Review Of Maths SATs 2025: Results Of Our Teacher Survey!

This blog was originally published on 15th May 2025

SATs 2025 are officially behind us. While we wait for this year’s papers and results to be released, we’re ready to share our latest teacher-led review of the 2025 KS2 SATs.

Every year, we ask thousands of teachers to share their views on the current maths SATs papers and their pupils’ preparation. To ensure we get a true picture of the 2025 maths SATs, we’ve also kept a close eye on social media and spoken to many of the 469 schools signed up for our one-to-one primary school tutoring.

A huge thank-you to everyone who completed our maths SATs 2025 survey or joined the conversation online. If you still have insights to add, we’d love to hear them. Use #SATs2025 or tag @thirdspacetweet. 

This blog focuses on the overall difficulty and experience of the papers rather than question-level detail. After 23rd May, we’ll return with a full 2025 SATs paper breakdown and analysis.

Interested in how the maths SATs 2025 teacher survey compares with previous years?

• Review Of Maths SATs 2024: Results Of Our Teacher Survey
• Review Of Maths SATs 2023: Results Of Our Teacher Survey
• Review Of Maths SATs 2022: Results Of Our Teacher Survey
• Review Of Maths SATs 2019: Results Of Our Teacher Survey
• Review Of Maths SATs 2018: Results Of Our Teacher Survey

Which 2025 KS2 SATs papers did we ask teachers about in our survey?

• Arithmetic Paper 1: 13th May 2025
• Reasoning Paper 2: 14th May 2025
• Reasoning Paper 3: 15th May 2025

Influences on the 2025 SATs experience 

SATs are never plain sailing. Every year, it seems different events impact the support pupils receive in the lead up to the KS2 exams. In 2023, there were endless bank holidays, a coronation and strikes. 2024 saw a whole cohort sit SATs for the first time, having missed out on their KS1 assessments due to the pandemic. 

This year, AI in education is making a statement, and it’s clear that school budgets, smaller than ever, have impacted how schools prepare their pupils for the Year 6 SATs. 

But, how did survey respondents feel about the 2025 SATs experience compared to 2024? 

Unsurprisingly given the current budget squeeze, 56.3% of respondents said budget reductions, leading to staffing shortages, impacted their SATs preparation this year. For 43.7% of you, this meant you couldn’t dedicate sufficient time or staffing to interventions and booster sessions for SATs preparation. 

Despite the staff shortages, 53.2% of respondents thought the overall SATs experience was comparable to last year, with 28.7% finding it harder and 18.1% finding it easier. 

All 2025 SATs papers vs. 2024: not getting any easier

A staggering 91.3% of respondents were Year 6 veterans this year, meaning they are well placed to compare the 2025 SATs papers to previous years. 

An overwhelming majority (79.8%) felt this year’s papers were the same, if not harder, than 2024 with yet more long-winded and wordy questions in addition to some rather abstract questions in the reasoning papers, and an arithmetic paper slightly trickier than in 2024. 

Maths SATs papers 2025: the jury is still out  

Feelings on the 2025 maths SATs papers aren’t quite as clear-cut as they have been in previous years. Just over half of you (59.2%) felt the maths papers were of average difficulty, while 40.8% thought they were harder than 2024.

 

But why the divide in opinion? 

Some felt nothing unexpected appeared in the papers, so long as pupils had a secure understanding of the concepts. Others thought the papers consisted of some very long questions and large numbers. 

Despite differences in opinion on the papers, there’s one thing you all shared in common: the hope that Chen would make an appearance again this year. If there’s anything that can lighten the pressure of SATs week, even just for a moment, it’s Chen.

Sadly, it looks like SATs 2025 suffered from a “Chenectomy” – a term brilliantly coined by Caitlin Angharad on Facebook – and we’ll have to continue holding out for a 2026 appearance.

Thanks to user Ashleigh Gough on Facebook for this image

Just your average arithmetic paper 1

Like the previous few years, 65% of respondents generally felt this year’s arithmetic paper was pretty average, while 29.2% thought the KS2 arithmetic assessment was difficult. 

Some thought the paper was well-paced and increased in difficulty appropriately, but others thought there were a lot of long questions to fit into just 30 minutes. 

Those who thought the arithmetic paper was on the average side used Third Space learning’s tried and tested Fluent in Five to help them navigate revision. 

Another wordy reasoning paper 2

A relief for many, 47.6% thought the difficulty of the first reasoning paper was average or even easy, with many straightforward questions. Some respondents even felt the ease of the paper could influence the required raw score to reach the expected standard. 

But 52.4% of you thought the paper was either difficult or very difficult for your pupils. While the maths was relatively simple, the questions were unnecessarily confusing with complicated wording. A continued theme from 2024. 

The overly wordy nature of the questions put many learners, including EAL learners, at a disadvantage.  

