2016 SATs Papers

Video Walkthroughs

Watch our video walkthroughs of the 2016 KS2 Maths SATs papers.

Paper 1 (Arithmetic)

Paper 2 (Reasoning)

Paper 3 (Reasoning)

What Was in the 2016 KS2 SATs?

2016 KS2 English Reading Paper

The 2016 Key Stage 2 English reading assessment featured six texts across two test papers. The first paper contained Space Tourism, a non-fiction text about space travel and Anousheh Ansari's blog from the International Space Station; Giants, a poem by Lydia Pender examining perspective through small creatures; and The Lost World, a fiction extract from Arthur Conan Doyle's novel about explorers encountering dinosaurs. The second paper included The Lost Queen, a fictional narrative about children exploring a family monument on an island; Wild Ride, an adventure story about a girl riding a giraffe through an African game reserve; and The Way of the Dodo, a non-fiction article about the extinct dodo bird and recent scientific discoveries.

The assessment tested pupils' reading comprehension skills through 69 questions across both papers. Students answered questions on retrieval of information, inference and interpretation, vocabulary understanding, and analysis of authors' language choices. The texts covered various genres including fiction extracts, poetry, biographical accounts, scientific articles, and adventure narratives. Questions required pupils to demonstrate understanding of textual evidence, character motivations, literary techniques, and factual content from both contemporary and historical sources.

2016 KS2 Maths Papers

The 2016 Key Stage 2 Mathematics papers consisted of one arithmetic paper and two reasoning papers. Paper 1 focused on calculation skills without calculators, covering addition, subtraction, multiplication and division with whole numbers, decimals and fractions, alongside percentages, powers, and order of operations. Students completed 36 questions including four requiring formal methods for long multiplication and long division.

Papers 2 and 3 assessed mathematical reasoning and problem-solving across multiple topics. These papers covered number operations, place value, fractions and decimals, measurement conversions, geometry and shapes, coordinate work and translations, algebra, data interpretation, and various word problems involving money, time, and proportion. Questions required students to demonstrate their mathematical methods and reasoning skills across areas including Roman numerals, angles, percentages, ratios, and multi-step calculations.

2016 KS2 Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling Papers

The 2016 KS2 English Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling assessment consists of two papers that test different aspects of language skills. Paper 1 focuses on grammatical terminology, sentence structure, and punctuation rules. Students work with various question types including matching suffixes to words, identifying sentence components such as objects and clauses, and applying correct punctuation marks including commas, colons, and apostrophes. The paper also covers verb tenses, active and passive voice, conjunctions, determiners, prefixes, pronouns, and word classes.

Paper 2 concentrates specifically on spelling accuracy through twenty incomplete sentences where pupils must spell words correctly based on context. The spelling test covers various word types including those with common spelling patterns, homophones, words containing prefixes and suffixes, and words with unusual spellings. Together, both papers provide a comprehensive assessment of students' understanding of English grammar, punctuation conventions, and spelling skills at the Key Stage 2 level.

About the 2016 KS2 SATs

Children in Year 6 (those aged 10-11 at the time) took their KS2 SATs tests in May 2016. The exams started on Monday 9th May 2016 and took place over four days.

The 2016 KS2 SATs were authored, produced and managed by the STA (Standards and Testing Agency) under the authorisation of the DfE (Department for Education).

KS2 SATs were taken in Maths, Reading and GaPS under formal exam conditions. These papers were marked externally whilst separate teacher assessments in Writing and Science were marked by their teachers.

Pupils with additional educational needs were offered support and/or extra exam time where available. Modified materials using braille and large print were available to eligible pupils and their teachers.

2016 was the first year of 'new-style' KS2 SATs tests under the new national curriculum.

To help prepare children for the 2016 KS2 SATs, children were able to download test papers from previous years free of charge. Whilst not working to the same curriculum, KS2 SATs Papers from 2015 (and before) were still useful to aid preparation.

Once marked, children's scores were converted to scaled scores:

• If a child's scaled score was below 100, they had not reached the expected standard.

• If a child's scaled score was between 100 and 109, they had reached the expected standard.

• If a child's score was 110 or over, they had exceeded the expected standard and were judged as working at greater depth.

2016 KS2 SATs Scaled Scores Expected Standard and Greater Depth

Here you will find the Key Stage 2 raw/scaled conversion tables. You may find it easier and faster to use our free scaled score converter.

2016 English Reading KS2 SATs

The raw score required to achieve the "expected standard" (a scaled score of 100) was 21. Thus, the "pass mark" for pupils taking the 2016 KS2 English Reading SATs was 21/50 or 42%. In order to achieve "greater depth" (scaled score of 110) a child would have to score at least 34/50 or 68%.

See below for the full raw marks to scaled scores conversion table:

2016 Maths KS2 SATs

The raw score required to achieve the "expected standard" (a scaled score of 100) was 60. Thus, the "pass mark" for children taking the 2016 KS2 Maths SATs was 60/110 or 54.5%. In order to achieve "greater depth" (scaled score of 110) a child would have to score at least 98/110 or 89.1%.

See below for the full raw marks to scaled scores conversion table:

2016 Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling KS2 SATs

The mark required to achieve the "expected standard" (a scaled score of 100) was 43. Thus, the "pass mark" for children taking the 2016 KS2 Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling SATs was 43/70 or 61.4%. In order to achieve "greater depth" (scaled score of 110) a child would have to score at least 61/70 or 87.1%.

See below for the full raw marks to scaled scores conversion table:

Each school's KS2 SATs results were made available to their headteachers in July 2016 via the NCA tools website. Individual KS2 SATs results were fed back to parents some time after this date, normally within a child's end of year report.

