Capital Letters

Focus on learning the following occasions for using a capital letter:

• The beginning of a sentence.
• The first letter of each part of a name.
• The first letter of days of the week.
• The first letter of months of the year.
• The first word of speech.

Verbs in the past, present and the future tense

Many verbs in the present tense end 'ing'

While many verbs end in 'ed', there are a lot of exceptions. The child needs to learn these. Below are some examples:

Spellings 

Please go to the Spellings page and look at the Year 1-2 Spelling lists. The other spelling lists are also useful.

Below are a small numbers of spelling tips:

If words have more than one syllable, they tend to end in 'ful' rather than 'full.' In other words, one l rather than two.

Look out for words that end in the short 'l' sound. They may end in 'le'. 

Most Key Stage 1 vocabulary words have ie written ie rather than ei. An exception is their. 

Singular and Plural

A word that is in written in the singular can usually be turned into its plural form by putting an 's' on the end of it. For example: cat becomes cats, dog becomes dogs, dog becomes days. Some exceptions are below:

• man becomes men
• woman becomes women
• lady becomes ladies
• child becomes children
• mouse becomes mice
• deer becomes deer
• sheep becomes sheep
• fox becomes foxes
• box becomes boxes
• volcano becomes volcanoes
• tomato becomes tomatoes
• fish becomes fishes

If a word ends in a 's' or 'sh' sound, the word probably ends in 'es'. For example: box becomes boxes, fish becomes fishes and bus becomes buses.

If a word ends in the short 'c' sound, it probably ends in 'ck' rather than just 'c'.

If a word ends in 'y', remove the 'y' and replace it with 'ies'. For example: lady becomes ladies and baby becomes babies.

If a word contains a 'q', a 'u' almost always follows the 'q'. For example: quiet; squash; quiet; quite; squeeze. 

a or an

The word 'a' appears before words than begin with a consonant sound.

The word 'an' appears before words that begin with a vowel sound.

Vocabulary

The best way to improve vocabulary is to read a lot of books that are challenging to read and to find out the meaning of words that you don't know what they mean.

Full stops

Most sentences end in a stop. Statements end in full stops.

Exclamation marks

Exclamation marks are used to show that something is surprising, exciting or shocking.

Exclamation marks tend to appear after very short sentences or after phrases. For example: Look out! Happy Birthday!

Never write more than one exclamation mark next to one another. One is fine, more than one is not.

Question marks

Look out for end punctuation. This is punctuation that appears at the end of a sentence. At the end of aa sentence could be a full stop, an exclamation mark or a question mark.

Commas

Use a comma to show that a short breath has been taken. Typical places to include commas include between items in lists (but remember to not put a comma after the last word before and). For example: At the shop I bought bread, butter, cheese, fish and ham. Do not put a comma after fish.

Verbs

What is a verb? A verb is an action word. It is something that a person can do. If you put: 'Could a person' in front of the word and the sentence makes sense, it is probably a verb.

If a word, ends in 'ing' or 'ed', it is probably a verb. 

Comprehension

Since the comprehension tests often involve reading three different types of text back-to-back, your child needs to read quickly. To help with this, they must develop the ability to skim read. This involves quickly looking for key words, phrases or numbers that are in the question or that are in the options of a multiple choice. The answer is usually in that sentence or the sentence that follows. Failing that, try the sentence before it. For example: If the questions says: In what year was Roald Dahl born? then look only for a number in the text. After you have found it, read the sentence in which the number appears. The answer is usually in that sentence or the next one. If the question asks you to find the name of a person or of a specific place, look for words that begin with a capital letter. Once you've found it, read that word. If it's a useful word, read the sentence that the word appears within.

Pictures

Use the pictures to guide you. Look at them before the child reads the text and guess what the story is about.

Tables

Your child will probably need to record at least one of their answers in a table. They might just have to tick to put in a box to show whether a statement is true or false, but they will need to practise using tables.

