Year 6 SATs Scores Explained

Year 6 SATs scores are reported as scaled scores between 80 and 120. The pass mark for SATs year 6 is 100 - a score of 100 means your child has met the expected standard. A score of 99 or below means they have not met it. A score of 101 to 120 means they have exceeded it. The highest score in SATs year 6 is 120. There is no specific scaled score for greater depth - GDS (greater depth standard) is a teacher assessment for writing only, not a tested score. The average year 6 SATs score for children who pass typically falls around 103 to 105. 

When your child's year 6 SATs scores arrive, it can feel like you are reading a foreign language. Scaled scores, raw scores, expected standard, greater depth, outcome codes - what does it all actually mean? This guide explains every part of the KS2 SATs scoring system in plain English, covering everything from the pass mark to what a good result looks like, what the highest score is, what greater depth means and how the SATs scaled scores work in 2026.

How are year 6 SATs marked?

Year 6 SATs papers are marked externally. This is different from Year 2 (KS1) SATs, which are marked by the class teacher. When Year 6 children complete their SATs in May, the papers are sent away to be marked by trained external examiners appointed by the Standards and Testing Agency (STA). Teachers and schools have no role in marking the KS2 papers.

Writing is the one exception. Year 6 writing is not tested in a formal SATs paper at all. Instead, your child's teacher assesses their writing throughout the year against national standards. A small number of schools are selected each year by their local authority for external moderation; this checks the quality and consistency of the teacher's marking rather than assessing the child's writing separately.

Science is also teacher assessed. Children do not sit a formal science SATs paper in Year 6.

What papers do Year 6 children sit?

Year 6 children sit tests in three subjects during SATs week in May. Each subject has its own paper or papers.

Reading (One paper - 60 minutes)

• One reading booklet with questions

• Tests comprehension, inference and analysis

• Fiction and non-fiction texts included

• Scaled score range: 80 to 120

Maths (Two papers - 30 and 40 minutes)

• Paper 1: Arithmetic (30 minutes, 40 marks)

• Paper 2: Reasoning (40 minutes, 35 marks)

• Covers full KS2 maths curriculum

• Scaled score range: 80 to 120

Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling (Two papers - 45 and 15 minutes)

• Paper 1: Grammar and punctuation (45 minutes)

• Paper 2: Spelling test (~15 minutes)

• Tests sentence structure, punctuation, and word accuracy

• Scaled score range: 80 to 120

Writing (Teacher assessed - no formal exam)

• No SATs paper for writing

• Assessed by your child's teacher all year

• Graded as GDS, EXS or WTS

• No scaled score, outcome codes only

SATs scaled scores explained  

When your child's SATs results arrive, you will not see the number of marks they scored on the paper. You will see a scaled score. Understanding the difference between raw scores and scaled scores is the key to making sense of the whole system.

What is a raw score?

A raw score is the actual number of marks a child scored on a test paper. For example, if a child answers 32 questions correctly on a paper with 40 marks, their raw score is 32. This is straightforward. The problem is that raw scores from different years cannot be fairly compared because the difficulty of SATs papers varies slightly from one year to the next.

What is a scaled score?

A scaled score converts the raw mark into a number on a standard scale, between 80 and 120 for KS2. This conversion is done using a table published by the Standards and Testing Agency after each year's papers have been marked. The table is different every year because it is recalculated based on how difficult that year's papers were. In a harder year, a lower raw score might still convert to a scaled score of 100. In an easier year, a higher raw mark might be needed.

This is exactly why SATs scaled scores are so useful. They allow fair comparison between different children, different cohorts and different years, regardless of whether the papers were slightly harder or easier than usual.

What the year 6 SATs score range means

Here is exactly what each part of the year 6 SATs score range means in plain language.

110-120: High standard - exceeded the expected standard significantly

A score in this range means your child performed very strongly on the test. A score of 110 or above places your child in the top performers nationally. The highest score in year 6 SATs is 120.

101-109: Exceeded the expected standard

A score of 101 or above means your child has exceeded the expected standard. They are working above the level expected for their age at the end of Key Stage 2. 

100: Expected standard - the pass mark for year 6 SATs

A scaled score of exactly 100 means your child has met the expected standard for their age. This is the pass mark for SATs year 6. It means they are working at the level expected for a child completing Key Stage 2. 

85-99: Below the expected standard - working towards

A score of 99 or below means your child has not met the expected standard. Schools often describe these children as "working towards the expected standard." This does not mean they have failed, it means they need continued support in that subject. 

80: Lowest scaled score available

80 is the lowest scaled score that can be awarded in Year 6 SATs. A child who scores 80 is working significantly below the expected standard for their age. 

What is the pass mark for SATs year 6?

The pass mark for SATs year 6 is a scaled score of 100. A score of 100 means your child has met the expected standard; they are working at the level expected for a child their age at the end of Key Stage 2.

A score of 99 means your child has not met the expected standard. A score of 100 or above means they have. It is as simple as that.

But here is something important that trips parents up every year: the raw score needed to achieve a scaled score of 100 is different every year. In a harder year, you might need fewer raw marks to reach 100. In an easier year, you might need more. The STA publishes the conversion table for each year's papers after marking is complete, typically in July.

For the latest conversion tables once they are published, check our SATs results 2026 guide, which covers all the official data as soon as it is released. 

What is the highest score in SATs year 6?

