Grade 6 Papers

Grade 6 is the year English becomes a subject with a formal paper for most children, and the first term tests are often the first English examination they have sat.

• Use the term, not just the grade. A third-term paper in February will ask about a year's work that has not happened yet. Match the paper to where the class actually is.
• Expect the first paper to be a shock. Children who can speak and read English often lose marks on instructions - underline, match, fill in the blanks, write in full sentences - rather than on the English itself. Teach the instructions once, explicitly, and much of that loss disappears.
• Do one section at a time. A whole paper in one sitting is too long for most eleven-year-olds and teaches them that English examinations are exhausting.
• Mark it together, aloud. At this grade the marking is the lesson. A child who hears why an answer was wrong learns more than one who sees a number at the top of the page.