Sophie B’s 2026 SATs results analysis

Sophie B is back with her 2026 SATs results analysis. It’s got it all: scaled scores, ‘pass’ percentages and content domain weightings to make note of for SATs 2027. 

We’re all teachers here. We all love a good moan - don’t pretend you don’t! It’s cathartic! And so for all its faults, at least the SATs give us all something to have a good moan about, right?!

Well that’s the only silver lining I could find, folks. Because alongside some pretty gnarly maths and a questionable reading mark scheme, we were also hit with the absolute debacle that was the SATs marking this year.

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The most interesting takeaway from results this year (apart from them being nine days late…!), is that whilst each ‘pass’ mark is amongst the lowest they’ve ever been, national attainment has continued its steady climb since Covid, reaching its highest level since before the pandemic. Whether that’s evidence of improving standards, lower thresholds, or a combination of both is open to debate - but it’s certainly an interesting trend.

What is a good SATs score?

In short, there is no 'good' grade. Parents will often ask this question, but SATs are designed to measure how well pupils are achieving against national curriculum standards and to help teachers and parents identify areas where children may need extra support before their transition to secondary school.

What do the SATs scores mean?

In case you needed a quick reminder what the SATs scores mean:

Expected Standard: A scaled score of 100 or more means a child is meeting the government's expected standard for their age.

Greater Depth: A scaled score of 110 or more means a child is working at what the government deems a “higher standard” (the term Greater Depth Standard is only officially awarded in writing)

Working Towards: A scaled score of 99 or below means the child is not meeting the expected standard, but is still considered "working towards" it.

No scaled score: Child has achieved 2 marks or fewer on the test.

What were the 2026 KS2 SATs ‘pass’ marks?

• For maths a raw score of 56/110 was required to achieve Expected Standard - 2 marks lower than last year.
• For reading, a raw score of 25/50 was required to achieve Expected Standard  - 3 marks lower than last year.
• For GPS, a raw score of 34/70 was required to achieve Expected Standard - 1 mark lower than last year.

The raw scores required to reach expected standard (EXS – a scaled score of 100) and ‘greater depth’ (GDS – generally accepted to be a scaled score of 110) for 2026 and previous years can be seen below. 

Bar chart comparison of % required to achieve EXS since 2017

The average scaled scores have remained largely unchanged (the GPS average has now been consistent for five years). In fact, no subject average has fallen outside the range of 104 to 106 since 2017.

How many pupils met the expected standard in 2026? 

National percentages for achieving EXS in each subject tend to fall in the 70s, with writing the lowest (at an average of 73% over the last seven assessments) and GPS and maths the highest (both currently at an average of 74.5% over the last eight assessments).

Maths: 75% of children achieved EXS this year - a 1% increase from last year

Reading: 75% of children achieved EXS this year - the same as last year

Grammar, punctuation and spelling:  74% of children achieved EXS this year - a 1% increase from last year

Writing: 73% of children achieved EXS this year - a 1% increase from last year

Reading, writing, maths (combined): 63% of children achieved EXS this year - a 1% increase from last year

*There is missing data for writing in 2017 as changes made within the 2017/18 writing TA frameworks mean that judgements in 2018 are not directly comparable to those made using the previous interim frameworks in 2016 and 2017.

Call me skeptical (a seasoned year 6 teacher, skeptical?! Never…), but it seems a bit fishy to me that whilst all the ‘pass’ marks dropped, the national level of achievement increased. Now from the children’s perspective, is this a bad thing? Not in my eyes. If lower thresholds mean more pupils experience success and leave primary school with greater confidence, then maybe that's the most positive outcome we can hope for in a system such as this.

What were the maths SATs ‘pass’ marks for 2026?

Children needed just over half of the questions correct on the maths paper to achieve the Expected Standard. This has been a consistent pattern over the past eight papers, with the ‘pass’ mark ranging from 49% in 2024 to 55% in 2018. This year saw a drop from last year's threshold, returning to the second-lowest level on record, matching 2023.

What do the maths 2026 results tell us about priorities and revision for 2027?

Since 2017, the percentage of children achieving EXS in maths has ranged from 72 - 79% (with the highest being the last year before Covid, and the lowest being the first year back after Covid. It has slowly increased since, but is yet to return to pre-Covid levels). 

Did you know? Pupils could meet EXS in maths just by knowing years 3-5 content

Theoretically, based on the ‘pass’ marks of almost all the previous papers (all except 2018 and 2019!), children should be able to meet the expected standards by almost exclusively knowing content from years 3-5.

Find out more: Sophie Bartlett’s maths 2026 SATs paper analysis

(It’s worth noting that the KS2 maths test domains are weighted unevenly. Domains with more objectives, such as Calculations and FDP, receive the most marks because they contain the most content. However, this is not always consistent: Measurement has 44 objectives but has accounted for less than 10% of marks in recent years.)

What were the SATs reading ‘pass’ marks 2026?

