Key stage 1 assessments will be taking place in Year 2 classrooms this month after a two-year hiatus when Sats were cancelled due to Covid-19.

However, although the KS1 Sats are back, they won’t be for long as it is expected that as of 2023, the baseline assessment that was rolled out in September 2021 will replace the KS1 Sats for good.

But that’s for the future - and so pupils, teachers and families are busy preparing for this eventful time of year.

It’s worth noting though that unlike their KS2 counterparts, the KS1 Sats are internally marked, and are taken in much more relaxed conditions. In fact, many schools don’t even let on to the children that they’re doing a test.

The tests themselves comprise of five papers - two maths, two reading and one optional paper on spelling and English grammar - and the guidance for schools makes it clear that these are not “sit down in the hall” tests.

Not only are teachers allowed to talk to the children during the test, so long as what they say couldn’t be “interpreted as giving pupils an advantage”, but schools are told to use their “discretion” with regards to breaks, timings and the number of children taking the test at once.

So with this flexibility, what choices do schools end up making? We spoke to a range of primary schools about the different approaches they take when it comes to KS1 assessments.

Scheduling the tests

The fact the tests can be sat at any time during May means schools can choose to group the tests together over a period of a few days, over a longer period such as five to 10 days, or across the whole month to spread them out as much as possible.

Sally King, Year 2 lead at Cheam Park Farm Primary Academy in Kent, says they got the last option because “we don’t want to overload the children and it means we are able to keep the rest of the week as ‘normal’ as possible”.

Others take a far less structured approach, and ask the students to do the tests as and when the teacher deems the time is right.

This is the approach favoured by Rachel Tomlinson, head of Barrowford Primary in Lancashire.

“We let our teachers administer the tests when they see fit,” she explains. “The teachers judge the mood of the children, and usually they’re not in the classroom - we take them in small groups to the library or a breakout space.”

Catherine Sargent is assistant headteacher at a school in Wolverhampton, West Midlands. She opts for the “get them over and done” approach, prioritising keeping the rest of the month as normal, at the cost of one disrupted week.

“We spread the tests across a week to try and minimise pressure on the children and ensure minimal disruption to the timetable,” she adds.

When is best in the day?

When it came to choosing when to take the tests themselves, schools were (almost) unified over the time of day the tests were sat: the morning was best.

Tamsin Brown, head of school at Noel Park Primary School in North London, says they always schedule the assessments to take place in the morning because that is when children are at their “most alert”.

Agreeing with Brown, Mark Chatley, trust leader at Coppice Primary Partnership, says they start the day with the tests because their pupils are “more focussed at this time”.

However, although Tomlinson concedes that the children are “often better in the morning”, that doesn’t mean they “rule out the afternoon” and says they’re entirely led by that group of children - and so if “afternoon suits them best, that is when they do them”.

How many sit the test together?

Where things were less unified, though, was when it came to choosing how many children take the test at the same time.

At her school in Kent, King splits the class in two, with one half taking part in a different non-classroom-based activity, and the remainder staying in their class to take the test.

She says this means the children in the classroom are able to spread out and there are fewer distractions.

“The booklets for the tests are quite big, so we want the children to have enough room - and to ensure what they produce is their own work,” King explains.

Understandably, this requires a table reconfiguration, but because King doesn’t want to draw attention to the fact tests are taking place she says that the classroom is set up with the new table set-up a few weeks before.

“The vast majority of children don’t realise they’re doing the Sats,” she says. “[By setting it up in advance] the different table layout is normal to them.”

Whereas in other schools, much smaller groups are used.

At Brown’s school in North London, they take the tests in “small, nurture-led groups that are bespoke to the children”.

Brown also adds that the tests are “delivered by familiar adults so that they feel comfortable and confident”.

This staffing concern is shared by Chately, who says that this is one of their considerations when choosing when to hold them. “We always consider wider school timetabling to ensure adequate staff available to support with administering,” explains Chately.

Chately says that his pupils sit the test as one class and that “pupils that have been identified as potentially needing breaks are sitting the tests in a separate space to minimise disruption”.

To break or not to break

This issue of breaks is another point where we see a divergence in the approach taken by schools.

Although breaks are permitted in the guidance, not all schools chose to take them.

Some schools felt strongly that breaks were essential, whereas others thought it best for the pupils to sit through the whole paper in one session.

Even where breaks were given, their approach varied.

“We find having movement breaks together and providing a quiet drawing activity for those who finish quicker minimises disruption and allows the time to flow,” says King.

In those movement breaks, King says her pupils do yoga or jog on the spot.

In Barrowford, meanwhile, Tomlinson says the children sit the tests in small groups, according to expected “stamina” and the teacher supervising then takes the cues from the children around when to give breaks or not.

“With some children, they just crack on and do it,” she explains. “Because there are only five or six of them, we can adapt to the group. A lot of children do need to have a break.”

However, Chately takes a different approach, where typically “the test is taken in one session with an agreed up to five-minute time extension if required”. 

The importance of parent communication

Another big consideration is if and when you tell parents and carers the exams are taking place.

Overall, most leaders agreed the best approach was to keep people at home informed and reassured.

“Communication is ongoing throughout the year,” explains Brown. “We have parent workshops which are both specific to the Sats, and more general about how to support children in making progress.”

In Cheam, it is a similar story, and they use these communications to ensure parents know not to worry about the tests.

“The key message from this meeting is that we want to keep the process as stress-free as possible for the children and reassure them that, actually, the children don’t usually realise they are doing them,” explains King.

