Key Stage One Assessment Preparation

A lot of parents have asked what they could be doing at home to help with the assessments preparation and so here are some websites and recommendations that could help:

The test papers are different this year compared to previous years, there is now a spelling, punctuation and grammar (SPAG) paper.

Two maths papers are sat, one on reasoning and one on arithmetic.

A reading comprehension will be given, where children need to read a passage, read the questions and answer them unaided.

Writing is assessed throughout the year through unaided writing tasks.

The assessments will be conducted in a very positive environment and we will go through them with the children in a relaxed way.

• BBC bitesize has some fun games to help with English and Maths:
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks1/

• Woodlands Junior website also have an excellent selection of games to help your child with SPAG type questions:
  lots of help given for nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs etc.
• http://resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/interactive/literacy2.htm#nouns

There are many ways that you can help your child prepare for the assessments. These include: exercising, having a quiet weekend before, going to bed early the night before each assessment.

Key Stage Two Assessment Preparation
From 2016, KS2 national curriculum test outcomes will no longer be reported using levels. Scaled scores will be used instead. Each pupil registered for the tests will receive:

• A raw score
• A scaled score
• Confirmation of whether or not he or she attained the expected standard

More information is available at www.gov.uk/scaled-scores.

There will only be 1 set of tests for each subject. The tests will include a small number of questions designed to assess the most able pupils so separate tests, such as the previous level 6 tests, are no longer required.

The mental mathematics test has been replaced with an arithmetic test.

For KS2 English writing, teacher assessment is the primary outcome used for accountability.

The KS2 tests consist of:

• English reading: reading booklet and associated answer booklet

The English reading test will have a greater focus on fictional texts. There is also a greater emphasis on the comprehension elements of the new curriculum.

The test consists of a reading booklet and a separate answer booklet.

Pupils will have a total of 1 hour to read the 3 texts in the reading booklet and complete the questions at their own pace. There will be a mixture of genres of text. The least-demanding text will come first with the following texts increasing in level of difficulty.

The new grammar, punctuation and spelling test has a greater focus on knowing and applying grammatical terminology with the full range of punctuation tested.

As in previous years, there are two papers, Paper 1: questions and Paper 2: spelling.

Paper 1: questions consists of a single test paper. Pupils will have 45 minutes to complete the test, answering the questions in the test paper.

Paper 2: spelling consists of an answer booklet for pupils to complete and a test transcript to be read by the test administrator. Pupils will have approximately 15 minutes to complete the test.

• Mathematics Paper:

Paper 1: arithmetic replaces the mental mathematics test. The arithmetic test assesses basic mathematical calculations. The test consists of a single test paper.

Papers 2 and 3 each consist of a single test paper. Pupils will have 40 minutes to complete each test, answering the questions in the test paper.