Key stage 2 tests: making adaptations to modified large print test materials
Source: gov.uk (2025-09-29)

This guidance is for schools and centres that need to make further adaptations to the key stage 2 (KS2) modified large print (MLP) test formats for their pupils.

MLP versions of the KS2 tests are available electronically as adaptable Microsoft Word documents in the following formats:
- 18 point, A4 portrait
- 24 point, A4 portrait
- 36 point, A3 portrait
- 48 point, A3 landscape
Past test materials

Schools should ensure that pupils who will use the modified tests are familiar with the MLP format before taking the tests.

Past test materials in adaptable MLP formats are available only from the 2025 tests onwards, as this is when they were piloted.

You will find them in our collection of past test materials (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-curriculum-assessments-past-test-materials).

Early opening to adapt a test paper

If you believe you will require more than one hour to make complex adaptations, you must apply for early opening.

You can find out more about this in the KS2 access arrangements guidance (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/key-stage-2-tests-access-arrangements).

Making further adaptations to the tests

Please check any adaptations carefully to ensure no changes have been made that could invalidate the concept being assessed in the question. We cannot compensate, or give special consideration, where test papers have been incorrectly adapted.

You must ensure that the accuracy of the materials is not affected. If you adapt the corresponding text, questions or page references incorrectly, pupils may be disadvantaged.

There may be questions in the mathematics tests that are unsuitable for further enlargement. If that is the case, the modified test administration instructions we delivered with your printed test papers will provide guidance.

Permitted adaptations

You are allowed to:

change the page orientation

change emphasis – for example, underline can change to bold

break booklets into sections to help with administration

make the quotation marks non-directional

add the number of marks a question is worth – this should usually be placed immediately after the text of the question for modified tests

repeat equations or phrases to avoid the need to turn the page

print the test materials on different coloured paper

change the font used to one used in everyday classroom practice

create a screen-ready version for use with assisted reading devices where these are allowed – please note that screen readers are not permitted in the English reading test

adjust line spacing

make booklets one question per page

adjust the area for answer or answer lines, such as increasing line weight, or replacing with a suitably sized box

You are not allowed to:

increase the size of diagrams in mathematics questions relating to measurement – these are aligned to the mark schemes at the length they are presented in the MLP papers

change the order or the wording of the questions

Important points to note

Ensure that you have all the questions, that they are in the correct order and that the page numbers are correct.

Ensure that all words that should be enlarged or bold for emphasis are modified to at least 6 point sizes larger than the pupil’s modified font size.

Ensure that all tables, grids and boxes are modified with thicker borders and enlarged, if necessary, due to the increase in the modified text size.

Ensure that all answer lines and boxes are modified to be bolder and increased in size to accommodate the pupil’s writing.

Check that words in textboxes and shapes are in the correct font size and line spacing.

Where possible, avoid splitting questions across pages. If this is unavoidable, please add instructions for pupils to look at the next page, as appropriate. For some questions in the 48 point version, where this is the case, we have not added this guidance but advise that you add it if you think it is appropriate.

If questions go onto a second page after enlargement, ensure that these are facing pages, even if that means leaving an ‘intentionally blank’ page before the question.

If you need to move material such as a graph, table, or figure – either to the opposite page, the next page, or a figure booklet – include a written direction, such as “the graph opposite” or “see Figure 1 in the separate figure booklet, which shows a graph”.

Ensure you also modify the page numbers to the pupil’s requirements in the footer of the pages.

You also need to modify any images to meet the pupil’s requirements.

Additional points for the mathematics test

Labelling lines on graphs and grids need to be distinguishable.

If there are questions, such as for symmetry, where we supplied a supplementary shape with the test paper, if you have increased the scale of the image in the question, you must recreate the supplementary symmetry shape to correspond with it for the pupil to use.

Ensure that the correct decimal place is used for numbers.

Additional points for the reading test

Ensure that the page references in the reading answer booklet have been modified in line with the newly modified reading prompt booklet. Direct pupils to the appropriate section of the adapted reading booklet for each question.

When adapting page references, ensure you include the same span of text provided in the original page reference. Do not reduce the page extent or the section pupils have been asked to refer to.

Ensure that you update the page numbers in the contents section of the reading prompt booklet, in line with the modifications.

Final steps

After you have made the adaptations, we recommend that you:

step away and revisit the paper after a period of time

ask another authorised member of staff to check the papers before the pupil takes the test, if possible

This will allow you to address any errors and reprint papers, if required.

Security

If the electronic papers need to be shared outside the school (for example, with a local authority adapting service), the headteacher is responsible for ensuring the security of test materials throughout the process. Only the headteacher, or the person making adaptations, should have access to test papers that have been opened early.

Once adaptations are complete, schools must ensure that test content is removed from any electronic devices.

Once printed, hard copies of all modified test papers must be kept securely in accordance with the test administration guidance (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/key-stage-2-tests-test-administration-guidance-tag).