SATs Preparation

The SATs exams which happen in the May of year six at the end of Primary School are of crucial importance to a child’s future education opportunities.

While some Secondary schools will use other differentiators, most will use SATs results to help them decide which children go into the upper sets for Maths and English (Maths is normally streamed by ability from the start alongside English, it’s very rare to find science streamed within a secondary environment, even though it is part of the SATs test).

Why getting into top sets at a comprehensive or secondary school is so important.

While all schools try their best for their children the sad fact is that only the upper sets will cover the amount of ground a child would need to cover to have a good chance of doing really well in their GCSE’s. Many in the sets below may feel held back because schools cannot move beyond the ability range of the less able entirely.

Schools have a difficult balance to strike. Parents can however help their children get the most from their education if they give them the chance of getting into and thriving within a top set environment.

How can we help with Sats preparation?

We take children from roughly seven years old ( sometimes younger) and work with them to boost their Maths and English skills. Children will also emerge more confident and self-reliant.

Nearer to the time of the test we make sure they have had a lot of test practice, have learnt some good exam techniques and are ready to perform to the best of their ability in their SATs tests.

We cover Maths and English only because science is not streamed at secondary school and so results in science while still important do not give access to a better quality learning environment.

When can you start Sats preparation?

Many of our children come to us quite a while before the SATS tests and join primarily to provide some general extra Maths and English help for their children. The longer we have to work with a child the better chance we have of helping them perform to the best of their ability.

We can however take children on at any stage. Ideally we would like to start working with them at some stage during year five to give us a good length of time to get the preparation right.

What does Sats preparation cost, and what is the time commitment?

We recommend that all our parents do both Maths and English combined. This will take about half an hour per night. It is impossible to make an improvement without working at something, but our course do allow parents to adapt their schedules to suit them. Some only work in the term time, some spread work out so it is also done during holidays.

We try and keep our costs as low as possible. We would typically supply 36 weeks of lessons during the year split into three twelve week terms. The individual lessons cost £21 for both Maths and English or £252 per term. Most Parents like to spread the cost over the year which works out at £63 per month.

By way of comparison we supply Private tutor standard lessons at about 70% less than a Private Tutor would charge. Equally we are about 30% cheaper than Kumon and other supplementary education providers on a monthly basis.

How can you get started?

We would normally carry out an assessment of each child so that we can track progress as we go and  make sure we start at the right level.

To ask  any questions you might have or to ask for an assessment please use the contact box on the right hand side or just give us a call.