A 10-Week Year 6 SATs Revision Plan

• SATs week is typically the second week of May — start 10 weeks before (early March)
• Aim for 20–30 minutes per day, 5 days a week (weekends off or very light)
• Weeks 1–2: Diagnose gaps + arithmetic and times tables daily
• Weeks 3–4: Maths reasoning + GPS (grammar, punctuation, spelling list)
• Weeks 5–6: Reading comprehension deep dive + continue arithmetic
• Weeks 7–8: Mixed practice across all subjects + revisit weak areas
• Weeks 9–10: Consolidation only — ease off, focus on confidence, not new content

How to Use This Plan

SATs week typically falls in the second full week of May. Working back 10 weeks brings you to early March — the ideal time to begin structured home revision alongside whatever the school is doing.

This plan is designed for home use. It is not a replacement for school preparation (most Year 6 classes dedicate significant curriculum time to SATs from January onwards). It is a complement — a way to reinforce learning at home, target your child's specific weak areas, and build exam confidence.

Key principles:

• Short and daily: 20–30 minutes per day is more effective than longer weekend sessions. Research into spaced repetition consistently supports this approach
• Targeted, not blanket: Spend more time on weak areas and less on topics your child already knows. Diagnosis first, then focus
• All three subjects: The 6 SATs papers cover Reading (50 marks), GPS (70 marks), and Maths (110 marks). All three need attention
• Complement the school: Ask the teacher what they're focusing on each week so you can direct home practice towards different areas rather than duplicating effort

Suggested Daily Structure

A consistent daily routine makes revision feel normal rather than stressful. Here is a suggested 25-minute structure:

Pick a consistent time each day — after school, after dinner, or before bed. The habit matters more than the hour. Keep weekends free (or very light — a fun quiz or a shared reading session).

Weeks 1–2: Diagnosis and Arithmetic Foundations

Before diving into topic-by-topic revision, you need to know where the gaps are. Spending two weeks on diagnosis and arithmetic gives you a clear picture and builds the calculation fluency that underpins everything else.

Diagnosis (Week 1)

Use a past paper from each subject (available free from GOV.UK) as a diagnostic tool — not a test, but a way to identify patterns:

• Maths arithmetic paper: Which operations cause errors? Fractions? Long division? Percentages?
• Maths reasoning paper: Can your child read multi-step questions correctly? Do they show working? Do they include units?
• Reading paper: Which question types are weakest — inference? Language effect? Do they run out of time?
• GPS paper: Which grammar topics are shaky? Punctuation? Sentence structure? Word classes?

Write down the 3–5 weakest areas per subject. These are your priority targets for the coming weeks.

Arithmetic focus (Weeks 1–2)

The Maths Paper 1 (Arithmetic) is the most improvable SATs paper. It tests procedural fluency — can your child accurately perform written calculations? Daily practice here yields fast results.

Prioritise:

• Times tables to 12×12 — instant recall, tested daily (5 minutes)
• Written long multiplication — e.g. 346 × 27. Check column alignment and carrying
• Written long division — e.g. 756 ÷ 9, 4,568 ÷ 14. The most commonly struggled-with method
• Adding and subtracting fractions with different denominators
• Multiplying and dividing fractions (including by whole numbers)
• Finding percentages of amounts — 10%, 25%, 1%, and combinations (e.g. 35% = 25% + 10%)

Weeks 3–4: Maths Reasoning and GPS

Maths reasoning

With arithmetic becoming more fluent, shift the maths focus to reasoning — the skills tested in Papers 2 and 3 (35 marks each, 70 marks total).

Key areas to practise:

• Multi-step word problems: Teach your child to underline key information and check whether the question asks for one thing or two
• Fractions, decimals, percentages equivalence: Ordering, comparing, converting between forms
• Ratio and proportion: Scaling recipes, “for every 2 red beads there are 3 blue beads” type problems
• Algebra: Finding unknown values, simple equations, number sequences
• Geometry: Angle rules, properties of shapes, coordinates, reflection and translation
• Statistics: Interpreting tables, pie charts, line graphs — extracting the right data from the right place

Tip: Encourage showing working on every reasoning question. Partial marks are available — a child who sets up the calculation correctly but makes an arithmetic error can still pick up marks for method.

GPS (Grammar, Punctuation & Spelling)

GPS carries 70 marks across two papers — more than Reading (50). It is often under-practised at home. Start with punctuation (more concrete, easier to drill), then move to grammar.

Punctuation focus (Week 3):

• Apostrophes — possession (the dog's bone / the dogs' bones) and contraction (don't, it's vs its)
• Commas — in lists, after fronted adverbials, to mark clauses, for parenthesis
• Inverted commas — direct speech punctuation
• Colons and semicolons — introducing lists, linking related clauses
• Brackets, dashes, and commas for parenthesis

Grammar focus (Week 4):

• Word classes — nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, determiners, pronouns, conjunctions
• Active and passive voice — “The cat chased the mouse” vs “The mouse was chased by the cat”
• Subjunctive mood — “If I were...”, “The teacher suggested that he be moved...”
• Modal verbs — could, should, would, might, may, shall, will, must
• Relative clauses — who, which, that, whose, where
• Formal vs informal language

Spelling: Begin working through the Year 5/6 statutory spelling list — 5 words per day, tested by a family member at the end of the week. Writing words in sentences (not just copying them) is more effective for retention. The spelling paper is worth 20 marks — these are “free marks” for children who know the list.

