2022 SATs Success Stories from Primary Schools Across the UK

It’s no secret that the impact of the pandemic on children’s learning has been one of the most talked about topics among teachers this year (superseded only recently by discussions about how long the next Education Secretary is going to last). 

In light of this, we wanted to dig into how the pandemic may have affected this year’s SATs cohort, how this compares to previous years, and how some schools helped their pupils achieve SATs success despite the disruption of the last few years.

As the UK’s largest provider of one to one maths tuition for primary schools, we work with thousands of schools in the lead up to SATs. We saw first-hand just how tough it was at times for Year 6 teachers, pupils and senior leaders in 2022.

But – rather than listening to our own experience – if you’re anything like the teachers and school leaders we talk to every day, what you’re most interested in are the reflections of other schools like yours. 

We’ve gathered together feedback and thoughts from the 1,000+ schools we’ve worked with since September – through surveys and in-depth phone calls and school visits -, many of them probably not dissimilar to your own school. This article showcases the incredible dedication of teachers and senior leaders to supporting their Year 6 pupils in 2022, and the different ways these schools have managed to achieve SATs success in 2022.

A safe space to make mistakes helps pupils grow in confidence

It is often the case that some pupils in the classroom don’t have the resilience or confidence to keep tackling a problem. They might be unable to answer these specific types of questions, resort to guessing what the answer could be, or give up easily when answers aren’t immediate.

The results of our SATs 2022 teacher survey showed it was clear many teachers felt the same way about how the pandemic had impacted their pupils’ confidence.

Headteacher, Sally Maddison at Sir John Sherbrooke Junior School had a similar experience with her pupils: ‘although they were capable, were nervous when it came to maths and just needed an extra boost in confidence.’ 

Additional tuition from Third Space Learning tutors gave pupils regular opportunities to talk through their maths in a low-stakes one to one environment, helping to develop pupils’ verbal fluency, reasoning and problem-solving skills, as well as their confidence.

Personalised support helps more pupils meet the expected standard

With the mammoth task of plugging gaps in pupils’ knowledge and rebuilding confidence after the pandemic, ensuring pupils met the expected standards in the 2022 SATs sometimes seemed impossible. 

We were absolutely blown away by the positive feedback from schools who’d used our SATs revision programme to help their target Year 6 pupils head into their exams feeling confident and prepared for the challenge.

Through initial and ongoing diagnostic assessments, the Third Space Learning SATs revision programme identifies each pupil’s individual gaps and ensures lessons provide support where each pupil needs it most to succeed in maths SATs. 

See also: How Hague Primary Took Pupils From Single-Digit Scores To Reaching Expected Standards In Their 2022 Maths SATs

On average, Third Space Learners achieved higher scores in their maths papers than the rest of their year group, and than the national average.

Whilst the SATs programme is effective in raising attainment, we know that it isn’t just about scores. Most importantly, pupils walk away having a greater understanding of maths concepts and are better prepared for the next stage of their maths journey.

Regular opportunities to practise helps pupils walk into the exam hall knowing what to expect

One of the biggest things both teachers and pupils were up against this year was time. With so much content to cover, not all pupils had enough opportunities to practise their skills and apply their knowledge to a range of contexts. Without this practice, pupils can feel stumped when they do face the maths papers and aren’t quite sue what’s expected of them.

We often hear from our schools how the additional one to one sessions give pupils that extra opportunity to consolidate their learning and apply their knowledge to SATs-style questions. With the help of their tutors, they can more confidently explore the different steps required to answer reasoning questions.

With the right support in place, more pupils can achieve Greater Depth than you might think

Clearly, all teachers would love for lots of their pupils to reach Greater Depth, but with such a challenging year for Year 6 pupils and their teachers, this often felt like an unachievable goal this year – especially as so many pupils were lacking the basic building blocks to access the KS2 curriculum.

We were absolutely delighted to hear that so many of our Third Space Learners were able to achieve Greater Depth in 2022, particularly as so many of these pupils were working at pre-Year 6 levels before they started the intervention.

Effective whole class teaching resources are essential for SATs success

Not all pupils at our schools are signed up for the tuition, and we want as many pupils as possible to succeed. That’s why we create and share a huge selection of maths whole school resources – including a wide variety of SATs resources.

Fluent in Five, our year-long daily arithmetic scheme, has had a particularly positive impact on pupils’ SATs successes. Fluent in Five helps familiarise pupils with the kinds of questions they’ll face in the arithmetic paper, helps build pupils’ confidence in being able to apply mental maths strategies to questions and boosts number fluency in SATs.

A few of our favourite pupil success stories

We love hearing from our schools about the overall impact of the tuition, but it really warms our hearts when we hear about individual pupils who’ve managed to beat the odds to succeed this year.

Here are a few of our favourite stories:

After a few years without SATs, it’s great to see how many pupils have risen to the challenge and we’re so incredibly proud of all our Third Space Learners.

After, reflecting on the previous SATs results week, It’s great to see the same kinds of positive comments that we received in previous years:

Third Space Learning’s impact on pupils across the country

One to one interventions, such as ours, can have a real, noticeable impact on both confidence and attainment. Reasons for this include:

Each week, pupils draw, talk and type their way through their personalised lessons in our engaging interactive classroom, where their understanding is assessed. Tutors also help pupils explore the steps needed to answer different questions efficiently. 

What do pupils think?

Hear from students themselves how much they enjoy one to one tuition and how they’ve gained confidence in their maths and SATs ability over time.

Here are a few of our favourite quotes from some of our Third Space pupils:

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Read more:

• 2022 SATs exam results
• KS2 SATs 2023: Maths Papers Question Breakdown
• SATs 2023
• Maths SATs 2022

Do you have pupils who need extra support in maths?
Every week Third Space Learning’s maths specialist tutors support thousands of pupils across hundreds of schools with weekly online 1-to-1 lessons and maths interventions designed to plug gaps and boost progress.

Since 2013 we’ve helped over 150,000 primary and secondary school pupils become more confident, able mathematicians. Learn more or request a personalised quote for your school to speak to us about your school’s needs and how we can help.

Primary school tuition targeted to the needs of each child and closely following the National Curriculum.