The wordiness of the questions was something addressed by Third Space Learning’s academic team in their review of the “challenge” question in our SATs revision programme last year.

Those pupils who received the online maths tuition in preparation for SATs are now exposed to more complex questions to prepare them for the papers’ trickier wording and more complex reasoning. Lessons still cover the core skills pupils need to practise, but also address the increasing complexity of the questions and the number of steps pupils need to take to gain marks in the reasoning papers.

Covering the core skills with additional exposure to complicated word problems and multistep problems helps to manage children’s cognitive load when faced with these question types in the SATs papers. 

Many respondents were taken aback by how heavily weighted the questions were towards some less commonly tested topics. As a result, some felt the paper did not cover a wide range of national curriculum objectives. 

Easier reasoning paper 3

Following suit from 2024, respondents felt that reasoning paper 3 was fairer than paper 2. 

11% felt it was easy, 63% felt it was average, and the remaining 26% felt it was difficult.

School staff felt: 

• Questions were less wordy than paper 2;
• There was less cognitive demand than in the previous paper;
• Questions near the end were accessible for a large range of pupils. 

SATs 2025: a fair reflection on pupil potential? 

Just as in previous years, many respondents thought the wording of Paper 2, reasoning, was unnecessarily wordy and designed to trip pupils up, especially EAL learners. For this reason, the papers may not be a true reflection of pupils’ mathematical skills.   

Additionally, it seems pupils had to complete multiple steps for 1-mark answers again. 

But not everyone agreed; many respondents involved in the 2025 KS2 SATs thought this year’s maths papers were pretty average and should reflect pupils’ mathematical understanding well. Others thought the papers even lacked progression of difficulty. 

SATs 2025 grade boundaries: will they change?  

While it’s still unknown whether the raw score required to reach the expected standard will increase, decrease or stay the same as the current 54 out of 110, our respondents seem to have a clear idea. 

Although it’s hard to say for certain, 42.7% think the raw score will increase because of the less demanding nature of the papers than in previous years. 

On the other hand, 23.3% believe the raw score to reach the expected standard should decrease due to the difficulty of the reasoning papers. 

Teacher confidence in pupil preparation

Overall preparedness  

They say it takes a village to raise a child, and the same is true for SATs preparation – it takes a school. A huge well done to everyone involved in getting your Year 6 cohort ready for their KS2 SATs throughout the years. 

Overall, it seems you felt your Year 6 pupils were as prepared as could be given the circumstances. Schools who had used Third Space Learning’s one-to-one tutoring reported feeling slightly more prepared:

Between a packed curriculum and pre-existing knowledge gaps leftover from missed lockdown learning, teachers gave pupils their all to help them navigate the KS2 exams. 

Content coverage

This year, a larger percentage of respondents didn’t manage to cover the maths curriculum compared with 2024. 34% left a few topics uncovered, and 8.7% felt there were lots of topics they didn’t have time to cover. Of our survey respondents, 37.9% just managed to get through it. 

Survey findings reflect a recent report from Maths Horizons on reforming maths education in the age of AI that warns:  

“Primary pupils are rushed through a crowded curriculum, leaving too many without knowledge or confidence in the subject.” 

In a poll, they found that 82% of primary teachers believe the primary maths curriculum has too much content, which places additional pressure on teachers and affects curriculum sequencing. 

To help schools prioritise the topics most likely to appear in the maths SATs papers, our academic experts annually update the list of the top 20 topics to revise – all based on an analysis of the past maths SATs papers since 2016. 

Keep an eye out for the updated topic list for the 2026 maths SATs released in the 25/26 Autumn term. 

Difficult curriculum topics 

Unsurprisingly, for the third year in a row, respondents once again felt that the area of the curriculum pupils struggled with most was Fractions, Decimals and Percentages. This year, however, Measurement took 2nd place, knocking Properties of Shape down into 3rd place alongside Ratio and Proportion.

 

Most popular scheme of work

To help prepare pupils for the KS2 maths SATs, the majority of survey respondents (43.7%) followed the White Rose scheme of work. 

Every year, Third Space Learning’s maths teachers update the library of primary maths resources to align with the White Rose Maths scheme of work, including the Ready-to-go, adaptable maths lesson slides.  

SATs 2025 preparation challenges: budgets and staffing

An overwhelming number of respondents reported staffing shortages as a key SATs preparation challenge. For many, fewer support staff and budgets for interventions created extra unnecessary pressure. 

Staff shortages negatively impacted the number of interventions and SATs boosters that could be run in the lead up to SATs. And those that were lucky enough to run SATs interventions said this meant the rest of the school was unable to run all of the booster groups they needed.

It’s clear that shortages and budgets are having a significant impact on SATs, and many are worried about what SATs prep, and the wider school in general, will look like next year with significantly reduced funding. 