Weeks 5–6: Reading Comprehension Deep Dive

The Reading paper (60 minutes, 50 marks) is widely considered the most time-pressured KS2 SATs paper. These two weeks are dedicated to building both comprehension skill and reading speed.

Question types to practise

• Retrieval (2a): Find and copy specific information. Quick marks — teach your child to locate the answer in the text and copy accurately
• Inference (2b) — the most common type (~40% of marks): Work out something not explicitly stated. Always require evidence: “How do you know? Use evidence from the text.”
• Vocabulary in context (2a): What does a word mean in this specific sentence? Teach your child to re-read the surrounding sentence and work out meaning from context clues
• Language effect (2g): Why did the author choose this word/phrase? What effect does it create? These are often the hardest questions and worth the most marks
• Summary (2c): Summarise the main idea or sequence of events. Practise identifying the key point vs supporting detail

Building reading speed

Many children lose marks simply because they run out of time. The paper contains three texts (fiction, non-fiction, and poetry) plus all the questions — 60 minutes goes fast.

Strategies to practise:

• Skim the questions before reading: This focuses reading — the child knows what to look for
• Don't re-read the whole text for every question: Train your child to locate the relevant section quickly
• Time management: Roughly 20 minutes per text (including questions). Don't spend too long on the first text and run out of time on the third
• Daily independent reading: 20 minutes of reading every day builds the fluency and stamina that the paper demands. There are no shortcuts here

Continue daily arithmetic (5–10 minutes) to keep calculation skills sharp. Continue the spelling list.

Weeks 7–8: Mixed Practice and Gap-Filling

By now your child has covered all three subjects in depth. These two weeks are about integration and reinforcement.

What to do

• Alternate subjects daily: Monday = Maths reasoning, Tuesday = Reading comprehension, Wednesday = GPS paper, Thursday = Maths arithmetic, Friday = Reading or mixed review
• Revisit the gaps from Week 1: Go back to the weaknesses you identified in your initial diagnosis. Have they improved? Spend extra time on anything still shaky
• Timed practice: Do at least one full timed paper per subject during these two weeks. The purpose is exam stamina and time management, not content revision
• Review errors, not just scores: After every practice session, go through the wrong answers together. Understanding why an answer was wrong is more valuable than simply doing more questions

Common late-stage gaps to watch for

• Maths: Converting between fractions, decimals, and percentages; reading multi-step questions carefully; forgetting units
• Reading: Inference answers that don't quote evidence; running out of time on the third text; language effect questions answered too briefly
• GPS: Confusing active/passive voice; misidentifying word classes (especially determiners and prepositions); apostrophes for plural possession

Weeks 9–10: Consolidation and Confidence

The final two weeks before SATs should feel calm, not intense. Your child has done the work — now it's about maintaining confidence and staying sharp.

Week 9

• Keep the daily routine (20–25 minutes) but reduce intensity — focus on your child's strongest areas to build confidence
• Do one last targeted session on the 2–3 weakest areas. Keep it focused and short
• Continue times tables and spelling — these are maintenance, not cramming
• Do not introduce new topics or methods. If your child doesn't know it by now, a week of cramming won't help and may add stress

Week 10 (SATs week)

• No revision the evening before each paper. A relaxed evening, a good dinner, and early bed are more valuable than a last-minute practice session
• A quick 5-minute warm-up in the morning is fine — a few mental maths questions or a quick spelling quiz — but keep it light
• Remind your child: you are proud of them regardless of the outcome
• After each paper, do not ask “How did it go?” in detail. A simple “Well done, that's one done!” is enough

Sample Weekly Schedule

Here is an example of how a typical revision week might look during Weeks 3–8:

Tips for Making This Work

• Coordinate with school: A quick conversation with the teacher about their weekly focus helps you avoid duplication and direct home practice towards different areas
• Use past papers as diagnostic tools, not just practice: After completing a paper, go through the answers together. Look for patterns in errors, not just the score
• Keep a “weak spots” list: Write down the specific topics your child finds hardest and revisit them each week. Update the list as things improve
• Praise effort and strategy, not just correct answers: “Great working out — you showed all your steps” is more helpful than “Well done, you got 8 out of 10”
• Stop when it stops being productive: If your child is tired, frustrated, or unable to concentrate, stop the session. A bad practice session is worse than no session — it creates a negative association. Try again tomorrow
• Rest days matter: Full weekends off (or very light) prevents burnout. Ten weeks of consistent daily practice is a marathon, not a sprint

Frequently Asked Questions