Primary School SATs Results Explained

SATs results explained in plain English: this guide shows you what your child's Key Stage 2 SATs results actually mean, how the scaled scores work, and how much weight to give them, whether you are reading your own child's report or using a school's results to help choose one. SATs sound more dramatic than they are, so it helps to know exactly what is measured and what is not.

Use this alongside our complete guide to school admissions in England if you are also weighing up which school to apply for.

What SATs actually are

SATs, the Standard Assessment Tests, are national curriculum tests taken by pupils in England. The set that parents mean when they say "SATs" are the Key Stage 2 tests, sat by Year 6 children in the summer term, usually over one week in mid-May. Key Stage 1 SATs, once taken in Year 2, became non-statutory from the 2023 to 2024 school year, so most children now only sit formal SATs once, at the end of primary school.

At Key Stage 2, children sit formal tests in:

English reading, a single paper based on a reading booklet
English grammar, punctuation and spelling, often shortened to GPS or SPaG
Mathematics, made up of an arithmetic paper and two reasoning papers

Two important subjects are not tested by a formal paper. Writing is judged by the child's teacher against national standards, known as teacher assessment, and science is teacher assessed too, with only a sample of schools taking a national science test each year. So a child's writing result reflects a year of classwork, not a single exam.

How the scaled scores work

This is the part that confuses most parents. The raw number of marks your child scores is converted into a scaled score. The scale runs from 80 to 120, and the number that matters is 100: a scaled score of 100 means your child is working at the "expected standard" for the end of primary school. Anything above 100 is above the expected standard, and anything below means they have not yet reached it.

The scaling matters because the tests vary slightly in difficulty from year to year, so the number of raw marks needed to reach 100 can shift a little. Converting to a scaled score keeps "100 equals the expected standard" consistent whatever the paper was like. The official detail on how this works is published by the Department for Education on GOV.UK.

You will usually see a scaled score for reading, for GPS and for maths, plus a teacher-assessment judgement for writing, described in words such as "working at the expected standard" or "working at greater depth". Greater depth is the higher band used for the teacher-assessed subjects.

When and how you get the results

Schools receive the marked results in July and pass them to parents before the end of the summer term, normally as part of the end-of-year report. The results also go to your child's secondary school, which uses them as a starting point. That is the main practical consequence of SATs for your child, so there is no need to treat them as a make-or-break exam.

How much do SATs actually matter?

For your individual child, less than the name suggests. SATs do not decide which secondary school they attend, and most secondaries do not use them to set or stream rigidly, though some use them as one input when grouping pupils in the first term. Good secondaries reassess children themselves early in Year 7.

Where SATs carry real weight is at school level. A primary school's SATs results feed the national performance tables and are one measure Ofsted and parents look at when judging the school. They are also the official baseline from which a secondary school's Progress 8 score is later calculated, measuring how much progress pupils make from where they started. So when you are choosing a school, SATs results tell you something useful about the whole cohort, even though they say little about how one particular child will do.

Read them the right way. A single year's results can bounce around in a small school, so look at the trend over a few years, and always read the figures next to the school's context and its Ofsted report. Our guides to comparing schools and reading league tables show how to put SATs in perspective, or start from the Schools Insight homepage.

Frequently asked questions

What is a good SATs score?

A scaled score of 100 means your child has reached the expected standard for the end of Key Stage 2. Scores above 100 are above the expected standard, up to a maximum of 120, and scores in the 110s are strong. Below 100 means the expected standard has not yet been met. There is a separate scaled score for reading, for grammar, punctuation and spelling, and for maths.

What subjects are tested in Year 6 SATs?

Children sit formal tests in English reading, English grammar, punctuation and spelling, and mathematics. Writing and science are assessed by teachers rather than by a test, so the writing result reflects a year of classwork rather than a single exam.

Do SATs affect which secondary school my child goes to?

No. SATs do not determine secondary school admission, which is decided by the normal admissions process. Results are passed to the secondary school as a starting point, and some schools use them as one factor when grouping pupils early on, but most reassess children themselves in Year 7.

Are Key Stage 1 SATs still taken?

No. Key Stage 1 SATs, once sat in Year 2, became non-statutory from the 2023 to 2024 school year. Most children now sit formal SATs only once, at the end of Year 6, though younger pupils still take the Year 1 phonics screening check and the Year 4 multiplication tables check.

Should I worry if my child scores below 100?

Not unduly. A score below 100 shows your child has not yet reached the expected standard in that subject, which is useful information for their secondary school, but it is a single snapshot from one week. Talk to the teacher about where the gaps are, and remember that secondaries reassess children and provide support in Year 7.