Use of AI in SATs preparation

While the number of AI maths tools and AI tutoring are on the rise, the majority of our survey respondents hadn’t used AI to help their Year 6 pupils with maths in the lead up to SATs.

Use of AI was highest amongst Year 6 Teachers and lowest amongst SLT:

But that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t consider it. 57% reported being open to using AI in the classroom in the future.

While current use of AI was lowest for our SLT respondents, they were more likely than others to say they would consider using AI in the classroom in the future, with 67% of them saying ‘yes’.

Where schools had used AI in the run-up to SATs, the vast majority did so to generate questions:

We asked AI-using teachers which specific tools they’d used, with ChatGPT and TeachMateAI coming out on top:

For the others – the ones who hadn’t used AI to support their Year 6 pupils this year – they simply don’t (yet) have an understanding of how to use AI for maths. Many of them mentioned a lack of formal training or guidance. 

Of those who have used AI in the classroom, only around a third of respondents reported that their school or local authority provided guidance on the use of AI in the classroom. Even less than this – 20% – reported receiving specific training on using AI for SATs preparation.

Others reported that training had been ad-hoc and driven by one or two teachers, rather than structured and delivered by the school or trust, where it may have been more beneficial.

For any school using AI in education, from lesson planning and admin tasks to creating worksheets and tutoring, an AI policy is a must. 

Some schools reported using AI in general, but not for maths or SATs specifically. It’s clear that there’s a broad spectrum of teachers out there, ranging from those who haven’t yet experimented with AI to those doing all sorts of clever things:

Many respondents reported feeling ‘no need’ for AI tools, and it’s clear there is a shared feeling among teachers and SLT that AI should not be used for the sake of it; there needs to be a clear, educational reason for implementing AI tools or platforms that will positively impact teachers and pupils over and above their existing strategies. 

That’s exactly why we at Third Space Learning have worked so closely with teachers and pupils when developing our AI maths tutor, Skye. 

Our goal has always been to make one-to-one tutoring more accessible for schools. That goal hasn’t changed, but AI has given us a way to make this even more affordable and flexible for schools amidst increasingly stretched budgets and workloads. By working so closely with schools, we’ve been able to build an AI tutor that meets their needs – not just ‘another AI tool’.

This January, after over a year of development and testing with schools, 24 primary schools signed up to a wider pilot programme to use the AI tutor specifically to support Year 6 pupils in the lead up to SATs 2025.

Since January, 394 Year 6 pupils have received 5,572 one-to-one SATs revision lessons from AI tutor Skye.

We’ve made it a priority to visit as many of these schools as possible to see the AI tutoring in action and ensure we’re responding to feedback and building an AI tool that truly has a positive impact on its users.

We’ve also enlisted the feedback of other experts in AI in education to ensure the tutoring continues to align with best practice.

When looking ahead to next year, over half of teachers anticipate more reliance on AI tools than they have seen this year. The rest weren’t sure. In fact, only 1 respondent expected reliance on AI tools to go down next year. 

Effective tutoring: closing the maths attainment gap 

Speaking of tutoring, 2024/25 was the first year that schools had to manage without any additional tutoring funding from the National Tutoring Programme (NTP).

But it seems the benefits of tutoring are outweighing the lack of specific funding, with the % of respondents saying they’ve used tutoring for their Year 6 pupils dropping only slightly from 65% in 2024 to 57% in 2025.

Both this year and last year, the majority of tutoring for Year 6 pupils was delivered by school staff, with small group tutoring more common than one-to-one.

However, when we look at tutoring delivered by external providers, there has been more focus on one-to-one than small group. In 2024, there was a fairly even split between those who used external providers to deliver one-to-one and small groups, but this year it’s heavily weighted towards one-to-one. 

Last year, just over half of respondents who used external tutoring chose one-to-one tutoring rather than small groups. This year, that figure has risen to a whopping 88%. 

And it seems schools have seen that one-to-one tutoring is a better investment than small groups: schools who’d not used one-to-one tutoring reported an average impact score of 7.7 out of 10, rising to 8.1 out of 10 for those that had used one-to-one.

This is echoed by research from the Education Endowment Foundation, who state that small group tutoring is less impactful than one-to-one tutoring, and the larger the group, the more impact drops off. 

9% of survey respondents had used Third Space Learning specifically to provide one-to-one tutoring for their Year 6 pupils in the lead up to SATs.

We asked them what impact they’d seen, with the most common answers being ‘Plugged gaps in learning’ and ‘Increased familiarity with SATs-style questions and strategies’.

100% of respondents who’d used Third Space Learning’s one-to-one tutoring feel it has been effective at helping to prepare their Year 6 pupils for their SATs.