For the reading paper, children needed exactly half of the questions correct to achieve the Expected Standard this year. The ‘pass’ mark has fluctuated within a 10 percentage point range over the last eight papers, from 48% in 2023 to 58% in 2022. This year's threshold fell by three marks compared to last year, making it the second-lowest reading ‘pass’ mark since 2017. 

'Pass' marks and total word counts (reading booklet + answer booklet) rounded to the nearest 100

What does the reading ‘pass’ mark tell us about the impact of Covid on performance with the reading SATs?

Based on national averages, reading appears to be the only subject largely unaffected by the ‘Covid gap’. As we've seen, there's been no clear pattern to the percentage needed to reach EXS, but children have seemed to consistently perform well in this subject. Since 2017, the percentage achieving EXS in reading has remained fairly stable, ranging from 72% to 75% with the highest results seen this year (as well as in 2018, 2022 and last year). 

Find out more: Sophie Bartlett’s 2026 reading SATs paper analysis

What were the grammar, punctuation and spelling (GPS or SPaG) SATs 'pass' marks for 2026?

For the GPS paper, children needed 49% of the questions correct to achieve the Expected Standard this year. Unlike reading, the threshold has been remarkably consistent over the past eight years, with the ‘pass’ mark sitting at 50% or 51% in every year except 2018 (54%) and this year (49%). This year's threshold is the lowest since 2017, dipping just below what has otherwise been a very stable pattern. 

G1 (grammatical terms and word classes) and G5 (punctuation) collectively make up over half of the SPAG paper. This proportion has also consistently been higher than (or equal to, in 2018) the amount of marks needed to ‘pass’ the paper meaning that, theoretically, you could achieve EXS by correctly answering questions from only these two content domains.

% of GPS questions from weightiest content domains

The SPAG assessment consists of a 50-mark question paper and a 20-mark spelling-only test. This structure gives a bit more leeway to strong spellers (which allows for weaknesses in the grammar test). For example, scoring full marks on this year’s spelling test meant you only needed 14/50 on the grammar test to still reach the expected standard. Weaker spellers could make up the marks in the grammar test.

What do the GPS/SPaG 2026 results tell us about priorities and revision for 2027?

As with the maths test content above, it’s worth noting that although there are seven content domains in the KS2 English GPS test framework, they are not all weighted equally. G5 has the most content within it (15 topics, ranging from G5.1: capital letters to G5.14: bullet points) whereas G2, G6 and G7 contain the least (four topics each). This goes some way to explaining the distribution of marks across the content domains (i.e. the most marks are allocated to domains G1 and G5 because they contain the most content). 

Since 2017, the percentage of children achieving EXS in GPS has ranged from 72 - 78%, with the highest being the last year before Covid, and the lowest being in 2023. It has steadily increased since then, but is yet to outperform pre-Covid levels.

Find out more:  Sophie Bartlett’s GPS/SPaG 2026 SATs paper analysis

Is it worth checking SATs 2026 papers for extra marks?

Considering the marking shambles this year, absolutely! The deadline to apply for a review has been extended to Monday 7th September 2026. If you have any 98s, 99s, 108s or 109s, I would definitely get checking those papers to see if you can pick up any extra marks. It could take only one extra mark to tip the scale into a ‘pass’ – for small schools particularly, this potential one mark could mean a difference in data of 7% (based on a cohort of 15 children)! We know from experience that there can be marking discrepancies worth challenging, so it’s worth poring over some of those ‘boundary’ papers.

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Things to remember on SATs results day

After reporting to parents and governors, your data may be used as a basis for forming some of your SDP priorities for next year. However, let’s remember… 

• These tests are only a snapshot: they represent fewer than four hours of assessment and are expected to reflect seven years of education (not to mention the disruption caused by Covid). They also only assess a small proportion of the National Curriculum 

• If the results are lower than you hoped, don’t carry the weight of them alone. Year 6 teachers have only worked with these children for around eight months before the tests, and in that time have had to not only plug any prior gaps, but also teach the entirety of the year 6 curriculum! These children have experienced six years of primary education, often with six (or more!) different teachers, all of whom have played a part in their journey

Charlie Burley, aka. The Teachers’ Health Coach sums it up perfectly in his blog, about teacher stress and exams:

• The same is true at the other end of the scale. If your results are exceptional, celebrate them, but remember that they are the product of many years of teaching and support, not just one year group or teacher
• It’s also worth remembering that no two schools approach SATs in exactly the same way. Some begin preparing from the start of year 6, whilst others take a more balanced approach. Countless factors influence outcomes, including the cohort itself, attendance, confidence, and even how children feel on the day of the tests

• Attainment is only part of the story. Although there are no official progress measures this year (they are not due to return until 2027), progress remains one of the most meaningful indicators of a school’s impact. How far have your children come since they joined your school? That’s also important to celebrate!

Above all, remember that your pupils are far more than a set of scaled scores. Think about the child who found the confidence to audition for the school play; the one who now stays focused for an entire lesson; the one who discovered a love of reading this year… those achievements won’t appear in the SATs data, but arguably, they matter far more.