SATs Springboard Insights: Autumn Term Report

As we near the end of an eventful and action-packed autumn term, it's the perfect moment to dig into some eye-opening insights about the current status of Year 6 pupils nationwide. These insights stem from the real responses of thousands of pupils engaged in our unique SATs Springboard programme.

Read on to discover the strongest, and most problematic SATs content domains in maths and English this Autumn Term. Regular contributor to the SATs Springboard, Sophie Bartlett, also gives us her thoughts on the data.

5 strongest maths SATs content domains

5 most problematic maths SATs content domains

(not including greater depth multi-step, multi-domain questions)

Overall average scores (out of 20)

The improved average on the third diagnostic shows us that Y6 pupils are beginning to address earlier skills gaps and perform at a higher overall level. There were typically more gaps for pupils from the domains covered in the second diagnostic.

The median and mode scores show a good improvement from M1 to M3, which is encouraging given that the third diagnostic is more challenging.

Generally, a typical Y6 pupil will have around 8-9 content domains (out of the 20 tested domains on each diagnostic) where they are less secure. Every class is different of course, and mastery Question Sets have been suggested at both class level and pupil level based on exactly where the most important gaps are.

Sample the first SATs Springboard maths diagnostic for yourself.

Sophie Bartlett on the maths SATs Springboard data:

It is, perhaps, surprising that a fractions objective appears twice in the strongest content domains; especially as three of the five ‘most problematic’ content domains are also fractions. You would expect a Year 5 fractions objective to appear as one of the ‘most problematic’, especially as this objective is often built on in Year 6 so is perhaps not as embedded.

It’s not entirely surprising that the geometry (shapes) and statistics questions were amongst the least correctly answered; these content domains make up a smaller proportion of the curriculum than the others and are therefore usually taught less frequently.

5 strongest English SATs content domains

5 most problematic English SATs content domains

Strengths in spelling with suffixes and basic punctuation show that most pupils are secure with that earlier curriculum content.

The most difficult questions were from the content domain G5.8 Apostrophes for plural possession. This content domain was covered by two questions, one in the GPS2 diagnostic (use a possessive apostrophe for the plural word 'girls') which teachers may have addressed.

However, in the GPS3 diagnostic, pupils had to use a possessive apostrophe for a plural word that doesn't end in s, and some pupils had over-applied the rule of using the apostrophe after the s incorrectly in that case.

The tricky prefix question was adding auto to biography, which does result in a fairly complex spelling for pupils.

The remainder of the more difficult questions are from the word class content domain G1. Prepositions (taught in Year 3), determiners (taught in Year 4) and relative pronouns (a Year 5 objective).

Sophie Bartlett on the English SATs Springboard data:

Three of the five ‘most problematic’ content domains are related to G1: grammatical terms/word classes - in this case, relative pronouns, determiners and prepositions. These are some of the grammatical terms you’re probably least likely to mention during a writing lesson unless you’re specifically focusing on them as a discrete grammar objective.

Looking at the strongest content domains, you have grammatical terms and concepts that I imagine are discussed on an almost daily basis in a classroom: full stops, question marks and Standard English (I don’t know about you, but I’m always correcting children’s spoken English during lessons!).

I wonder if this is the reason they are amongst the strongest content domains - content that is covered more frequently and throughout different contexts are more likely to stick!

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