Sub-titles

If the work has subtitles, read them. They will give you a good idea of where you might find the answer to the question. This will save you lots of unnecessary reading.

KEY STAGE 1 MATHS

The child need to be add and subtract. 

Make sure that they can recognise odd and even numbers. They need to recognise that the answer to an even number added to an even number will be even and that the answer to an odd number added to an even number will be odd.

Fractions

To work out a fraction of an amount

Step 1: Divide the amount by the denominator

Step 2: Multiply the answer to Step 1 by the numerator.

The child needs to recognise what a half and a quarter look like. They also need to know that two quarters is the same as one half.

Measuring

Your child needs to be able to measure to the nearest centimetre. Remember to measure from the beginning of the measuring lines, rather than the beginning of the plastic. If these are drawn quickly, they can form useful number lines.

Vocabulary - To be completed

Spellings for Years 1 and 2

KEY STAGE 2 SAT

Maths

75-85% of the marks will be available are for the topics: number; ratio and algebra. The sub-topics are: number and place value; calculations; fractions; decimals; percentages; ratio and proportion; algebra

15-25% of the marks available for the topics: measurement, geometry and statistics. The sub-topics are properties of shapes position and direction; measurement and statistics.

Duration: 30 minutes

Marks available: 40

Reading

One reading booklet and one answer booklet

Duration: One hour - including reading time

Marks available: 50

The reading booklet will include a variety of texts - some texts are fiction and some are non-fiction.

How the marks will be awarded:

Multiple choice: 10-30%

Short responses: 40-60%

Extended responses: 20-40% 

Grammar, punctuation and spelling (often called SPAG)

At least two thirds of the marks available are for multiple choice answers. The remaining marks available will be awarded based on the child's longer answers.

Duration: 45 minutes

Marks: 50

Spelling

One test of 20 words

Duration: about 15 minutes

Marks available: 20

Writing

No SAT test is taken. Instead teachers will assess your child's attainment.

FAQs

Q: What is my child fails?

A: In a sense, a child cannot fail the test. It will give an indication of how a child is doing  but it does not define a child. Each child will either be given a grade of either 'Exceeding Age Related Expectations'; 'Achieving Age Related Expectations' or 'Below Age Regulated Expectations'. I am yet to come across a secondary school who does not give children a new test early in Year 7 (sometimes even the first week) but it is not called a SAT, but is one created and/or selected by the secondary school.

Q: Will all children sit the tests?

A: No. It is at the discretion of parents. Some children will be working at significantly below level  3 and because the SATs were designed for children achieving levels 3 to 5, they may think in unsuitable and not useful for the child to sit. However, the vast majority of pupils at SAT age will take the tests.

Q: Are there any tests for children attaining higher than level 6?

A: No. Everyone sits the same tests.

My thoughts on SATs

I understand why SATs exist. It is easy to see why teachers and school leaders can be distressed by them. However, the stress should be felt by the professionals, and not by children.

SATs provide a snap-shot of a child's attainment level on the day on which they take them. In addition to knowledge and understanding, other factors may affect a child's performance e.g. illness or being upset. Having said this, one must accept that in the future, your child will take tests when they may not be on form. A negative SAT result is far from the end of the world. They have plenty of time ahead of them in which they can catch up and overtake. Nevertheless, testing will be a part of your child's future and SATs can give your child valuable experience of skills and habits needed to perform well in tests so encourage them to try their best, but no more pressure than that. 

SATs only test a child's understanding of some aspects of English and maths. Some schools are chose at random for science tests too. While these are core subjects and being proficient in them will allow pupils to access the rest of the curriculum, as well as improve their future life chances, education and learning are far greater  topics than English and maths alone.

I love the letter sent by Buckton Vale Primary School teachers to pupils. You might consider reading a version of this to your child.

Dear Year 6 pupil,

Next week you will sit your SATs tests for maths, reading, spelling, grammar and punctuation. We know how hard you have worked, but there is something very important you must know: