A few handy SATs revision tips for you to pass on and share with your child
Read outside the book - a book can be quite intimidating for a struggling reader, so take advantage of your children's hobbies. If they like football, then read through a match programme or a newspaper report with them.
Create a space to read - Take a look at the last issue of my child, which has a whole section dedicated to this. A well lit, comfortable area will make reading far more enjoyable.
Do your bit - Take turns to read out loud with your child, as this will encourage them to do the same while also improving their speaking and listening skills.
Take a trip through a book - if you are planning a holiday this summer, get your child to read up on your destination of choice. This will improve their reading while they find out all the fun things they can do on holiday.
Writing
Build up the layers - when writing creatively a child should take a plain sentence then build it up, perhaps with a bit of description, then an example or an experience. E.g. the girl had curls in her hair becomes the girl had super springy curls in her hair that bounced around like a jack in the box.
Good grammar - make sure your child knows how to punctuate properly, putting the apostrophe in the right place and taking care with the dreaded colon and semi-colon.
Handwriting skills - improving your pencil grasp (many grasps are fine, as long as the child has an open web space) and bilateral coordination (using two hands - one to hold the paper and the other to write) are key to good, efficient handwriting. Here's how to do both:
Grasp - practice by picking up small objects with tweezers and stringing beads.
Bilateral coordination - practice by stringing beads, cutting up and folding paper.
Maths
Practice makes perfect - if you can get hold of some past exam papers, then trying doing these and keep dong them until you are answering the questions confidently.
Make maths fun - putting songs to things makes it easier to remember, so try getting your child to sing their times tables.
Test the weak spots - this goes for every subject. The only way to conquer your difficulties is to face them head on. If there is something your child is not good at, work on it.
Short bursts - with mental arithmetic, you can't fit it all into your head at once so keep the revision sessions down to 20-30 minutes maximum.
Memory/ Notemaking (particularly important for KS3 who will be studying science and a Shakespeare play)
Songs and rhymes - as already mentioned, making a funny song or rhyme out of the material makes it easier to recall from memory when exam time comes.
Talk - reading notes out loud makes them register more.
Test, test, test - the best way to improve the memory is to challenge it, so keep checking to see what you can remember without the notes.
Short and sweet - Fitting notes onto one side of paper makes them easier to stomach, so rewrite and cut down as you go.
