Key Stage 2 SATs are the first major assessment most children face, and for Devizes families they carry real weight. SATs results influence secondary school setting, and in some areas they affect school placement. Our teaching team prepare Year 5 and Year 6 students for all four papers — arithmetic, mathematical reasoning (Papers 2 and 3), reading, and grammar, punctuation and spelling — building confidence alongside capability.
When to Start
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 Devizes 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 test-taking ability rapidly. But earlier is always better, especially for children who find reading or maths genuinely difficult.
Next Steps
SATs preparation works best when it's calm, structured, and focused on real gaps. Send us a message to find the right tutor for your learner in Devizes.
Reading Skills
The reading paper presents three texts of increasing difficulty and asks questions that test retrieval, inference, vocabulary, and summary. Many Devizes children find the final text challenging — it's often a pre-1900 extract or a piece of non-fiction with unfamiliar language. Our teaching team 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.
Flexible Arrangements
Scheduling needs to work for the whole family. In Devizes, we offer morning, afternoon, evening, and weekend availability to fit around school, sport, and family commitments. Whether the preference is a fixed weekly slot or a more adaptable arrangement, we accommodate it. During busier periods — mock exam season, for instance — many families increase frequency before scaling back again.
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 teaching team in Devizes 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.