The Key Stage 2 SATs take place each year in May, where all eligible Year 6 pupils are assessed. This includes the English grammar, punctuation and spelling (GPS) test.
We’ve analysed past papers, made some predictions and collated top tips to help you and your pupils prepare effectively.
What Is Involved in the KS2 SATs GPS Papers?
Paper 1: A test paper with multiple-choice or short-answer questions checking mainly grammar and punctuation but also spelling. The time limit is 45 minutes and there are 50 marks.
More than a mark a minute rate and there can be overlap with spelling.
Paper 2: A standard spelling test with sentences where the target word is missing. There is no official time limit, but it takes around 15 minutes and there are 20 marks.
You read out the word and give the sentence to give the children context.
Paper Content
The paper 1 content gets split into seven content domains, as shown in the table below:
Paper 2 can include any of the statutory requirements from the spelling appendix of the National Curriculum, including words on the statutory word lists; however, it does not include contractions, apostrophes or hyphens.
GPS Paper 1 Breakdown
The table below shows a breakdown of the GPS papers from 2018 to 2025.
Punctuation consistently emerges as the most frequently tested content domain, closely followed by grammatical terms and word classes. The table below shows that pupils usually need to achieve approximately 50% to meet the expected standard. Therefore, if pupils answered all of the G1 (grammatical terms or word classes) and G5 (punctuation) questions correctly, they would meet the expected standard.
Although it is worth focusing on areas like functions of sentences and standard English and formality to help with writing and spoken English, the data does show that focusing on punctuation and grammatical terms and word classes should offer the greatest benefit in delivering SATs success for your pupils.
Paper 1 Predictions
EdShed Phonics and Spelling Trainer Amelia Rimmer has made some predictions for the 2026 KS2 GPS SATs papers.
Disclaimer: Amelia does not have any type of inside knowledge about the papers. These are just guesses!
Red herring punctuation when identifying phrases or clauses.
In previous papers, there has been punctuation which could have helped children identify phrases or clauses. In the 2025 paper, we saw a few red herrings which Amelia believes could continue into this year’s paper. Therefore, it is important that children have a secure knowledge of what these terms mean.
More vocabulary questions (six or seven).
The 2025 paper contained just four vocabulary questions; this is less than in recent years and Amelia believes that we may see more this year, possibly six or seven.
Plenty of parenthesis.
There is always plenty of parenthesis on the KS2 GPS Paper 1, so Amelia would expect to see that pattern continue into the 2026 paper.
Possessive apostrophes.
There was a lack of possessive apostrophe questions in the 2025 paper; therefore, Amelia predicts that there could be some on the 2026 paper.
Paper 2 Breakdown
The table below shows a breakdown of the spelling content of past papers from 2018 to 2025. It shows how many words on each paper were from Key Stage 1, Year 3 & 4 spelling patterns, the Year 3 & 4 statutory word list, Year 5 & 6 spelling patterns and the Year 5 & 6 statutory word list. This highlights that it is an end-of-key-stage assessment, not an end-of-Year-6 assessment.
The table clearly shows that a substantial number of words in the assessment contain Year 3 & 4 spelling patterns, with words that contain Year 5 & 6 spelling patterns following. Usually only one of the words on the assessment is from the Year 3 & 4 statutory word list and this is usually a word with a spelling pattern that is covered in one of the other year groups, as indicated by the ^ symbol. The table shows that usually between four and six words on the assessment are a Year 5 & Year 6 spelling pattern.
Although the 2024 paper contained three Year 5 & 6 statutory words, this decreased to one in the 2025 paper and some of the previous papers didn’t contain any at all. This reinforces the importance of teaching spelling patterns, rather than just the statutory word list.
The numbers in brackets show how many words were exact example words of the spelling pattern listed in the National Curriculum Spelling Appendix. For example, the 2025 spelling paper had thirteen words containing Year 3 & 4 spelling patterns, but only five of them were words that the National Curriculum Spelling Appendix lists as example words. View the full National Curriculum Spelling Appendix here.
Paper 2 Predictions
Fewer suffixes than last year.
The 2025 KS2 spelling paper had fourteen words that contained suffixes; this is more than previous papers, which included approximately twelve words that contained suffixes. Amelia predicts that this will go back down to approximately twelve words. Although she predicts a decrease, remember this is still over half of the words on the paper.
A maximum of one ‘-ed’ suffix.
The 2025 paper had lots of words that contained the ‘-ed’ suffix; therefore, Amelia predicts that only a maximum of one word will contain this suffix.
The ‘cious’ spelling pattern will finally make an appearance.
Although in recent years, ‘ous’ has been on the spelling paper, the ‘cious’ spelling pattern has not been on the spelling paper for a long time. Amelia has been specific with this prediction and has said the word could be ‘conscious’ or ‘conscience’.
The spelling pattern for ‘y’ representing /i/ and the ‘fer’ morpheme will be on the assessment.
The spelling pattern for ‘y’ representing /i/, for example, in the word ‘system’, was not on the 2025 assessment and neither was the ‘fer’ morpheme. Amelia predicts that these will both be on the 2026 assessment and the word for the ‘fer’ morpheme could be ‘transferring’ or ‘transference’.
There will be a word that contains a silent letter.