The highest score in SATs year 6 is 120. This is the maximum possible scaled score in any KS2 subject. It is awarded only to children who achieve a near-perfect raw mark on the paper.

In practice, very few children achieve a scaled score of 120. It requires answering almost every single question correctly across the full paper, under timed exam conditions. For comparison, the KS1 SATs highest score is 115.

For a full breakdown of what scores are needed at each scaled score level and how many children typically reach each threshold, see our dedicated guide: What is the highest score in SATs year 6?

What is the average year 6 SATs score?

There is no single published "average" year 6 SATs score in the way that most parents expect. What the government publishes is the percentage of children who reached the expected standard (a score of 100 or above) in each subject. From this, we can draw some conclusions about typical score ranges.

In 2025, around 74 to 75 percent of children met the expected standard in reading and maths. This means the majority of Year 6 children scored 100 or above. The average year 6 SATs score for children who meet the expected standard typically falls in the range of 103 to 105.

For children who do not meet the expected standard (the remaining 25 to 26 percent), scores typically fall between 80 and 99. For children working well above their peers, scores of 110 to 120 are achievable with strong preparation.

What are good SATs results for year 6?

This is one of the most common questions parents ask when results arrive. Here is a clear guide to what each score range means in practice.  

100: Met the expected standard. Your child is working at the level expected for a child completing Key Stage 2. This is a solid, age-appropriate result. For many children, reaching 100 is a genuine achievement and something to be very proud of. 

103-107: Above average. A score in this range puts your child above the typical performance of the national cohort. It shows confidence and competence across the tested subject. This is a good SATs result for year 6 by any measure. 

108-112: Strong result. A score of 110 or above is considered a strong year 6 SATs result. It places your child among the higher-performing pupils nationally and is a positive signal for secondary school transition and readiness. 

113-117: Exceptional result. Very few children nationally achieve scores in this range. It indicates that your child is working comfortably above the KS2 expected standard in that subject. Secondary schools and grammar schools notice this range. 

118-120: Outstanding - near maximum score. The highest score in year 6 SATs is 120. Achieving a score of 118, 119 or 120 means your child answered almost every question correctly and is working at a level that very few Year 6 children in the country reach. 

What counts as a good SATs result is relative. A score of 90 might represent huge progress and a brilliant outcome for one child, while a score of 110 might feel disappointing for another who was targeting 115. Always look at year 6 SATs scores in the context of where your child started, how they have grown over the year and what support they have had, not just against a fixed national standard. 

Year 6 SATs scores explained - greater depth

One of the most confusing parts of the year 6 SATs scores explained is the concept of greater depth. Here is the most important thing to know: greater depth is not a scored threshold from the SATs papers.

Greater depth (GDS) is a teacher assessment judgment for writing only. It is awarded by your child's class teacher at the end of Year 6 based on their written work throughout the year. It is not connected to a specific scaled score from any SATs paper. Your child cannot "score" greater depth on a test; they can only be assessed as working at greater depth by their teacher.

For the three tested subjects, reading, maths and grammar, children receive a scaled score between 80 and 120. There is no greater depth category for these subjects. Exceeding the expected standard (scoring 101 or above) is the highest formal outcome available for the tested papers. Individual schools may use their own language to describe children who score very highly (such as 115 or above), but this is not a national government category.

What score is greater depth in year 6 SATs? Formally, there is no such score. The SATs greater depth score 2026 does not exist as a number; GDS is purely a teacher assessment framework category, not a scaled score.

KS2 SATs outcome codes explained

When your child's SATs results arrive, you may see letter codes alongside their scaled scores. These codes tell you the outcome of each test. Here is what every code means.

Year 6 teacher assessment codes explained

In addition to the SATs test results, your child's end-of-year report will also include teacher assessment outcomes for reading, writing, maths and science. These use a different set of codes from the SATs outcome codes above. Here is what each one means.

What do secondary schools do with SATs results?

Secondary schools receive the scaled SATs scores of all their incoming Year 7 pupils. Most use the scores as one input, alongside their own transition tests, to stream or set children in maths and English for Year 7. This varies from school to school. Some schools rely heavily on SATs results for initial setting. Others use them as a reference point alongside other information about the child.

If you are concerned about how your child's SATs results might affect their transition to secondary school, or if your child is preparing for a grammar school or independent school entrance exam as well as their SATs, strong performance in both requires the same foundations: secure KS2 maths, strong reading and writing skills and regular timed practice.

For children preparing for grammar school alongside SATs, our 11 plus tutors build preparation plans that cover both the KS2 curriculum (directly relevant to SATs) and the specific 11 plus format of your target schools, so the two programmes reinforce each other rather than competing for revision time.

Final thoughts

Year 6 SATs scores tell one part of a child's story: how they performed on a set of tests in May of Year 6. They tell secondary schools roughly where a child is academically. They help parents understand whether their child is working at, above or below the national expectation.

The most useful thing you can do with SATs scores, whatever they say, is use them as one clear data point to plan the next step. Whether that means targeted support in a subject your child found hard, preparation for a grammar school or independent school entrance exam, or simply celebrating a year of solid work and excellent progress. 

If your child is aiming for a grammar school place or wants to strengthen their Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning and Non-Verbal Reasoning skills before secondary school, Pass 11 Plus Grammar provides structured, expert-led 11+ tuition tailored to every stage of preparation.