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Important update from TheSchoolRun

For the past 13 years, TheSchoolRun has been run by a small team of mums working from home, dedicated to providing quality educational resources to primary school parents. Unfortunately, rising supplier costs and falling revenue have made it impossible for us to continue operating, and we’ve had to make the difficult decision to close. The good news: We’ve arranged for another educational provider to take over many of our resources. These will be hosted on a new portal, where the content will be updated and expanded to support your child’s learning.

What this means for subscribers:

  • Your subscription is still active, and for now, you can keep using the website as normal — just log in with your usual details to access all our articles and resources*.
  • In a few months, all resources will move to the new portal. You’ll continue to have access there until your subscription ends. We’ll send you full details nearer the time.
  • As a thank you for your support, we’ll also be sending you 16 primary school eBooks (worth £108.84) to download and keep.

A few changes to be aware of:

  • The Learning Journey weekly email has ended, but your child’s plan will still be updated on your dashboard each Monday. Just log in to see the recommended worksheets.
  • The 11+ weekly emails have now ended. We sent you all the remaining emails in the series at the end of March — please check your inbox (and spam folder) if you haven’t seen them. You can also follow the full programme here: 11+ Learning Journey.

If you have any questions, please contact us at [email protected]. Thank you for being part of our journey it’s been a privilege to support your family’s learning.

*If you need to reset your password, it will still work as usual. Please check your spam folder if the reset email doesn’t appear in your inbox.

Changes to KS2 SATs in 2025: what parents need to know

KS2 SATs in 2025
If your child is in Y6 in 2025, read on for the most up-to-date SATs information for parents.

KS2 SATs in Year 6

At the end of Year 6, children in England sit tests in:  

  • Reading
  • Maths
  • Grammar, punctuation and spelling (GPS)

These tests are both set and marked externally, and the results are 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.

The KS2 SATs for English and maths taken since 2016 reflect the amended national curriculum, and are more rigorous than previous years' tests. There is also a new SATs marking scheme and grading system which has replaced national curriculum levels.

Key Stage 2 Reading

The reading test is a single paper with questions based on three passages of text. Your child will have one hour, including reading time, to complete the test.

There will be a selection of question types, including:
 

  • Ranking/ordering, e.g. ‘Number the events below to show the order in which they happen in the story’
  • Labelling, e.g. ‘Label the text to show the title of the story’
  • Find and copy, e.g. ‘Find and copy one word that suggests what the weather is like in the story’
  • Short constructed response, e.g. ‘What does the bear eat?’
  • Open-ended response, e.g. ‘Look at the sentence that begins Once upon a time. How does the writer increase the tension throughout this paragraph? Explain fully, referring to the text in your answer.’

Since 2018 the reading content of the KS2 SATs has been closely linked to the curriculum to ensure children are drawing on their knowledge when answering reading comprehension questions.

Key Stage 2 grammar, punctuation and spelling test

Usually, the GPS test consists 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.

The GPS test includes two sub-types of questions:
 

  • Selected response, e.g. ‘Identify the adjectives in the sentence below’
  • Constructed response, e.g. ‘Correct/complete/rewrite the sentence below,’ or, ‘The sentence below has an apostrophe missing. Explain why it needs an apostrophe.’

Key Stage 2 maths

Children sit three papers in maths:
 

  • Paper 1: arithmetic, 30 minutes
  • Papers 2 and 3: reasoning, 40 minutes per paper

Paper 1 will consist of fixed response questions, where children have to give the correct answer to calculations, including long multiplication and division. Papers 2 and 3 will involve a number of question types, including:
 

  • Multiple choice
  • True or false
  • Constrained questions, e.g. giving the answer to a calculation, drawing a shape or completing a table or chart
  • Less constrained questions, where children will have to explain their approach for solving a problem

Key Stage 2 science

The Department for Education has confirmed there will be no science sampling tests from September 2022. Schools will still submit teacher assessment data for science for KS1 and KS2.

In previous years, a number of schools (approximately 1900) were 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.

For those who were selected, there were three papers:
 

  • Biology: 25 minutes, 22 marks
  • Chemistry: 25 minutes, 22 marks
  • Physics: 25 minutes, 22 marks

When will KS2 SATs take place in 2025?

The KS2 SATs are scheduled for Monday 12 May to Thursday 15 May. 

Monday
English GPS Paper 1: questions
English grammar, punctuation and spelling Paper 2: spelling

Tuesday
English reading

Wednesday
Mathematics Paper 1: arithmetic
Mathematics Paper 2: reasoning

Thursday 
Mathematics Paper 3: reasoning

How will Key Stage 2 SATs be marked?

The previous national curriculum levels have been scrapped, and instead children are given scaled scores (read our parents' guide to primary school grading and SATs codes for more details).

You will be given your child’s scaled score and whether they have reached the expected standard set by the Department for Education (‘NS’ means that the expected standard was not achieved and ‘AS’ means the expected standard was achieved). 

The range of scaled scores available for each KS2 test is:
 

  • 80 (the lowest scaled score that can be awarded)
  • 120 (the highest scaled score)

The expected standard for each test is a scaled score of 100 or more. If a child is awarded a scaled score of 99 or less they won't have achieved the expected standard in the test.

The Department for Education expects at least 65 per cent of children to reach the expected standard (the figure was initially 85 per cent but has been revised).

Download a free parents' guide to KS2 SATs in 2025

Is your child taking Year 6 SATs this year? Print out TheSchoolRun's guide to KS2 SATs for parents.

KS2 Sats guide KS2 Sats guide

Are there any practice papers for KS2 SATs?

Yes, the 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022 and 2023 KS2 SATs papers are now available and can be downloaded for free from TheSchoolRun:
 

You can also access our current free Year 6 SATs papers here; these relate to the old SATs, so the content and format of the new papers will be different, but they are still useful to help your child familiarise themselves with exam technique.

TheSchoolRun has also commissioned five complete KS2 SATs practice papers for maths and five for English. Available exclusively to subscribers, they are written in the style of the new-curriculum papers and feature similar question types.