SATs Tutoring in Crawley

SATs results in West Sussex determine how children are grouped when they start secondary school. For Crawley pupils, our specialists focus on the specific skills each paper demands — from multi-step arithmetic problems to inference questions in reading — ensuring children feel prepared rather than pressured.

Next Steps

If your young person in Crawley is approaching SATs, we can help them feel ready. Send a message to discuss where they are now and what support would make the most difference.

The Arithmetic Test

The arithmetic paper tests calculation skills: long multiplication, long division, fractions, decimals, and percentages. There's no room for reasoning here — it's about speed and accuracy. Our specialists in Crawley build these skills through regular practice, focusing on the methods children are expected to use and the common errors that cost marks. Fluent arithmetic is also the foundation for the two reasoning papers, so time spent here pays off twice.

Year 5 vs Year 6

Starting in Year 5 gives the most time to fill gaps — particularly in maths, where foundational weaknesses can be hard to fix quickly. Year 6 preparation then focuses on applying those skills under test conditions. For Crawley families who come to us in Year 6, we can still make a significant difference by targeting the topics most likely to appear and building answering approach rapidly. But earlier is always better, especially for children who find reading or maths genuinely difficult.

GPS Paper

The GPS paper tests grammar terminology (subordinate clauses, modal verbs, relative pronouns) alongside spelling and punctuation. It's often the paper that children in Crawley find most unfamiliar, because the metalanguage can be confusing. Our specialists teach this vocabulary explicitly, using examples and practice questions to make abstract concepts concrete. Spelling lists are practised regularly, and common patterns are taught systematically.

Independent Learning

The aim of tutoring is not dependence — it is independence. Working with Crawley learners always includes helping them develop effective study habits: how to plan a revision timetable, how to use active recall instead of passive re-reading, how to break large tasks into manageable steps. These meta-skills are as valuable as the subject knowledge itself, and they serve pupils long after tutoring ends.

What Families Should Know

Tutoring works best when there is clear communication between the tutor, the learner, and the family. In Crawley, we encourage parents to share what they observe at home — frustration with homework, avoidance of certain topics, comments about lessons. This context helps the tutor target the right areas. We also keep families informed of what is covered each week, so there is never any guesswork about whether things are on track.

Reading Comprehension

The reading paper presents three texts of increasing difficulty and asks questions that test retrieval, inference, vocabulary, and summary. Many Crawley children find the final text challenging — it's often a pre-1900 extract or a piece of non-fiction with unfamiliar language. Our specialists prepare students by practising with real SATs papers and teaching strategies for each question type: how to find evidence, how to explain an author's word choice, how to summarise a paragraph concisely.