Every school's KS2 SATs performance was made publicly available in December 2016 as part of the 2016 primary school league tables.

2016 KS2 SATs Exam Timetable

The 2016 Key Stage 2 SATs started on Monday 9th May 2016. The full exam timetable is below:

What Was in the 2016 KS1 SATs?

2016 KS1 English Reading Papers

The 2016 Key Stage 1 English reading assessment contains five texts across two booklets. Booklet 1 includes three texts: Bella Goes To Sea, a story about a goose who learns to fly and rescues a fisherman; Living In A Castle, an information text describing medieval castle life with lords, knights, jesters and servants; and Winter Parcel, a poem about a child dressed for winter weather. Booklet 2 features Meet Tony Ross, a biographical text about the children's author and illustrator including an interview about his work, and The Greedy Man, a traditional Chinese folk tale about a farmer and merchant with contrasting outcomes.

The assessment tests multiple reading comprehension skills through various question formats including multiple choice, true/false statements, and written responses. Questions assess literal comprehension and retrieval skills, requiring students to locate specific information within texts. Students demonstrate vocabulary understanding and interpret meaning from context. The papers also test inference skills, understanding of character development and plot, and the ability to sequence events correctly. These skills are evaluated across different text types including fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and traditional tales.

2016 KS1 Maths Papers

The 2016 Key Stage 1 Mathematics assessment consisted of two papers that tested different mathematical skills. Paper 1 was an arithmetic paper containing basic calculations including addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division problems. The questions covered single and multi-digit operations, missing number problems, and simple fractions. The paper progressed from simpler calculations to more complex problems involving fractions of numbers.

Paper 2 was a reasoning paper that assessed a broader range of mathematical concepts. It included number operations, place value, fractions, shape properties covering 2D and 3D shapes, money calculations, measurement topics such as weight and capacity, time, and data handling including tally charts. The questions featured word problems, visual reasoning tasks, matching exercises, and calculations requiring working out to demonstrate mathematical understanding.

2016 KS1 Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling Papers

The 2016 Key Stage 1 English Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling assessment consists of two papers that test different aspects of language skills for Year 2 students. Paper 1 focuses on spelling and contains 20 questions where students write missing words in sentences. This paper assesses students' ability to spell phonetically regular words, tricky words, and words with common spelling patterns appropriate for their year group.

Paper 2 covers grammar and punctuation skills through various question types including ticking correct answers, circling words, adding punctuation, and writing sentences. The paper tests knowledge of word classes such as nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, different sentence types, verb tenses, punctuation marks including capital letters and apostrophes, conjunctions, and suffixes. Both papers assess fundamental language skills expected at Key Stage 1 level.

About the 2016 KS1 SATs

Children in Year 2 (those aged 6-7 at the time) took their KS1 SATs tests throughout May 2016.

The 2016 KS1 SATs were authored, produced and managed by the STA (Standards and Testing Agency) under the authorisation of the DfE (Department for Education).

KS1 SATs were taken in Maths, Reading and GaPS (optionally) under informal exam conditions. These papers were marked by their teachers alongside the Writing and Science teacher assessments.

As with the KS2 SATs, pupils with additional educational needs were offered support and/or extra exam time where available. Modified materials using braille and large print were available to eligible pupils and their teachers.

2016 was the first year of 'new-style' KS1 SATs tests under the new national curriculum.

To help prepare children for the 2016 KS1 SATs, children were able to download test papers from previous years free of charge.

Once marked, children's scores were converted to scaled scores:

• If a child's scaled score was below 100, they had not reached the expected standard.

• If a child's scaled score was between 100 and 109, they had reached the expected standard.

• If a child's score was 110 or over, they had exceeded the expected standard and were judged as working at greater depth.

2016 KS1 SATs Scaled Scores Expected Standard and Greater Depth

Here you will find the Key Stage 1 raw/scaled conversion tables. You may find it easier and faster to use our free scaled score converter.

2016 English Reading KS1 SATs

The raw score required to achieve the "expected standard" (a scaled score of 100) was 22. Thus, the "pass mark" for pupils taking the 2016 KS1 English Reading SATs was 22/40, or 55%. In order to achieve "greater depth" (scaled score of 110) a child would have to score at least 35/40, or 87.5%.

See below for the full raw marks to scaled scores conversion table:

2016 Maths KS1 SATs

The raw score required to achieve the "expected standard" (a scaled score of 100) was 37. Thus, the "pass mark" for children taking the 2016 KS1 Maths SATs was 37/60, or 61.7%. In order to achieve "greater depth" (scaled score of 110) a child would have to score at least 54/60, or 90%.

See below for the full raw marks to scaled scores conversion table:

2016 Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling KS1 SATs

The mark required to achieve the "expected standard" (a scaled score of 100) was 25. Thus, the "pass mark" for children taking the 2016 KS1 Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling SATs was 25/40, or 62.5%. In order to achieve "greater depth" (scaled score of 110) a child would have to score at least 36/40, or 90%.

See below for pupils taking the full raw marks to scaled scores conversion table:

Each school's KS1 SATs results were made available to their headteachers in July 2016 via the NCA tools website. Individual KS1 SATs results were fed back to parents some time after this date, normally within a child's end of year report.

2016 KS1 SATs Exam Timetable

The 2016 KS1 SATs took place at some point throughout May 2016.

The precise days of the tests varied from school to school as they are given a greater degree of flexibility than KS2 SATs. Thus they would have been completed at some point between 1 May 2016 and 31 May 2016.