Daniel Woodrow, headteacher of St Gregory Primary School in Sudbury, says communication should always also include what the school won’t be doing, as well as what it will.

“We absolutely don’t do anything like additional homework, boosters, holiday clubs, drop subjects from the curriculum etc,” he says. “We don’t have a special meeting for just the Sats.”

Tomlinson feels that all information should be “headlines only” and shouldn’t overload parents with information.

“We give them the broad strokes,” she says. “That means we explain what the tests are, and how they’re administered - but that’s it. We keep it low key, we don’t want our parents to feel stressed.”

Sargent also says that they make it “abundantly clear that the children are assessed at the end of the year by using teacher assessments. The Sats scores are not the be-all and end-all.”

What do you tell the pupils?

What about children? At that age, making them aware they have tests coming up may be disruptive or upsetting - but you have to explain something is happening that is different to their usual routines. So how exactly do you get a child to sit a test without letting on that it is a test?

Sargent says at her school they “explain that we use the papers to tell us what we need to plan next” and says they “don’t refer to the tests as ‘Sats’ or ‘tests’ - instead, we call them ‘booklets’.”

And the “booklets” aren’t a surprise because Sargent says they use Sats-style questioning in reading and maths throughout the year, so nothing feels out of the ordinary when it comes to taking the tests.

Woodrow says they too don’t let on and try to “keep the day normal”.

“As far as the children are concerned it is just another piece of work, although they do like the fact there are coloured booklets and that they get new pencils to do their work with!”

King also agrees the best approach is to keep shtum so that “the vast majority of children don’t realise they are doing the Sats”.

However, for some children, the break from their normal routine could be distressing, and for these students, communication needs to be a little different.

Tomlinson says that for these pupils, it might be necessary that communication will be more frequent and detailed. Tomlinson says that they “ask parents to come to us with any concerns”. But she emphasises this is on a “case-by-case basis”.

For pupils with SEND, there are further adjustments that might be necessary for them to take the test, and these should match what typically happens in the classroom. This might involve printing on coloured paper, or providing enlarged font or readers.

Of course, there are 6 and 7-year-olds for whom even with “reasonable adjustments” for their disabilities, the tests are still not appropriate, and they won’t take the Sats at all.

Schools are instructed that where students are working at “pre-key stage 1” standards, they do not need to be entered for the test. Although these pupils won’t take Sats, assessments will still take place.

These assessments will be done using the engagement model and the guidance instructs that “schools should report pupils’ progress in the form of a qualitative narrative” during the annual education, health and care plan (EHCP) review.

At Marketfield’s School in Essex, their cohort is made of pupils with moderate learning difficulties, and the school contains a specialist autism unit. None of the pupils here take the KS1 Sats.

Head of school Ruth Whitehead says that their pupils in Years 1 and 2 “use tapestry and continue working to the EYFS Framework until the end of Year 2”.

Will Sats be missed?

Although as of yet we don’t have a confirmation that the Sats won’t be taking place in 2024, the newly arrived Reception Baseline Assessment should mean their days are numbered - barring a dramatic U-turn from the Department for Education, which seems unlikely.

“The end of key stage 1 assessments will be made non-statutory once the Reception Baseline Assessment is fully established…We will confirm exact dates in due course,” a spokesperson from the DfE told us.

Given, then, that this is the Sats’ last year, are leaders sad to see them go? It seems not.

Chately says that he supports the removal because he believes the way the assessments are conducted is not the best approach for children in Year 2.

“Given the age of the children at the time of testing, and not feeling that a formal written test in test conditions is the most appropriate method to demonstrate children’s academic abilities at this age, I support the removal of KS1 Sats.”

However, that doesn’t mean he thinks everything about the Sats at KS1 should stop.

“I believe that a national assessment tool in some form is needed to track progress from EYFS to the end of KS1 but with less focus on test conditions,” he explains.

Sargent disagrees, however, and feels that any “external testing” is unnecessary for Year 2. “Teachers should be trusted to assess their children as they are in other year groups,” she says.

Despite some early reports of issues with the Reception Baseline Assessment, it appears that some leaders clearly prefer it as a more appealing “rock” compared to the “hard place” of KS1 tests.

“I don’t mind the reception baseline,” says Tomlinson. “I think the KS1 tests have long outlived their usefulness, they don’t tell us anything.”

Chatley even thinks that if a KS1 assessment were to be retained, it should actually be “more in line with the baseline and phonic screening delivery”.

In Cheam, King says although the formal Sats will go there is a chance those distinctive yellow booklets still could be spotted in their classrooms - but just more at a school’s discretion, rather than because they have to be carried out.

“We would still need to make judgements at the end of KS1 using evidence from work using standardised assessments to inform,” she says.

“What will replace them will be a conversation school leadership teams will need to have.”

Meanwhile, Woodrow says the end of KS1 Sats will bring other benefits, too - chiefly that it will end how the data is used to be seen as the be-all-and-end-all of how schools or pupils are judged.

“Another advantage of not having them is that publishing school data is divisive and doesn’t always tell the full story,” he says.

“Schools may still choose to have tests or assessments at the end of the year but without the pressure of them being published nationally then I think you will end up with more accurate assessments that will be a more realistic snapshot of where the children are.”

He hopes, too, this will see the end of appraisal targets based on KS1 assessment results: “Maybe it will encourage more schools to not use data in performance management targets, too.”

Overall then it seems not many tears will be shed when the final KS1 Sats paper is concluded.

“Losing the KS1 Sats will cause barely a ripple,” says Tomlinson.