Year 6 SATs Preparation

To build a strong house, you need a solid foundation. Let’s start by demystifying what the SATs past papers actually are.

• The English SATs Practice Papers: These test reading skills as well as Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar (SPaG). The reading test involves a long passage and a series of questions to check comprehension. The SPaG papers focus on the technical side of writing.
• The Maths SATs Practice Papers: There are three papers. The first is an Arithmetic paper, which is all about quick calculations. The other two are Reasoning papers, which present maths problems in real-world contexts.

The biggest mistake I see parents make is jumping straight to past papers. Instead, let’s make sure the foundation is solid. Does your child understand the core concepts? Before you test them on percentages, can they confidently multiply and divide? Before tackling a complex reading passage, do they understand what a verb or an adjective is? Focusing on these fundamentals first makes everything that follows so much easier.

I worked with a student named Leo who was convinced he was “bad at maths.” His confidence was at rock bottom. We discovered he was a kinesthetic learner, so we ditched the boring worksheets. We used LEGO bricks to understand fractions and drew out problems on a giant whiteboard. Within a few weeks, something clicked. He wasn’t just getting answers right; he was explaining how he got them. It’s a story I see all the time. In fact, at WebGrade, we’ve found that over 70% of students report a significant boost in confidence within just six weeks of starting personalized tutoring. It’s not magic; it’s about finding the right key to unlock their potential for SATs results.

The real struggle I see is that many children lose confidence long before the test. They might hit a wall with fractions or find reading comprehension passages boring. A recent study showed that over 60% of students feel pressure from schools to do well in their Year 6 SATs Preparation. This pressure often leads to a “one-size-fits-all” revision approach, which rarely works. Your child isn’t a statistic; they are an individual with their own way of learning. The problem isn’t that they can’t do it; it’s that they haven’t found the way that works for them yet.