Primary 6 English

Primary 6 English points the year's skills at the PSLE: writing to a set of pictures and to a situation, using language accurately across the language papers, and speaking and listening with confidence. The paper formats below are those SEAB published for the 2026 PSLE.

How the PSLE English papers fit together

Paper 1, Writing (50 marks, 1 hour 10 minutes): a situational writing task (14 marks) and a continuous writing composition (36 marks) of at least 150 words, based on pictures.
Paper 2, Language Use and Comprehension (90 marks, 1 hour 50 minutes): grammar, vocabulary, cloze passages, editing, synthesis and transformation, and visual text and reading comprehension questions.
Paper 3, Listening Comprehension (20 marks, about 35 minutes): 20 multiple-choice questions on spoken passages.
Paper 4, Oral Communication (40 marks, about 10 minutes): reading aloud, then a conversation about a photograph.

Continuous writing under exam conditions

In the PSLE, students write a story of at least 150 words based on the pictures they are given, inside the time for the whole of Paper 1. The pictures are a starting point, not a script. Stronger stories use one as the opening or the turning point, then build a problem and a resolution around it. The skill to practise is planning in a few minutes, so the writing time goes on writing rather than on deciding what happens.

Qn 1

The pictures show a boy at a bus stop in heavy rain, a bag left on the seat beside him, and a man thanking the boy. Plan the story in four lines.

Opening: Danish waits at a rainy bus stop, worried about being late for a test.

Build-up: He spots a bag left on the seat, and his bus is turning the corner.

Turning point He runs after the owner and misses his bus.

Resolution: The owner is a teacher from his school, who thanks him and gives him a lift, just in time. ✓

Situational writing

Situational writing (14 marks) is the shorter, practical task: an email, letter or report written for a real purpose to a particular reader. The writing has to suit its purpose, audience and context, so tone matters as much as content. An email to the principal sounds different from a message to a friend. A common slip is leaving out a point the task asks for.

Qn 2

You are Sam. Your class is holding a recycling drive. Write an email to your principal, Mrs Lim, asking to use the school hall next Friday. Say what the drive is and why you need the hall.

Purpose: ask permission. Reader: the principal, so polite and formal

Dear Mrs Lim, I am writing to request permission for my class to use the school hall next Friday for a recycling drive.

The hall is large enough for the sorting tables, and it keeps everyone dry if it rains.

Every point covered, in a polite tone ✓

Editing: catching your own mistakes

Many of the mistakes in a draft are small slips, not weak ideas: a tense that changes halfway through a sentence, a missing word, a plural that isn't. Editing is a separate skill from writing, and it works best as a routine done in a set order, on a page that has had a few minutes to go cold. It also feeds straight into the editing section of Paper 2.

Qn 3

Edit the passage: "Yesterday, I walk to school when it start to rain heavily. I was soak by the time I reach school."

The story is in the past, so check each verb

walk → was walking, start → started, soak → soaked, reach → reached

Four slips fixed, all in past tense ✓

Composition: carrying the skills forward

Showing feelings through what a character does and sees, especially at the turning point, instead of naming the emotion.
Varied sentence openings and lengths, and precise words in place of vague ones.
Paragraphs that follow the plan, with linking words that carry the reader from one part of the story to the next.

Language use and comprehension (Paper 2)

Grammar and vocabulary questions, including multiple-choice, cloze passages and correcting errors in a passage.
Synthesis and transformation: joining or rewording sentences without changing the meaning, for example using "although" or "so that".
Reading comprehension: visual texts such as posters and advertisements, and open-ended questions on a passage, answered with evidence from the text.

Listening and oral

Listening to spoken passages and answering multiple-choice questions on the details and the meaning.
Reading a passage aloud with clear pronunciation and expression, then talking about a photograph in a clear, developed answer, after a few minutes to prepare.

Also see P6 Math

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