Year 6 articles

Many parents find helping with school work challenging, and it can be even harder if you're not a native English speaker. So how can you help your child to do their best?

It’s one of the main developers of grammar school entrance exams in the UK, but what do GL Assessment’s 11+ tests involve?

What's involved in the entrance assessment for Lancashire's grammar schools? We have the details.

Since the 11+ was discontinued in 2008, pupils in Northern Ireland have taken a transfer test for grammar school entry. We explain what's involved in the Post Primary Transfer Consortium test and the Common Entrance Assessment (CEA).

Surrey's grammar schools are some of the most competitive in the country. We have the facts you need to know about their entrance exams.

Contracted words or contractions are used every day in spoken and written English. Help your child keep them straight with our parents' guide, including complete listings of the common contractions children learn to spell in Year 2 and throughout Key Stage 2.

Children are first introduced to apostrophes in Year 2. Help them practise punctuating correctly at home with our simple revision tips, covering the use of apostrophes for possession and omission.

With only one grammar school in Cumbria, we explain what you need to know about entering your child for the entrance test.

With a massive 15 selective schools to choose from, what do you need to know about registering your child for the Lincolnshire 11+?

All the facts you need to know about entering your child for the 11+ test for entrance to the Slough and Reading grammar schools.

Reception and KS1 children all learn cardinal and ordinal numbers. We explain how your child will be taught to count and sequence numbers correctly and suggest practical, fun activities you can try at home to support your child's early mathematical learning.

Can you tell your hexagons from your heptagons? Your octagons from your decagons? With the help of educational experts, we explain how polygons are taught in primary school, with examples of regular and irregular versions of each multi-sided shape.

Want to encourage your child with foreign language learning? We speak to experts who suggest ways to help your child with languages at home, even if you don’t speak them yourself. By Dawn Francis-Pester

You'll be spoilt for choice choosing new books for 4-11 year olds this Christmas. As well as the blockbusters in every bookshop window (welcome back Wimpy Kid, Percy Jackson and Ruby Redfort!), we've fallen for this bumper crop of great reads, from picture books to read out loud to scare stories to shiver under the covers with. Whatever your child's reading ability, these stories are unmissable. Happy reading!

Make the most of family outings by choosing one of our parent-recommended museums. For fun, story-telling, literary inspiration and creative opportunities visit the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre.

Does your child struggle to hold their pencil correctly? Handwriting tutor Michelle van Rooyen explains how a pencil grip could help with their handwriting.

Want to directly influence your child's school experience? Jackie Cutchey explains why becoming a parent governor benefits you, your child and their school.

Your child will be taught how to form the different letters of the alphabet differently, according to the ‘movement groups’ they fit into. Our explanatory video shows you how to form all letters (Long ladder, Curly caterpillar, One-armed robot and Z for Zig-zag monster) correctly, stroke by stroke.

Help your child form each letter of the alphabet correctly with our step-by-step and stroke-by-stroke videos, with experts from the National Handwriting Association. In this video we look at the One-armed robot letter family: r, n, m, h, b, k and p.