Preparing your students for SATs

SATs can be a daunting time for primary school students, but with some preparation and planning you can help to get your class ready for their SATs and help them to feel more at ease as they get closer.

It’s important that as well as ensuring they do their best academically, that you are looking after their mental wellbeing. Students who feel less pressured and go in with a good mental state will perform better overall.

Here are some top tips for helping your students with their SATs:

1. Be prepared

As the SATs approach, it’s key that you are well prepared and have a rough lesson plan for the coming weeks. These lesson plans can change depending on how you feel your students are progressing and what they need to be working on, but it’s always good to start off with a simple plan to make sure that you keep on the right track.

In each lesson, try to keep the topics and the learning techniques varied. Following the curriculum is important, but there may be different ways that you can teach certain areas that will appeal to different learner types.

Past papers are an important part of helping students understand what they need to do, particularly in year 6 SATs. Try downloading some past papers and investing in some handy teaching packs to help steer your lessons.

• Encourage home learning

As SATs approach, it is a good idea to chat to parents and explain the benefits of extra practice at home throughout the week.  Home learning is important as it helps students get used to learning in a different environment and can help them retain bits of information that they may not absorb during school.

As with at school, at home breaks should be encouraged and parents can reward children for their hard work after they have completed their study session.  It is important to remind the parents that they should support their child rather than pressure them for the best results.

• Keep learning fun

SATs are an important part of education and help to determine the level that each child is at going forward, but the environment in which a child learns can make all the difference.

Try to keep lessons as fun and engaging impossible whilst still highlighting important information that students will need to remember for the tests.

If the lessons are engaging then the children will feel more positive towards both the subjects being taught and the SATs themselves.