Calling all teachers- sats grade boundaries

[Dynamix]

Do the grade boundaries for KS2 sats move each year depending on the performance of the cohort / difficulty of the paper like at GCSE or are they permanently fixed? (Ie. The same each year) Thank you!

They change each year!

Thank you!

Yep, scaled scores change from year to year based on (I think) how the children fare, level of challenge posed by the tests etc.

Not a teacher, but it is explained here:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/understanding-scaled-scores-at-key-stage-2

Particularly this part:

"Pupils scoring at least 100 will have met the expected standard on the test. However, given that the difficulty of the tests may vary each year, the number of raw score marks needed to achieve a scaled score of 100 may also change. For example, if the overall difficulty of a test decreases compared to previous years, the raw score required to meet the expected standard will increase. Similarly, if the test is more difficult, the raw score required to meet the expected standard will decrease."