Early Years Foundation Stage

Reception is the final year of the Early Years Foundation stage which covers children’s development from birth to age 5. Each child has to be assessed at the end of the EYFS and parents receive a report of their child’s development and achievement at the end of the Reception year.

There are three main objectives: to inform parents about their children’s development, to ease the transition to Key Stage 1, and to help Year 1 teachers plan for the year ahead to meet the needs of the entire class.

The EYFS Profile is broken down into seven specific areas of learning:

• Communication and Language
• Physical Development
• Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSE)
• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding the World
• Expressive Arts and Design

Within each of these areas, there are specific Early Learning Goals – for example, in the case of Communication and Language, these are Listening and Attention, Understanding, and Speaking. Your child will be given an achievement level for each area of learning.

The EYFS is broken down into four age bands, called Development Matters bands: 16-26 months, 22-36 months, 30-50 months and 40-60 months.

For each age band, and each area of learning, there is a series of statements relating to a child’s development: for example, ‘notices simple shapes and patterns in pictures’. Teachers will tick off these developmental statements as they see your child demonstrating them.

Assessment is ongoing throughout the EYFS, but the official EYFS Profile for each child is completed in the final term of their Reception year. Parents and other carers) can also contribute to the Profile, for example by adding comments to the child’s Learning Journal – a record of achievement compiled by the school, comprising photos, pieces of work, observations about the child’s development.

There are three separate achievement levels within each Development Matters age band:

• Expected: your child is working at the level expected for his age
• Emerging: your child is working below the expected level

Your child will be awarded one of these levels for each of the seven Areas of Learning. On leaving the Foundation Stage at the end of Reception, a child is considered to have a ‘Good Level of Development’ if they have achieved at least the expected level in the Early Learning Goals in all aspects of PSE, Physical Development, Communication and Language, Literacy and Mathematics.

Year 1 Phonics Screening Check

The Phonics Screening Check is designed to show how well your child can use the phonics skills they’ve learned up to the end of Year 1, and to identify students who need extra phonics help. The Department for Education defines the checks as “short, light-touch assessments”.

The checks consist of 40 words and non-words that your child will be asked to read one-on-one with a teacher. Non-words (or nonsense words, or pseudo words) are a collection of letters that will follow phonics rules your child has been taught, but don’t mean anything – your child will need to read these with the correct sounds to show that they understand the phonics rules behind them.

The 40 words and non-words are divided into two sections – one with simple word structures of three or four letters, and one with more complex word structures of five or six letters. The teacher administering the check with your child will give them a few practice words to read first – including some non-words – so they understand more about what they have to do. Each of the non-words is presented with a picture of a monster / alien, as if the word were their name (and so your child doesn’t think the word is a mistake because it doesn’t make sense!).

Your child will be scored against a national standard, and the main result will be whether or not they fall below, within or above this standard. Results of the Phonics Screening Check will be sent home with your child’s end of year School Report.

Year 4 Multiplication Tables Check (MTC)

The MTC is an on screen check consisting of 25 times tables question that the children are assessed on in June in Year 4. The children have 6 seconds to answer each question and overall the check lasts no longer than 5 minutes. More information about the MTC is included in the attached leaflet from the DfE.

In the lead up to the check the children can take part in a practice check so that they know the format of the test and what to expect. The children take part in this to reduce any anxiety and to help them feel prepared and ready for the actual check.

The children begin their preparation for the MTC check from when they enter Year 3. From Year 3 onwards the children use Times Table Rock Stars (TTRS) every day to practice their tables at their level and to develop their fluency. This also forms part of the children’s daily home learning tasks.

The children’s progress in times tables is tracked using TTRS and the children also complete a MTC style check within TTRS as part of every assessment week in Year 3 and 4 and beyond if they are not secure in their times tables at the time of the MTC.

The MTC was introduced to ensure that every child has rapid recall of the times tables up to 12 as this knowledge is crucial for the maths tests at the end of Year 6 and beyond into secondary school and GCSE maths.

The best way parents can support is to ensure that the children are practicing on TTRS every day at home as regular practice develops a secure and rapid recall.

Key Stage 2 SATs

SATs are standardised assessment tests administered by primary schools in England to children in Year 6 to check their educational progress. They are one marker used by the government, and hence parents, of the quality of the education at a school. The setting and marking of SATs are carried out in UK schools by the Standards & Testing Agency.

In Year 6 SATs are a formal process of testing, and children will sit KS2 SATs in:

• English Reading
• English Grammar and Punctuation
• Spelling
• Maths – they will also be assessed by their teachers for writing, and in some cases, science

By using teacher assessment, schools and the government are able to judge a child’s performance in a subject over a longer period of time. This means that teachers are able to account for a child’s whole knowledge and ability in a subject, not just that which comes to the fore in a test environment.

What are SATs for?

SATs are predominantly used as a way for both parents and teachers to learn more about a child’s academic strengths and weaknesses. They give teachers the chance to see how children are doing in comparison to their peers not only within the same school, but also nationally.

SATs are a useful tool to see how well a child has progressed from KS1 to KS2, and they also give secondary schools a base to compare against when the time comes for your child to leave Year 6 and make the journey up to KS3!

Headteachers, Local Authorities and the Department for Education also uses SATs data to identify which primary schools are excelling, and which may be struggling.

SATs Jargon Buster

SPaG: This refers to the spelling, punctuation and grammar tests that form part of the English SATs.

National curriculum tests: This is the official name for the SATs, but the vast majority of people refer to them simply by SATs.

National standard: This is the level that children are expected to reach in their SATs, which is set at 100 for both KS1 and KS2.

Floor standard: If under 65% of a school’s pupils meet the expected standard in reading, writing and maths, and fail to make sufficient progress in all three subjects, the school will be considered below the floor standard.

Expected level/standard: A score of 100 means that your child is working at the expected standard.

Raw score: This is the number of marks your child can get on the tests.

What will be in the KS2 SATs Papers?

KS2 Reading SATs:

• One paper with questions that are based on 3 passages of text. Students get 1 hour to answer the questions on the paper.

KS2 English Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling SATs:

• The written element of the spelling, punctuation and grammar SATs consists of a grammar and punctuation paper which lasts for 45 minutes.
• There is also a 20-word aural spelling test which lasts around 15 minutes.

KS2 Maths SATs:

• Paper 1 is the arithmetic paper which will last for 30 minutes. It will contain fixed response questions where children have to give the correct answers to calculations.
• Papers 2 and 3 will involve a wider range of question types including multiple choice, true or false and reasoning based. Both papers will last 40 minutes each.