What are SATs in the UK?

Are KS1 SATs still compulsory?

KS1 SATs used to be taken by all children in year 2. However, they are no longer compulsory.

In 2021, the government introduced a new baseline assessment at reception (RBA). Up until this point, KS1 SATs had been used to ascertain a baseline level early in primary school, but the new assessment rendered these unnecessary. These tests are still available, which means schools and local authorities can choose whether or not to administer them.

Testing and marking

For those schools still opting to administer the assessments, they take place in May or June of year 2 (ages 6 to 7) and test children’s ability in maths and reading (plus an optional test in English grammar, punctuation and spelling). The test papers are marked by teachers within the school.

KS1 SATs results

You may not get your child’s actual score unless you request it. Each school can decide its own policy on publishing results. However, at the very least, you should be told whether your child is working at the expected standard as part of their end-of-year report.

If a child takes KS1 SATs, the results can be used as a baseline to help judge, later on in their education, how they are performing. School-level results are no longer published.

SATs are most children’s first experience of an exam setting; something with which they will become far more familiar in the following years thanks to GCSEs and A levels. Some children consider the tests a challenge to be relished and met head-on, others see them as something to be endured. Either way, as they can provoke anxiety, it is important that parents emphasise that in both the short and long term, SATs carry little significance in a child’s on-going educational journey. ‘Give it your best shot and don’t worry too much about the outcome’ is a sensible mindset to have.

The KS2 SATs results give children (and their parents) an indication of their academic development and how they are performing compared with the government-set standards.

Schools’ results are more important as they are used for monitoring school performance by the Department for Education. They are also published annually in primary school league tables, allowing parents to compare different schools and judge them against local and national averages.

The scores are also a main factor in the calculation of Progress 8: a key metric for monitoring how successful secondary schools are at helping children progress between the ages of 11 and 16.

Key stage 2 SATs are sent away to be marked externally. The raw scores from the test papers are combined and scaled so that every child receives a final score on a scale of 80 to 120.

What is a good KS2 SATs score?

A score of 100 or more means a pupil is meeting the expected governmental standard. Achieving 110 or higher indicates that a pupil is working at a higher standard or greater depth.

Do parents get the results?

Schools receive their pupils’ final grades by mid-July and can decide how to inform parents. Typically parents get their child’s scaled score as part of the end of term report. As well as the scores in each subject, parents are told whether or not their child achieved the expected standard or is working at a higher standard.

Can you fail your SATs?

The government says SATs are not about passing or failing, but instead show the level your child is working at. Critics say that not reaching the expected level equates to failure in many parents’ (and children’s) minds. In 2017, almost 40 per cent of primary school pupils did not meet the government’s expected standard in key stage 2 SATs.

Secondary schools are told their incoming pupils’ scaled scores. Some secondary schools use these to help with setting and streaming, as well as working out how to best teach their new cohort of year 7 pupils. But secondary schools are mindful that SATs only measure ability in English and maths (and only certain elements of those subjects) and consequently most do their own tests on year 7 pupils too.

SATs have been widely criticised for causing children undue pressure at a young age. One study from 2017 found that cases of stress, anxiety and panic attacks had increased in more than three-quarters of primary schools over the previous two years. School leaders in the same study reported an increase in fear of academic failure and depression. Some studies also show that SATs affect the well-being of teachers.

Using SATs results as part of a school’s accountability measures has also been criticised for creating a ‘high-stakes’ system of testing which is damaging teaching and learning in primary schools.

While many parents use tables showing overall SATs results to help choose a primary school for their child, some education experts warn that SATs results only show how well a particular year group of pupils has performed and can be more to do with the intake's demographic than the teaching and learning. It’s also important to remember that SATs say nothing about the wider picture of what a school offers – for example, sport, arts, attitude towards kindness, pastoral care and extracurricular activities.

There have also been arguments that SATs tables encourage schools to compete against one another, rather than working together in local areas, and that they can lead to middle-class parents pushing to get their children into top-performing schools, thereby driving down standards even further in poorer-performing schools.

Although SATs test results only form part of Ofsted inspection reports, a report by MPs in 2017 claimed that too many focused too heavily on English and maths, at the cost of other subjects, notably science. Many believe SATs are to blame.