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Education glossary

Need a refresher on SATs or want to find out about flashcards? Take a look at our guide to common terms and phrases used in schools.

For help with grammar and literacy, take a look at the Grammar and literacy glossary.

For help with maths terms, take a look at the Maths glossary.

Grammar and literacy | Maths

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C

Catch up

It is often used as a term for an intervention programme but it is also a not-for-profit organisation that provides training techniques to support teachers to help children identified as underachieving: www.catchup.org.

F

Flashcards

Cards to use in games to help children practise recognising, at speed, a letter, group of letters, words and/or pictures.

O

OFSTED

The Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills is the organisation appointed by the government to inspect schools in England.

One-to-one correspondence

Being able to match one object to one other object or person. Children need to learn one-to-one correspondence in order to be able to count.

This can be practised in a number of different play situations, such as laying the table, or setting out a tea party. For example, each person at the table needs ‘one’ cup.

S

SATs

SATs stands for Standard Assessment Tasks. These are national tests in spelling, punctuation, and grammar, as well as reading and maths, taken by children at the end of both Key Stage 1 (Year 2) and Key Stage 2 (Year 6). Writing is assessed by the teacher.

You can find out more on our KS1 SATs and KS2 SATs pages.

Self-assessment/peer assessment

Children check their own work against a set of answers or criteria or swap with a partner to mark each other’s work before then discussing the marking or comments. This is proven to be an effective tool for learning.

Grammar and literacy | Maths

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z