Are Year 6 SATs cancelled for 2021?

Will Year 6 SATs be cancelled?

Yes, Year 6 SATs exams are cancelled for students this summer. This means that Year 6 SATs are cancelled for 2021. The government has also cancelled GCSE, AS and A-level exams.

SATs are standardised assessment tests that are given to children in Year 6 to check their educational progress. If you are a parent worried that your Year 6 child is going to fall behind, please check out Year 6 Buddy which will help your child to stay on track. And if you are a teacher looking for Year 6 Curriculum material, SATs Boot Camp is completely aligned with Year 6 learning objectives with over 100 videos, regardless if SATs are cancelled  – so it is a very helpful resource for keeping your class on track during home schooling. 

The move to cancel Year 6 SATs for 2021 was announced by the Education Secretary, Gavin Williamson, in January 2021. When England entered another national lockdown, it was also announced that schools will close until the February half-term.

When discussing the closure of schools in the House of Commons, Mr Williamson told MPs that Year 6 SATs would be cancelled this academic year. He told MPs that “We won’t be proceeding with SATs this year, we do recognise that this will be an additional burden on schools. And it’s very important, we’re very much focused on welcoming students back into the classroom at the very earliest opportunity.”

What will replace the cancelled Year 6 SATs?

When announcing his plans to MPs, Mr Williamson said that the government would put its faith in “teachers, rather than algorithms” when determining grades for this year. Education Secretaries in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have followed suit.

Mr Williamson said that to replace the cancelled Year 6 SATs exams in 2021, he wants to “use a form of teacher-assessed grades, with training and support provided to ensure these are awarded fairly and consistently across the country.”

He told the House of Commons that “Although exams are the fairest way we have of assessing what a student knows, the impact of this pandemic now means that it is not possible to have these exams this year.”

So to answer the question “Are Year 6 SATs cancelled in 2021” – the answer is, yes they are.