the topics assessed, they are all made up of 2 different papers that must be
administered to the pupils.
a. Reading: it assesses comprehension so it consists in different texts and questions
that students should answer. Pupils have between half an hour and forty minutes to
complete the test.
b. Grammar, punctuation and spelling: the teacher reads out loud different words the
students have to transcript in 20 minutes and different questions about grammar,
punctuation and vocabulary to answer.
c. Mathematics: it is focused on arithmetic and reasoning. Hence, it assesses how
students deal with whole numbers, place-value and counting and the skills for
problem solving and reasoning. The first test should take approximately 20 minutes
while the second one 40.
Although the time is stipulated by the administration, it just supposes a
recommendation, so teachers can decide if adding some more minutes and the breaks
that students need between the exams.
There is another little exam that is done individually with each child in order to assess
the phonics. As we already have said in previous pages, St Osmunds is very concern
about phonics, and this is because administration pays special attention to them. This
test consists of 40 words that pupils have to read aloud to the teacher.
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Paula Guerrero Rubio

FOCUS ON SPECIFIC THEME

PARTICIPATION OF STUDENTS
Not all the students can participate in the tests, juts the ones that have completed the
program of study of the stage and that are considered by the teacher to have the
standard level that the test requires. Therefore, teachers can decide whether a child will
do the test or not. Teachers are given sample materials so as to help them in taking this
decisions by assessing the students previously.
In the case the teacher decides that a pupils is not taking the exam, the head teacher
has to evaluate the situation, as her decision is final. If the head teacher agrees, the
student has to take part in an interim pre-key stage standard, as despite being below
the standard level, the kid has an age that requires statutory outcomes to report.
Therefore, s/he undergoes an adapted official test to inform about his or her results too.
All the decisions taken in relation to the participation of a kid should be supported by
specialists if necessary and reported to the parents and to the governors of the school.

HOW TO ADMINISTER TESTS


As it has been said, there are not specific days for schools to set the exams; they can
decide when to do it during May. However, there is an exception as the administration
chooses randomly some schools to administer the test in April so as to inform standards
settings.
Furthermore, the head teacher is the responsible to ensure that the materials and
equipment that receive the students are the correct ones and that tests are introduced
following the instructions provided by the administration. She has also to guarantee that
students know the objective of the tests and the time they have to complete it as well
as that they dont receive extra help.
It is also important to know that these tests are confidential, so they just can be opened
in the test room, when everyone is ready to take the exam. She has to avoid unfair
advantages, so she is also in charge of advising the teachers not to discuss the content
or use information to prepare the pupils in advanced.
Finally, tests must be kept safely until the end of May when the Administration collects
them.
If some of these issues are not respected, the school could be investigated because of
maladministration.

Paula Guerrero Rubio

FOCUS ON SPECIFIC THEME

PREPARING STUDENTS FOR THE TESTS


The school can find the website of the government some sample materials to let the
students familiarize with the exams and prepare them for the different kinds of
questions they will find.
It also allows the teachers to observe how the assessment will be developed and which
the instructions they have to follow are.

ASSESSMENT
This is another new item in the
implementation of SATS: from now on,
these standardized tests will use scaled
scores to report the outcomes.
Teachers have to translate the marks a
pupils receives in each test (the correct
answers) into scaled scores. They have to
use a conversion computer program that
will allow them to see if a kid has met the
expected standards.
In this stage, the expected standard is represented by a scaled score of 100 (which
was a level 4 in the old SATS), the highest level is 130 and the lowest 80.
The purpose of using scaled scores is to allow easy comparisons from year to year.
Although the marks of the tasks vary, the scaled score will always be based on the same
equivalences.
Lets see an example:
If a child scores 42 out of 70 in
the reading test, this could
represent a scaled score of 98.
However, one year this could
be 42 out of 70 and the second
one 35 out of 70.
At the end of July, the administration publishes information about the tests around the
country. It shows statistics that express how the education system is working.

Paula Guerrero Rubio

FOCUS ON SPECIFIC THEME

ANALYSING ST OSMUNDS SCHOOL


We would like to have the results from last year of KS1 but the school just gave us the
ones from KS2. Nevertheless, we would like to comment them in order to have a general
idea of the educational level of St Osmunds regarding the standard assessments of the
country.
First we have to take into consideration that the standard level expected last year was
called level 4.

Reading
Writing
Spelling, punctuation
and grammar (SPaG)
Math
Reading and writing
Reading, SPaG and
Math

2015 KS2 ACADEMIC RESULTS


Level 4 or Level 5 or Level 6 or
above
above
above
96%
75%
0%
89%
68%
4%
96%
86%
25%
100%
89%
93%

71%
61%
54%

25%
0%
0%

2 or more levels
progress from KS1
100%
89%
n/a
100%
89%
n/a

By looking at the results, we can first say that St Osmunds achieves the expected
standards for almost all the students of Year 6. If the classroom was more or less about
25 students, an 89% (it is the lowest achievement) would represent 22 students, so just
3 students wouldnt have reached the standards. We can also observe that more than
half of the students got the level 5 in all the areas while the amount of children is much
lower in the level 6.
Math is the subject in which children succeed more, as we can observe how the whole
class got the expected level and the 25% the highest one (level 6).
Taking into consideration than reading and writing supposes the subject in which pupils
got less marks, we can understand why this year the school is very committed in
improving students phonics. They are working very hard to enhance reading and writing
skills as there is a lot of rivalry between schools due to make the results public; there
are rankings of which are the best schools in the country and they are trying to stay in a
good position.
In conclusion, we could say that St Osmunds offers the tools and content necessaries
for achieving the required standard level by the Government. We are sure this is true
thanks to the weeks spend in the school, in which we were able to observe how hard
they work to make the students give their best in all the areas of development.

Paula Guerrero Rubio

FOCUS ON SPECIFIC THEME

BIBLIOGRAPHY
GOV.UK
(2016).
The
National
Curriculum.
[https://www.gov.uk/national-curriculum/overview]

Retrieved

from

SATS Papers. (2016). New KS1 Year 2 SATs tests for 2016. Retrieved from
[http://www.satspapers.org.uk/]

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