We also asked them to describe what they felt was the main benefit of the one-to-one tutoring, with answers including:

• Consistency
• Confidence builder
• Explaining their thinking
• Confidence for those who were struggling more
• Targeted focus on gaps in learning 
• Increased confidence
• Can plug individual gaps 
• Teaching certain children topics that we weren’t covering in the classroom so they could learn multiple topics at the same time.

The drawback of one-to-one tutoring is that it’s normally more expensive than small group, but given the increased impact, it is often still more cost-effective. Online tutoring is often a way to bring the cost of  one-to-one tutoring down, with AI tutors offering the opportunity to bring this down even further. 

For example, with Third Space Learning’s AI tutoring prices are fixed for the year depending on school size and include unlimited one-to-one sessions across Year 4-6. Annual prices start from just £3,500. On average, the schools using Third Space Learning’s AI tutoring in the lead up to SATs have saved 90% vs other one-to-one tutoring providers. 

Eat, sleep, SATs practice, repeat 

With reduced budgets, teachers made use of the hundreds of free Third Space Learning maths resources in the Third Space Maths Hub to best prepare their pupils for the 2025  maths SATs. 

Others were lucky enough to have access to the full library of premium Maths Hub resources as part of their maths tutoring package or premium school subscription. 

Over 79.6% of respondents reported using the free downloadable resources from the Third Space Maths Hub in the lead up to SATs. An astounding 100% of these people found our SATs resources helpful in preparing their pupils. 

Unsurprisingly, the top 5 most helpful resources were: 

1. Fluent in Five;
2. Rapid Reasoning;
3. SATs worked examples; 
4. Maths Intervention Packs; 
5. Past SATs practice papers.

If you haven’t yet, head over to the Third Space Maths Hub, newly updated for 2025, and create a free account to access hundreds of free maths resources. 

• Fluent in Five: daily arithmetic practice for KS1 and KS2. Download 6 weeks free.
• Rapid Reasoning: Fluent in Five’ reasoning counterpart for KS2. Download 6 weeks for free.
• SATs Practice Papers: 6 free papers with accompanying mark schemes. Download 6 free papers. 
• SATs Worked Examples: a complete set of worked SATs papers to help pupils spot mistakes. Download free worked examples. 
• Maths Intervention Packs: topic-specific intervention lessons deigned to close learning gaps.  Download 8 free maths intervention packs.
• Year 6 Survival Pack: all the resources listed above plus a bonus collection of fun games and activities for after SATs. Download for free.

Prioritising pupil and staff well-being

No doubt, school leaders, teachers, support staff, and parents alike are sighing at the irony of SATs week falling on the same week as Mental Health Awareness Week – again! 

Schools across the country tried their best to promote positive mental health, mitigate the seriousness of SATs and add some extra mindfulness activities into the school week. 

Manor Primary School caught our eye when they took their Year 6 pupils to a Forest School to reflect on their strengths beyond SATs tests! 

At St Andrew’s Year 6 participated in a fun afternoon revision session with a maths scavenger hunt ahead of the maths papers. 

Over in Sutton-on-Sea, pupils received motivational bananas between maths tests on Wednesday! 

And, of course, a huge well done to every member of staff involved in Year 6 breakfast clubs this week to help ease pupils’ nerves before exams. 

Looking ahead to SATs 2026: what you would do differently

SATs have only just finished for another year, but our respondents have offered insightful tips to help teachers get ahead for next year. 

While this is likely the last thing you want to do right now, why not bookmark these ideas to return to later? 

It’s evident that there’s no one singular approach to preparing individual pupils for SATs, but here are some respondents’ suggestions for 2026: 

• More time developing reasoning skills, teaching pupils how to answer these questions 
• Start maths interventions earlier to build knowledge and confidence 
• Focus on mathematical vocabulary to help with those wordy problems 
• Familiarise learners with ‘outside the box’ SATs-style questions 
• Develop a positive growth mindset
• Regular formative assessment to adapt teaching accordingly 

If you’re looking to start maths interventions early to address learning gaps and build confidence through personalised one-to-one lessons, we’re currently signing schools up to begin our AI maths tutoring programmes in September 2025. You can learn more about AI maths tutoring for primary schools here.

Find out more about how school leaders can continue tutoring after the end of the NTP funding.

Let’s hear it for you wonderful teachers and pupils

As ever, we are so grateful to every single teacher and school staff member who took the time to complete our annual SATs survey. 

We can’t mention every response, but we can celebrate you all. 

It’s been a pleasure to be part of your SATs 2025 journey. Whether you’ve read our blogs, used our free maths resources, or your pupils have benefited from our online one-to-one maths tutoring, we hope you’ve felt supported.  

Good luck to the 5,229 Year 6 pupils we’ve worked with this year, and we’re looking forward to meeting the next cohort of pupils. 

Remember to download your free Year 6 Survival Pack for plenty of fun maths investigations and games to see you through the rest of the year and give you a head start next year with our sought-after Fluent in Five.