By Jessica Dolby, expert Consultant at Literacy Counts

The 2025 KS2 SATs are done and dusted – and as always, they offer valuable insight into what children are expected to know by the end of primary school.

Results have steadily increased since the drop in 2021 following the Covid pandemic. In reading, 75% of pupils met the expected standard, up from 74% in 2024. In writing, 72% met the expected standard, which is an increase of 0.5% on last year. In grammar, punctuation and spelling, 73% reached the expected standard, up from 72% in 2024.

But beyond the scores and mark schemes, what can these papers really tell us about how we teach reading and grammar? And more importantly, are we giving our children what they need to succeed – not just in tests, but as lifelong readers and writers?

Year 6 pupils fully engaged in a shared reading session as part of SATs preparation using Literacy Counts resources

What We Learnt from the 2025 KS2 Reading Paper

The KS2 English reading test framework states that ‘a range of texts will be included in the tests, including fiction, non-fiction and poetry’. This year’s paper followed the same structure as last year: one non-fiction text followed by two fiction texts. A poem has not appeared since 2018, but we must not neglect this part of the curriculum – surely poetry will return in 2026!

Children are assessed on eight content domains in the reading paper.

Retrieval and Inference

Content domains 2b (retrieval) and 2d (inference) have consistently been the most represented in SATs papers since 2016. This year, inference questions appeared more than ever before. This means children must develop more than a surface-level understanding of the texts – and of course, it is not as simple as just teaching inference in isolation.

To infer accurately, children need a secure grasp of all other content domains. All areas must be taught as part of a rich diet of reading across genres and text types. Prioritise depth of understanding, activate prior knowledge and use wider reading opportunities to help children develop a meaningful understanding of what they have read.

Vocabulary

Vocabulary remains a priority. Children may have struggled with vocabulary that was complex, topic-specific or figurative. This included singular words and phrases such as: ‘dimly aware’, ‘jeers’, ‘keep at bay’, ‘spectacle’, ‘the air of ridicule’ and ‘flush of euphoria’, to name a few.

We must explicitly teach vocabulary, figurative language and idiomatic expressions, especially those children are likely to encounter in unfamiliar contexts.

Children learning to infer meaning and explore complex vocabulary during a guided reading lesson with high-quality texts

Wording Matters

Many of the questions followed familiar stems from previous years, but slight differences in wording between the question and the text may have caused confusion. The mark scheme sought clear, detailed answers rather than general ideas.

To support children, we need to model concise, high-quality answers and provide scaffolds with sentence stems to ensure children write with sufficient detail to gain the marks.

What We Learnt from the 2025 KS2 Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling Papers

This year’s grammar, punctuation and spelling papers held no real surprises, but they did highlight a continuing trend: children are not just expected to spot a missing full stop or underline a fronted adverbial. They must understand the grammatical concepts being assessed, not just learn tricks to pass a test.

If children are confident using grammar and punctuation correctly in their own writing, they are far more likely to succeed in the test.

Across the papers, children were assessed on seven content domains. Of these, grammatical terms or word classes (G1) and punctuation (G5) accounted for 56% of the marks.

Many of the questions drew on knowledge taught across Key Stage 2 – not just in Year 6 – so overlearning is essential. It is also important to expose children to a range of sentence types and structures. For example, Question 34 asked children to underline a relative clause at the end of a sentence, rather than in the middle, as they might expect. Similarly, Question 22 required them to identify a fronted adverbial that was a subordinate clause, not the usual phrase.

The spelling paper included the expected mix of rules taught in Years 3 and 4 and those taught in Years 5 and 6. As in previous years, there was a greater emphasis on lower Key Stage 2 content – a clear reminder that these rules must be revisited and embedded. The presence of several homophones also reinforced the need to discuss vocabulary and teach spelling explicitly and in context.

A teacher modelling sentence structure and punctuation strategies as part of a grammar and spelling lesson using Ready Steady Spell

In Summary

Of course, SATs are just one snapshot of a child’s learning. What matters more is building readers and writers who love language, think deeply and communicate clearly.

The 2025 SATs simply confirm what we at Literacy Counts already prioritise through Ready Steady Write, Ready Steady Spell and Ready Steady Read Together:

Teaching comprehension skills and strategies through rich, varied texts – including fiction, non-fiction and poetry
Teaching grammar with meaning and purpose, practised through daily sentence accuracy expertly modelled by the teacher
Teaching vocabulary in the context of challenging, meaningful texts

If we continue to do these things well, SATs success will follow – but more importantly, we will be equipping children with the reading and writing tools they need for life.

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