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Age-related expectations: KS1

KS1 age-related expectations
What key skills and knowledge should children have by the end of Year 2? We explain what they need to meet the expected standard.

It can be hard to work out whether your child’s learning is on track for their age – especially if their standard answer, when you ask about their day, is, ‘I can’t remember!’

The Department for Education (DfE) administers SATs in reading and maths at the end of Year 2. These, along with teacher assessment in writing and science, determine whether your child is meeting age-related expectations: the expected standard for their age group.

To meet age-related expectations, your child needs to score between 100 and 115 in their SATs – but you may not be told their actual scores. It’s more likely that their end-of-year report will be based on both their SATs results and teacher assessments, and reported as ‘working towards’ age-related expectations (or ARE), ‘working at,’ or ‘working beyond.’

Here’s what your child needs to do to meet age-related expectations in each core curriculum area.

KS1 English reading age-related expectations

  • Read accurately most words of two or more syllables.
  • Read most words containing common suffixes.
  • Read most common exception words.
  • In age-appropriate books, read most words accurately without overt sounding and blending, and sufficiently fluently to allow them to focus on their understanding rather than on decoding individual words.
  • Sound out most unfamiliar words accurately, without undue hesitation.
  • In a book that they can already read fluently, check it makes sense to them, correcting any inaccurate reading.
  • Answer questions and make some inferences.
  • Explain what has happened so far in what they have read.

KS1 English writing age-related expectations

  • Write simple, coherent narratives about personal experiences and those of others (real or fictional).
  • Write about real events, recording these simply and clearly.
  • Demarcate most sentences in their writing with capital letters and full stops, and use question marks correctly when required.
  • Use present and past tense mostly correctly and consistently.
  • Use coordination (e.g. or/and/but) and some subordination (e.g. when/if/that/because) to join clauses.
  • Segment spoken words into phonemes and represent these by graphemes, spelling many of these words correctly and making phonically plausible attempts at others.
  • Spell many common exception words.
  • Form capital letters and digits of the correct size, orientation and relationship to one another and to lower-case letters.
  • Use spacing between words that reflects the size of the letters.

KS1 maths age-related expectations

  • Read scales in divisions of ones, twos, fives and tens.
  • Partition any two-digit number into different combinations of tens and ones, explaining their thinking verbally, in pictures or using apparatus.
  • Add and subtract any two 2-digit numbers using an efficient strategy, explaining their method verbally, in pictures or using apparatus.
  • Recall all number bonds to and within 10 and use these to reason with and calculate bonds to and within 20.
  • Recall multiplication and division facts for 2, 5 and 10 and use them to solve simple problems.
  • Identify fractions of a number or shape, and know that all parts must be equal parts of the whole.
  • Use different coins to make the same amount.
  • Read the time on a clock to the nearest 15 minutes.
  • Name and describe properties of 2D and 3D shapes, including number of sides, vertices, edges, faces and lines of symmetry.

KS1 Science age-related expectations

  • Working scientifically, ask questions about what they notice.
  • Use different types of scientific enquiry to gather and record data, using simple equipment where appropriate, to answer questions.
  • Observe changes over time.
  • Notice patterns.
  • Group and classify things.
  • Carry out simple comparative tests.
  • Find things out using secondary sources of information.
  • Communicate their ideas, what they do and what they find out in a variety of ways.
  • Name and locate parts of the human body, including those related to the senses, and describe the importance of exercise, a balanced diet and hygiene for humans.
  • Describe the basic needs of animals for survival and the main changes as young animals, including humans, grow into adults.
  • Describe the basic needs of plants for survival and the impact of changing these, and the main changes as seeds and bulbs grow into mature plants.
  • Identify whether things are alive, dead or have never lived.
  • Describe and compare the observable features of animals from a range of groups.
  • Group animals according to what they eat, describe how animals get their food from other animals and/or from plants, and use simple food chains to describe these relationships.
  • Describe seasonal changes.
  • Name different plants and animals and describe how they are suited to different habitats.
  • Distinguish objects from materials, describe their properties, identify and group everyday materials and compare their suitability for different uses.
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