Hi Ashton! 👋
In September you start Year 6 — and today we get a sneak preview. We'll look at the three big parts of Year 6 English: reading & writing, spelling, and grammar & punctuation. Some of it you'll already know from Year 5; some of it is brand new. Nothing here is a test — getting things wrong today just shows us exactly what to work on together. Ready?
Reading & writing
~40 MINYear 6 reading is all about reading between the lines — working out what a writer is really telling you, and proving it with evidence. Read the story below (out loud if you like), then have a go at the questions.
The Last Ferry
Alfie stood at the end of the harbour wall, watching the horizon the way a cat watches a door. Somewhere out there, hidden behind a curtain of grey drizzle, was the ferry — and on the ferry was Dad.
“It'll be late,” said Gran, tightening her scarf. “It always is when the weather turns.”
Alfie nodded, but he didn't move. Six months. Six months of postcards with foreign stamps, and phone calls that crackled and cut out halfway through the good bits. He had rehearsed this moment so many times that his stomach ached with it.
The wind came hurrying in off the sea, tugging at his coat like an impatient child. Above them, gulls wheeled and complained. The little fishing boats knocked against one another in the swell, and the ancient bell on the pier — older, Gran claimed, than the village itself — gave a slow, solemn clang.
“There!” Alfie's arm shot up.
A smudge of white had appeared where the sea met the sky. It grew steadily, patiently, until it became a boat with a red funnel, shouldering its way through the waves.
Gran chuckled. “Well then. Are we going to stand here like statues?”
But Alfie couldn't answer. He was already running, boots slapping the wet stone, past the lobster pots and the coils of rope, his heart drumming louder than the sea.
Reading detective
Year 6 styleSix questions — some you can spot straight away, some make you read between the lines. Pick an answer and I'll tell you why it's right or not.
Your turn to write
Year 6 styleNow write the next part of the story — the moment the ferry docks and Alfie finally meets Dad. About 10 minutes. The Year 6 challenge: show how Alfie feels through what he does and notices — try not to write “he was happy.”
A little tip
Steal from the story! It used a simile (like an impatient child), personification (the boat shouldering its way through the waves) and a short sentence for impact (“There!”). Those tools are yours now.
Brain break
~5 MINScreens down, legs up!
Five minutes off. Stretch, grab some water, walk around the room. If you want a challenge for the walk: think of a really boring verb — walk, look, eat — and see how many stronger versions you can rattle off before you sit back down. (Walk: stride, trudge, creep, march, wander… can you beat six?)
Spelling
~35 MINWe'll warm up with patterns you've met before, then meet the trickier endings and the famous Year 5/6 word list — about a hundred words that Year 6 expects you to just know. Don't worry: nobody knows them all on day one.
Warm-up: patterns you know
RevisionPrefixes, suffixes and endings from earlier years. Pick the correct spelling.
The Year 6 endings
New for Y6These endings all sound the same but are spelt differently: -cious/-tious, -cial/-tial, -able/-ible. Pick the correct spelling — the feedback tells you the rule each time.
Homophone headaches
New for Y6Words that sound the same but are spelt differently. Choose the right one for each sentence.
The word list wall
Y5/6 word listFive of the most-misspelt words in England. Only one spelling in each set is right — and each answer comes with a memory trick to keep.
Grammar & punctuation
~35 MINFirst a quick lap of the Year 5 stuff you already own. Then the genuinely new Year 6 ideas: active and passive sentences, formal and informal language, and three new punctuation marks — the semi-colon, the colon and the ambiguity-busting hyphen.
Warm-up: Year 5 greatest hits
RevisionRelative clauses, parenthesis, modal verbs and commas. Show me what's already secure.
Active & passive
New for Y6Brand new idea. Active: Ashton scored the goal. (the doer comes first). Passive: The goal was scored by Ashton. (the action comes first — sometimes the doer vanishes completely!). Have a go.
Posh or not posh?
New for Y6Year 6 asks you to switch between informal language (chatting with friends) and formal language (a letter to the head teacher). Spot the formal choice each time.
New punctuation power-ups
New for Y6Semi-colons, colons and hyphens — three marks that do jobs a comma can't. Warning: one question involves a shark.
Finish line
~5 MINThat was your first tour of Year 6 English, Ashton — well done! Last job: for each skill below, tap a light. Green = “I've got this”, amber = “getting there”, red = “new and tricky”. Be honest — red lights just tell us where the adventure starts.
How did each bit feel?
See you in September, Year 6! 🎉
Whatever your lights say, you're exactly where you should be — today was about finding the starting line, not the finish. Three tiny things to try before next time:
- Word list wall: pick three words from today's word-list game and teach them to someone at home, memory tricks included.
- Passive spotting: news headlines love the passive (“Window broken at school”). Find one this week.
- Read anything — and when a character does something, ask yourself: how do they feel, and how do I know?