KS2 Teaching

National Curriculum assessments are a sequence of educational assessments, known as SATs.  They are used to assess the intellectual level of children attending maintained schools and comprise a mixture of teacher-led and test-based assessment depending on the age of the pupils.

The tests were introduced for 7-year-olds for the academic year ending July 1991, and for 11-year-olds in the academic year ending July 1995.

Similar tests were introduced for 14-year-olds for the academic year ending July 1998 but were scrapped at the end of the academic year ending July 2009.

The assessments are completed at the end of each Key Stage and record attainment in terms of National Curriculum attainment levels, numbered between 1 and 8. The expectations for each stage are set out as follows:

Key Stage 1, School Year 2, Approximate Pupil Age 7, Expected Level 2.

Key Stage 2, School Year 6, Approximate Pupil Age 11, Expected Level 4.

Key Stage 3, School Year 9, Approximate Pupil Age 14, Expected Level 5 or 6.

Key Stage 2….

During May in the final year of Key Stage 2, children undertake National Curriculum Tests in the three core subjects of English, Mathematics and Science.  These results provide the pupil’s individual intellectual levels in the subjects, including separate levels for reading and writing as part of the overall English grade.

 In addition, teachers are required to provide teacher assessments in the same subjects.

The terminology used for the assessments varies both in type and context. Where assessments are made in-school by class teachers, these are referred to as Teacher Assessments. These assessments make up part of the final assessment at the end of all Key Stages.

Where assessment is completed through testing, these assessments are known as National Curriculum Tests.

Colloquially the assessments - particularly in the test form - are referred to as SATs. This terminology is rooted in the original intention to introduce Standard Assessment Tasks when the assessments were first introduced. The term is variously believed to stand for Statutory Assessment Tests, Standard Attainment Tests, Standardised Achievement Tests and Standard Assessment Tests.

Criticisms

Like many exams of this nature, the assessments have been subject to a variety of criticism. Two of the main points of concern are that they place youngsters under constant stress for their whole academic lives, and that the principal purpose of national curriculum testing is for school league tables.

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