TheSchoolRun.com closure date
As we informed you a few months ago, TheSchoolRun has had to make the difficult decision to close due to financial pressures and the company has now ceased trading. We had hoped to keep our content available through a partnership with another educational provider, but this provider has since withdrawn from the agreement.
As a result, we now have to permanently close TheSchoolRun.com. However, to give subscribers time to download any content they’d like to keep, we will keep the website open until 31st July 2025. After this date, the site will be taken down and there will be no further access to any resources. We strongly encourage you to download and save any resources you think you may want to use in the future.
In particular, we suggest downloading:
- Learning packs
- All the worksheets from the 11+ programme, if you are following this with your child
- Complete Learning Journey programmes (the packs below include all 40 worksheets for each programme)
You should already have received 16 primary school eBooks (worth £108.84) to download and keep. If you haven’t received these, please contact us at [email protected] before 31st July 2025, and we will send them to you.
We are very sorry that there is no way to continue offering access to resources and sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused.
Changes to KS2 SATs in 2025: what parents need to know

KS2 SATs in Year 6
At the end of Year 6, children in England sit tests in:
- Reading
- Maths
- Grammar, punctuation and spelling (GPS)
These tests are both set and marked externally, and the results are used to measure the school’s performance (for example, through reporting to Ofsted and published league tables). Your child’s marks will be used in conjunction with teacher assessment to give a broader picture of their attainment.
The KS2 SATs for English and maths taken since 2016 reflect the amended national curriculum, and are more rigorous than previous years' tests. There is also a new SATs marking scheme and grading system which has replaced national curriculum levels.


Prepare your child for KS2 SATs today
- Your guide to KS2 SATs
- Revision course
- 10 SATs practice papers in English & maths
Key Stage 2 Reading
The reading test is a single paper with questions based on three passages of text. Your child will have one hour, including reading time, to complete the test.
There will be a selection of question types, including:
- Ranking/ordering, e.g. ‘Number the events below to show the order in which they happen in the story’
- Labelling, e.g. ‘Label the text to show the title of the story’
- Find and copy, e.g. ‘Find and copy one word that suggests what the weather is like in the story’
- Short constructed response, e.g. ‘What does the bear eat?’
- Open-ended response, e.g. ‘Look at the sentence that begins Once upon a time. How does the writer increase the tension throughout this paragraph? Explain fully, referring to the text in your answer.’
Since 2018 the reading content of the KS2 SATs has been closely linked to the curriculum to ensure children are drawing on their knowledge when answering reading comprehension questions.
Key Stage 2 grammar, punctuation and spelling test
Usually, the GPS test consists of two parts: a grammar and punctuation paper requiring short answers, lasting 45 minutes, and an aural spelling test of 20 words, lasting around 15 minutes.
The GPS test includes two sub-types of questions:
- Selected response, e.g. ‘Identify the adjectives in the sentence below’
- Constructed response, e.g. ‘Correct/complete/rewrite the sentence below,’ or, ‘The sentence below has an apostrophe missing. Explain why it needs an apostrophe.’
Key Stage 2 maths
Children sit three papers in maths:
- Paper 1: arithmetic, 30 minutes
- Papers 2 and 3: reasoning, 40 minutes per paper
Paper 1 will consist of fixed response questions, where children have to give the correct answer to calculations, including long multiplication and division. Papers 2 and 3 will involve a number of question types, including:
- Multiple choice
- True or false
- Constrained questions, e.g. giving the answer to a calculation, drawing a shape or completing a table or chart
- Less constrained questions, where children will have to explain their approach for solving a problem
Key Stage 2 science
The Department for Education has confirmed there will be no science sampling tests from September 2022. Schools will still submit teacher assessment data for science for KS1 and KS2.
In previous years, a number of schools (approximately 1900) were required to take part in science sampling, a test administered to a selected sample of children thought to be representative of the population as a whole.
For those who were selected, there were three papers:
- Biology: 25 minutes, 22 marks
- Chemistry: 25 minutes, 22 marks
- Physics: 25 minutes, 22 marks
When will KS2 SATs take place in 2025?
The KS2 SATs are scheduled for Monday 12 May to Thursday 15 May.
Monday
English GPS Paper 1: questions
English grammar, punctuation and spelling Paper 2: spelling
Tuesday
English reading
Wednesday
Mathematics Paper 1: arithmetic
Mathematics Paper 2: reasoning
Thursday
Mathematics Paper 3: reasoning
How will Key Stage 2 SATs be marked?
The previous national curriculum levels have been scrapped, and instead children are given scaled scores (read our parents' guide to primary school grading and SATs codes for more details).
You will be given your child’s scaled score and whether they have reached the expected standard set by the Department for Education (‘NS’ means that the expected standard was not achieved and ‘AS’ means the expected standard was achieved).
The range of scaled scores available for each KS2 test is:
- 80 (the lowest scaled score that can be awarded)
- 120 (the highest scaled score)
The expected standard for each test is a scaled score of 100 or more. If a child is awarded a scaled score of 99 or less they won't have achieved the expected standard in the test.
The Department for Education expects at least 65 per cent of children to reach the expected standard (the figure was initially 85 per cent but has been revised).
Download a free parents' guide to KS2 SATs in 2025
Is your child taking Year 6 SATs this year? Print out TheSchoolRun's guide to KS2 SATs for parents.
Are there any practice papers for KS2 SATs?
Yes, the 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022 and 2023 KS2 SATs papers are now available and can be downloaded for free from TheSchoolRun:
- KS2 English SATs 2016 past papers
- KS2 Maths SATs 2016 past papers
- KS2 English SATs 2017 past papers
- KS2 Maths SATs 2017 past papers
- KS2 English SATs 2018 past papers
- KS2 Maths SATs 2018 past papers
- KS2 English SATs 2019 past papers
- KS2 Maths SATs 2019 past papers
- KS2 English SATs 2022 past papers
- KS2 Maths SATs 2022 past papers
- KS2 English SATs 2023 past papers
- KS2 Maths SATs 2023 past papers
- KS2 English SATs 2024 past papers
- KS2 Maths SATs 2024 past papers
You can also access our current free Year 6 SATs papers here; these relate to the old SATs, so the content and format of the new papers will be different, but they are still useful to help your child familiarise themselves with exam technique.
TheSchoolRun has also commissioned five complete KS2 SATs practice papers for maths and five for English. Available exclusively to subscribers, they are written in the style of the new-curriculum papers and feature similar question types.