Is your child sitting Key Stage 1 SATs this year? These exams measure your child’s progress in primary school so far, and you may be wondering what they’re expected to have achieved by this stage. These are the skills your child should have developed by the end of year 2.

Social And Academic Skills

Working Independently

By this age, children are expected to be able to work independently, and to motivate themselves to do tasks such as homework. Your child’s teacher will expect that they’ll no longer need constant monitoring to stay on task.

Accepting Differences Of Opinion

Your child should have understood by the end of reception that people have different likes and dislikes. By the end of year 2, this should have evolved into an understanding and acceptance that people can have different opinions about all kinds of things.

Math

Telling The Time

It may seem like an increasingly archaic skill in the days of mobile phones, but your child should be able to read the time from an analogue or digital clock to within five minutes of accuracy. 

Multiplication, Division And Fractions

Your child should be comfortable multiplying and dividing by two, five and ten. They’ll also start using fractions, for instance being able to identify a quarter, a third, a half or three-quarters of a given quantity. 

Using Numbers Up To 1,000

While your child won’t be expected to multiply or divide numbers this large, they should be able to identify place order – recognising which number refers to the hundreds, the tens and the ones. Given a list of numbers under 1,000, they should be able to put them into ascending or descending order.

English

Reading Words By Sight

Having previously sounded-out words to work out what they say, your child should now be able to read silent, recognising words by sight. They may still sound out some more complex words, or ones that they don’t recognise.

Understanding Grammar

In the English curriculum, understanding of grammar has become increasingly demanding. While this will vary around the world, your child should be able to understand that there are different parts of speech, and identify some of them, such as a noun, a verb or an adjective. 

Writing For Different Purposes

Your child should understand that writing isn’t just fiction. They should be able to tailor their writing for different purposes, such as persuasive writing, writing to inform, or poetry.