KS2 SATs

Overview

KS2 SATs are the Key Stage 2 national curriculum tests taken by Year 6 pupils in England at the end of primary school, usually at age 10 or 11. Every state-funded school in England must give the tests to its eligible Year 6 pupils; there is no entry process or application, since every pupil in the year group is tested together in a single fixed week set nationally by the Standards and Testing Agency (STA), part of the Department for Education. The tests cover English reading, English grammar, punctuation and spelling, and mathematics; English writing and science are judged separately by teachers rather than tested on paper.

Who can apply

There is nothing to apply for. Pupils are automatically included if they are on a Year 6 register at a state-funded school in England (maintained schools, academies and free schools) on the date of the tests, unless a specific exemption applies (for example, some pupils with the most complex needs). Independent schools in England can choose whether to take part. KS2 SATs are an England-only arrangement: Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland run their own national assessment arrangements and do not use KS2 SATs.

Exam pattern

All six papers are externally marked: school staff administer them under exam conditions, but the completed scripts are sent away and marked by markers appointed by the STA, not by the pupil's own teacher.

English writing is not tested on paper. Teachers assess each pupil's writing across the year against the national curriculum's end-of-key-stage expectations, and a sample of schools has this judgement externally moderated by their local authority.

Science is also assessed through teacher judgement rather than a test taken by every pupil. The STA has in the past run an externally marked science sampling test in a small number of schools (most recently 2018) to monitor national standards, but ministers decided not to continue it, and it has not been reinstated since.

Marking and results

Each pupil's raw marks on the reading, GPS and maths papers are converted into a scaled score between 80 and 120. A scaled score of 100 always represents "the expected standard" for that test, whatever a pupil's raw mark was; because the tests are not identical from one year to the next, the STA publishes a new raw-to-scaled-score conversion table each year so that a scaled score of 100 means the same standard every year. A pupil below 80 or above 120 is simply reported at that boundary score. For writing and science, schools report a teacher assessment judgement rather than a scaled score.

Important dates

For 2026, the national test week for KS2 SATs is Monday 11 May to Thursday 14 May: GPS papers 1 and 2 on the Monday, reading on the Tuesday, maths papers 1 and 2 on the Wednesday, and maths paper 3 on the Thursday. Every state-funded school in England sits each paper on the same day and, for most papers, within the same timetabled window. Schools get pupils' individual results in July 2026, ahead of the end of the school year, and the Department for Education later publishes 2026 school-level results in primary school performance tables, typically towards the end of the year.

Fees

KS2 SATs are free. State-funded schools have a statutory duty to administer the tests to their eligible pupils at no cost to families, and the STA supplies the test materials and marking service to schools directly. Independent schools that choose to take part also do so without a fee to parents.

After the exam

KS2 SATs have no pass or fail mark for an individual child. A pupil's results show their scaled score (or teacher assessment judgement) and whether they met the expected standard, but there is no consequence of "failing" that stops a pupil moving on — every Year 6 pupil progresses to secondary school regardless of their results. The results are used at school level, feeding into primary school performance tables that compare schools, and at pupil level, where the scores are shared with the pupil's secondary school to help with the transition into Year 7.

Preparation tips

Schools build revision of the tested papers into the spring term of Year 6, typically working through the STA's own released past test papers and mark schemes, which are published on gov.uk after each test cycle. Since the arithmetic paper and the spelling paper test recall and fluency directly, short, regular practice on number facts and spelling patterns tends to help more than long single sessions. For reading and the reasoning papers, practising how to find evidence in a text and showing working on multi-step maths problems reflects how those papers are actually marked.