Teach-Primary-Issue-19.8

44 | www.teachwire.net doing to help the children get the most out of their final few months of primary school. Focus on supporting those pupils who have not found learning as straightforward, and who will need closer support in Year 6. Where possible, aim to do this in class, making changes to your timetable and curriculum focus to plan whole-class sessions, remembering that time spent reviewing learning, filling gaps and managing misunderstandings is likely to benefit every child. For example, where you have identified a weakness in calculation strategies for your focus children, use part of your morning sessions twice a week to dedicate 10 to 15 minutes to reviewing and developing calculation strategies. This may be in a section of the morning when you usually review or recap F or Year 6 teachers charged with managing the final run up to SATs, now is a good time to plan out a strategic, data-driven approach to supporting pupils through the process, building on your understanding of both your pupils’ journeys through Key Stage 2 so far, and the wider picture. Nationally, the 2025 SATs results showed encouraging progress, with 62 per cent of pupils meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined. This is up from 59 per cent in 2022, but remains below the 65 per cent of pupils reaching the standard in 2019. Understanding national trends and analysing your own cohort’s data will be essential in targeting your preparation effectively. General prep Begin by taking a good look at your pupils’ Key Stage 2 experience so far. Use a rough filter to group pupils into those on track to meeting and exceeding expectations – this is likely to be those who have generally been in school, in class, focused on learning and maintaining pace with year group expectations – and those who are likely to need more of your team’s focus in the next few months. Always remember that across the country, most pupils do well in the end of Key Stage 2 assessments. Most of your pupils will too, so keep doing what your school has been general learning, or you may timetable this activity as part of two specific maths lessons. Maths prep The 2025 results showed 75 per cent of pupils meeting expected standard in maths, with 26 per cent achieving higher standard. DfE analysis reveals persistent challenges in reasoning, problem-solving SATS PREP: a data-informed approach and applying knowledge to unfamiliar contexts. Use assessment data to identify specific domains where your cohort struggles. If they are like most children across the country, this is likely to be fractions, ratio and proportion, and multi-step problems. Create a revision timetable using spaced repetition, revisiting To make sure you’re as ready as possible for end-of-term assessments, use the information at your disposal to guide your revision strategies, advises Richard Selfridge “Understanding national trends and analysing your own data will be essential in targeting your preparation”