Year 5: Preparing for SATs Year Without the Pressure
My School Agent | 8 July 2026
The teacher mentioned SATs in the first parents' evening of Year 5. My daughter was in the room. She looked worried. I spent the next week explaining that SATs were not, in fact, going to determine her entire future.
Year 5 sits in an awkward spot. It's not SATs year, but it's not not-SATs year either. Schools start preparing. Parents start worrying. Children pick up on both.
Here's what happens and how to keep perspective.
The SATs Shadow
SATs happen at the end of Year 6, but groundwork starts in Year 5. Schools identify gaps. Booster groups begin. Practice papers appear.
How much pressure schools apply varies wildly. Some barely mention SATs until Year 6. Others start intensive preparation a year early.
The important bit: SATs measure how well the school has taught the curriculum, not how clever your child is. Results go to the secondary school but don't determine which sets your child is placed in. Secondary schools do their own assessments.
SATs matter to your child's primary school for league tables and Ofsted. They should not matter to your child's sense of self-worth.
Booster Groups and Interventions
Many schools run booster sessions in Year 5 for children working below or just at expected levels. This might be small group work during lessons, or lunchtime or after-school sessions.
Being invited to a booster group is not a statement that your child is failing. It means the school is doing its job by providing extra support.
If your child is invited and you're concerned, speak to the teacher. Understand what the gap is and how they're planning to address it.
Homework Increases (Again)
Government guidance suggests two hours per week for Years 5 and 6. Many schools do more.
Reading. Spellings. Times tables (still). Maths practice. Written tasks. Sometimes topic projects.
The debate around homework effectiveness continues. Evidence suggests minimal benefit for primary-aged children, especially if it creates conflict.
Do what's manageable. If homework is consistently taking hours or causing significant distress, talk to school.
The Practice Paper Question
Should you buy SATs practice papers and work through them at home?
This depends entirely on your child and your school.
If your child is confident, on track, and school is preparing adequately, extra practice at home adds pressure without benefit.
If your child is significantly behind and you're not confident school is providing enough support, targeted practice might help. But consider whether a tutor or specific intervention would be more effective than you battling through papers at the kitchen table.
Never use practice papers as punishment or load them on top of existing homework without considering the cumulative stress.
If You Do Use Them
Buy recent past papers, not random practice books. Official papers reflect current standards.
Do them in short bursts, not full timed tests. Focus on understanding mistakes, not just scoring.
Stop if your child is distressed. Practice papers that create anxiety are counterproductive.
Curriculum Content
Year 5 covers a lot. Fractions, decimals and percentages in maths. Long multiplication and division. Area and perimeter.
Writing should be well-structured with varied sentence types, accurate punctuation, ambitious vocabulary.
Reading comprehension requires inference, analysis, retrieval of information from complex texts.
This is all appropriate for 9 and 10-year-olds. It's also genuinely challenging.
Keeping Perspective
Your child is in Year 5 to learn, not to pass a test they haven't taken yet.
If they're working hard, engaging with learning, and not significantly behind, they're doing fine.
If they're struggling despite effort, talk to school. Extra support in Year 5 is more effective than panic in Year 6.
Secondary schools care about attitude, effort and behaviour as much as SATs scores. A child who is curious, resilient and kind will do fine.
What Actually Helps
Keep reading together. Discuss books. Ask questions about character motivation, themes, predictions. This builds comprehension far more effectively than comprehension worksheets.
Talk about school without obsessing over progress. Ask what they enjoyed, what was hard, who they played with. School is more than test preparation.
Protect their wellbeing. Sleep, exercise, downtime, play. A stressed, exhausted child cannot learn effectively.
Manage your own anxiety. If you're worried about SATs, they'll absorb it. If you treat Year 5 as a normal school year, they will too.
When to Speak to School
If your child is regularly upset about school or tests. If they're working for hours every night and still falling behind. If their confidence has dropped.
Year 5 should feel challenging but manageable. If it doesn't, something needs to change.
The Bottom Line
Year 5 is a bridge year. Use it to consolidate, build confidence, and address any genuine gaps. It's not SATs year yet.
Your job is to keep perspective, support learning without adding pressure, and ensure your child knows their worth isn't measured by a test score.
If staying organised with school communications, homework deadlines and event dates is draining your mental energy, My School Agent helps by putting everything in one place. Because you need your energy for the bits that actually matter.