It’s that tie of year again, and parents of Yr 6 kids are no doubt starting to see the signs of SATS stress sinking in.
Did you know that the Y6 Reading paper was the one test that caught everyone out last year? It was the first year of the new curriculum national tests and no-one anticipated how tricky this paper would be. For all the prep the teachers did, the new paper still caught them unawares – and actually, when your child is in the system and being taught systematically to a test, finding something unexpected facing them when they turn over the real thing can completely throw them.
The key thing for any test, of course, is preparation – if you now roughly what’s coming, everything in the test is far less stressful as it all feels so familiar.
And if your child is sitting SATs this year, don’t panic! Collins has brought out this fab new series of question books for each paper your child will sit with lots of SATs-style questions so that you know and they know exactly what to expect.
The important thing is that the practice questions give children genuinely realistic test preparation – we’re not fans of hothousing 10 and 11 yr olds, but if your child is nervous about these tests for whatever reason then working slowly through the practice questions in the security of their home can be a real confidence booster.
And don’t worry – written by education experts, these new books are completely in line with the new testing requirements.
The SATs-style questions are arranged by topic area, and give children really targeted and focused practice ahead of the KS2 National Curriculum Tests. I love that you can select the book for the areas your child needs – it’s not just an ‘English’ practice, but you can choose to focus solely on spelling, or on Grammar & Punctuation.
The SATS practice questions range is available direct from Collins at under £5 a book – they cover various aspects of Maths as well as English.
