Reading Test 2016
‘The old national curriculum levels are not relevant to the new national
curriculum. However, the new national standard will roughly equate to an old
level 4b.’ (STA ARA)
In fact, the percentage of pupils achieving the expected standard in 2016
was similar to the percentage of pupils who achieved Level 4a or above in
reading in 2015.
How hard was the reading test?
Modal mark in 2015 was 33 out of 50 (lower boundary of L5)
2016 distribution has shifted to the left. Modal is 26.
• The top 20% of pupils tested in 2016 achieved a score of 34 or
more (equating to a scaled score of 110, the threshold for a
child to be considered to be at a high standard, as opposed to
being at the expected standard)
• Therefore, the top 20% of pupils were spread across 17 marks
(34-50) – a third of the whole test range
• In the 2015 test this was 11-12 marks (39- or 40-50) – a fifth of
the whole test range
Characteristics of 2016 Reading Test
• No gradual escalation of difficulty in the paper – tricky from the
start
• Texts not necessarily ‘broad appeal’
• Sentence lengths greater than previously, requiring higher
degree of fluency
• Huge emphasis on understanding vocabulary in context
(content domain)
• Complexity of questions requiring range of skills (eg infer,
summarise, retrieve) and strategies (eg scan, skim, visualise)
• Children not reading/answering the questions properly
For discussion…
•How did your Y6 cope with the new
Reading test?
•What did they find tricky?
Issues
If the children are getting questions wrong, is it because:
• they don’t read the question correctly
• they don’t know how to answer the question
• they don’t understand the vocabulary
• they haven’t read the text properly
Question stems
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Find and copy one word meaning…
What does word x suggest about…?
Write down three things you are told about…
How can you tell that…?
What impressions of … do you get from these two paragraphs?
Give two impression this gives you of…
https://blogs.hertsforlearning.co.uk/2016/07/13/this-years-ks2reading-test-a-secret-shared-and-some-questions-to-ask/
So what are you doing differently
this year?
So what are you doing differently this
year?
• Systematic approach to answering questions eg read
text; identify and clarify unfamiliar vocabulary;
summarise text; answer questions
• ‘Encourage’ discussion and use of strategies
• Ask children to describe how to answer a question
• Always include a vocabulary question in every task
2017 KS2 Reading Test
STA Webinar:
• Very few changes
• ITAF to continue to be used
• ‘This year the STA have paid particular attention to the
experience of the children and are hoping that this year’s test
will be perceived as more accessible to the children.’