The assessment usually contains at least one word with a silent letter and Amelia thinks this year will be no different. She predicts that the word could be ‘doubt’ or ‘whistle’.
There will be a word containing ‘ou’ representing the /u/ sound and a word containing ‘ough’ representing the /oa/ sound.
Amelia predicts that there will be a word containing ‘ou’ representing the /u/ sound, such as ‘country’ and a word containing ‘ough’ representing the /oa/ phoneme, such as ‘although’ or ‘though’. This is because these spelling patterns have not appeared very often in previous papers.
Fewer homophones than the 2025 paper (a hope rather than a prediction).
The 2025 assessment contained lots of homophones; let’s hope that the 2026 paper contains considerably less and returns to the usual amount (just one).
Top Tips for Preparing for the KS2 SATs GPS Papers
1. Use Grammar Arcade for SATs practice.
Grammar Arcade is designed to improve and target grammar skills, so it is perfect for SATs practice. It provides full National Curriculum coverage for grammar and punctuation, so you can really target skills and objectives. It also means practice is fun and engaging. Grammar Arcade is included in Spelling Shed’s subscription and free trial. Read this blog post to find how you can use it to play your way to SATs success.
2. Use Spelling Shed’s NEW SATs-inspired question sets.
Spelling Shed’s KS2 SATs folder has been updated with new question sets for the most recent papers. It now includes question sets based on each paper for every year from 2016 to 2025. You can assign them to pupils to complete digitally or can generate them as handy revision PDFs. If you assign them digitally, they mark themselves!
3. Make spelling practice fun with Spelling Shed games.
Spelling Shed games make spelling practice fun and engaging and allow targeted practice. Simply set the relevant spelling pattern assignments to your whole class, groups of pupils or individuals. This enables you to easily monitor progress too.
The Year 3 & 4 full list contains all the words in the statutory word list and all the spelling patterns listed for those year groups, as does the Year 5 & Year 6 full list. These can also be assigned to children so they will practise spelling ten of the words each time they play. You can also create your own word lists on Spelling Shed.
4. Use Mastery Zone and Bee Sieged for personalised practice.
Mastery Zone runs an automated AI-driven diagnostic to identify gaps and ensure each pupil’s learning is personalised and focused on the words and spelling patterns they need to master in order to progress. This takes the hassle and guesswork out of personalising spellings for you and the data can be easily tracked.
Bee Sieged is an extremely popular tower-defence game that children love. It is integrated with Mastery Zone; therefore, the spellings in Bee Sieged are based on pupils’ Mastery Zone level, making it perfect for personalised spelling practice.
5. Use your data.
The new competency tracker in Spelling Shed’s hub preview release enables you to easily track and view each pupil’s progress, so you can quickly identify their strengths, weaknesses and areas where they haven’t had much practice.
6. Have at least one practise of the assessment.
Knowing what the test experience will look like and feel like prior to the real deal is crucial for some children. Although we don’t want to test too much, it is important that children have at least one practice of the assessment.
However, remember that tests do not teach children how to spell. The purpose of tests is to practise the test format and assess the children in an out-of-context format. Don’t change what you know to be effective teaching just because of the assessments.
7. Practise key assessment skills.
There are some very handy skills that children can be taught to help them with the assessment.
Process of Elimination
Teaching children how to use the process of elimination can be really helpful. The example below is a multiple-choice question where children need to choose which punctuation mark could be used at the end of the sentence.
Using the process of elimination can help children answer questions like these. We don’t even need to read the sentence to know that a comma or a colon isn’t the answer, as a sentence cannot end in either of these. Then we can read the sentence and see if it is a question, which it is not. Therefore, the answer must be an exclamation mark.
Verbal Practice
We know that children tend to write how they speak, so it is important that they can say their answer aloud. This is particularly useful for questions that ask children to explain how or why, like in the examples below.
Encourage children to be clear and to get to the point. This will also help save time in the paper.
Keep it simple
Remind children that there are certain questions, such as the one below, that require a simple answer. In this paper, it is not about composition. It needs to make sense, be punctuated correctly and meet the criteria in the question.
Remind children that when the answer is writing part of the sentence, like in the example, they do not need to put a full stop.
8. Don’t get too hung up on handwriting.
It does not matter if handwriting is joined or not, as long as the letters are clear. In paper 1, letter reversals are accepted as long as the intent is clear and it is not one of the spelling questions. Make sure children are not using uppercase in paper 1, as capital letters are often important to the answers.
If you are concerned about a child’s handwriting impacting their spelling, then in paper 2 you might suggest that they use print or block capitals. Importantly, this would have to be practised well in advance of the assessment. The only time this would not be appropriate for paper 2 is for proper nouns. You don’t need to have the whole class using the same style. Handwriting guidance can be found in the Key Stage 2 teacher assessment guidance 2026.
9. Remind children that there are no hyphens or apostrophes in Paper 2.
Some children love to use apostrophes, particularly if the word ends in ‘s’. If this is the case, then it might be worth reminding them that there are no hyphens or apostrophes in Paper 2.
2026 Key Stage 2 access arrangements guidance can be found here.
Video Webinar Recording: Statutory Assessment Series: Predictions and Preparation for the KS2 SATs GPS Papers
Watch this free webinar recording for all of the above.