KS2 SATs 2025: areas to prioritise

Here we go again: KS2 SATs 2025!

Whether this is your first time in year 6 or your 27th, there’s something almost heartwarming about being part of SATs club. And the first rule of SATs club is… tell everyone about SATs club! We love to tell anyone who will listen how many teaching weeks we have left until ‘That Week’, or how we’ve decided to not even say the dreaded word until after Christmas. Whether you agree with it or not, SATs is most likely looming somewhere in your head from the start of year 6.

This year’s cohort have missed a lot of the KS1 curriculum due to Covid (in fact, it’ll be another 3 years until a SATs paper will be sat by a year 6 cohort (2027-28) that haven’t had their education impacted by the Covid lockdowns); however, these children are still expected to achieve the same outcomes. So, how will we get them there and what should we focus on?

‘Pass’ (EXS) and ‘greater depth’ (GDS) boundaries so far

Overall, ‘grade’ boundaries have remained fairly consistent over the years. The only somewhat notable shift occurred with the 2023 reading paper, where both the EXS and GDS scores dropped for the first time since 2017, having previously shown a steady upward trend.

Maths: past paper analysis

*Please note that data from the 2016 tests has now been removed from all data tables. Not only were the tables beginning to get a bit busy from all the numbers (!) but, as the first paper under the new curriculum, data from the 2016 paper provided too many anomalies across the board, proving to be unhelpful when analysing data trends.

As in previous years, the majority of content in every set of maths papers continues to be drawn from the year 3-5 curricula. This year’s pass mark was the lowest to date, set at 49%; typically, it has hovered around the 50% mark (more precisely, between 49% and 55%).

The Calculations topic – often referred to as the four operations – has remained the most frequently appearing topic across all maths papers, closely followed by FDP (fractions, decimals and percentages). This year, both topics appeared in their highest proportions to date, with 41% of the 2024 maths papers focused on calculations questions and 26% on FDP.

Although the KS2 mathematics test framework includes nine content domains, they’re not weighted equally. Each domain has a different number of substrands, from just 3 in Geometry (position and direction) and Statistics, to 12 in Fractions, Decimals, and Percentages (FDP). These substrands are divided across year groups into specific objectives – for instance, F1 (‘recognise, find, write, name and count fractions’) spans both year 3 and year 4 objectives.

The two heaviest-weighted domains, Calculations and FDP, each contain around 40 objectives, partly explaining their higher mark allocations. However, this isn’t always proportional; for example, Measurement, with 44 objectives, has received under 10% of total marks over the past three years.

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Maths: what about SATs 2025?

The ‘pass’ mark has consistently hovered around 50% each year (typically between 49% and 55%), which is useful to keep in mind as we look ahead to 2025. In theory, based on previous years' pass marks and the proportion of questions based on the years 3, 4 and 5 curricula, pupils should be able to ‘pass’ (achieve the expected standard) with a solid understanding of content from years 3-5.

Arithmetic paper

Using known facts to tackle multiplication and division problems has consistently been a key focus in the arithmetic papers, so it’s worth continuing to focus on this in maths lessons. Every arithmetic paper so far has included two long multiplication and two long division questions, each worth two marks, together making up 10% of the arithmetic marks, so make each of these a regular appearance in your arithmetic practice.

Reasoning papers

These content domains haven’t been represented for three years in a row now – we could therefore assume that they may be a priority to appear next year:

• Scale factors (R3)

• Estimate, measure and read scales (M2)

• Volume (M8)

M1 (compare, describe and order measures) hasn’t been represented for two years in a row – this may also be in 2025’s paper.

In preparation for the 2025 SATs, focus your revision on calculations and FDP, rather than spending too much time on topics like reflecting or translating shapes (position and direction remains the least covered topic). Ensure a solid grasp of all year 3-5 maths curriculum content, as this will also provide an excellent foundation for any new year 6 material.

Reading: past paper analysis

To meet the expected reading standard, the pass mark ranged from 52-56% on the 2017-2019 tests. In 2022, we saw the highest pass mark on a paper with one of the fewest word counts, possibly indicating its level of difficulty. However, in 2023, a paper with one of the highest word counts had the lowest pass mark. The pass mark had been gradually rising up to 2022, making 2023's drop a surprise, though it has since risen again this year.

Reading: what about SATs 2025?

Most questions in the reading papers have consistently focused on retrieval (2b) and inference (2d), a trend that continued in 2024 and is likely to remain the same in 2025.

I’ve said it before (multiple times!), and I’ll say it again: a poetry extract hasn’t appeared since 2018, so it may be sensible to assume that a poem might be included in the 2025 reading paper. Surely 2025 must be the year?!

As for the pass mark… what previous years’ experience has taught us is that we can’t possibly predict what may happen next year!

Grammar: past paper analysis

To meet the expected standard in the spelling, punctuation, and grammar (GPS) papers, the pass mark has generally been similar to that of maths, around 50% (typically between 50-54%).

The GPS assessment includes a 50-mark grammar and punctuation paper along with a 20-mark spelling test. This structure benefits strong spellers, as achieving full marks in spelling means only needing 15 out of 50 in the grammar test to reach the expected standard. Conversely, students who struggle with spelling can compensate by scoring higher in grammar.

In the SATs spelling tests, the most frequently assessed content domain is S38: adding suffixes that begin with vowels to multisyllabic words, a Year 3/4 spelling rule. This is followed by S60, covering words with ‘silent’ letters, which is a Year 5/6 objective.

Grammar: what about SATs 2025?

Most questions in the grammar test focus on punctuation (G5) and grammatical terms and word classes (G1). In fact, since 2017, children could pass the grammar paper by correctly answering questions solely from these two areas. This trend seems likely to continue in 2025, so don’t forget to nail those commas, relative clauses and adverbs!

As with the maths, the pass mark is likely to be around 50%. If your children are weak spellers, focus on the grammar paper; if they are less confident at the grammar, try to nail the spelling. Practice wisely – consider the domains that appear frequently, as analysed here!

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