What are the expectations of Y6?

[TempestHayes]

I can assess and feed back on my son's work (as the school aren't) but I don't know what a Year 6 is supposed to be able to do, to be honest, or where the line is between "this needs to improve" or "this is genius." Maths is all correct, so that's fine, but if I have him write short essay-style answers for history and English, say, do I just forever say 'well done' or 'let's expand on that a little'? He works hard and is a bright kid, but I don't want to pander and deem all his work sufficient, and then he finds it a lot harder in high school.

I am finding it OK setting him work. I'm just finding it hard to 'mark' it as I usually think his answers could be longer and deeper, but I could be being too harsh for his age.

Same here. I can mark maths as correct or wrong, but for anything else I just say well done, or check your spelling here 😳

I try to discuss DD3's word choices, the meaning of what she's written, etc., but not deem it 'good' or 'bad'. Sometimes she'll use a very 'wordy' sentence, so I make a suggestion about how she could make it more concise. She either says 'oooh yes, I could.....' or she says 'well I liked it like that...'.

As long as they're thinking, I think it's ok. Secondary schools get children from all over, with very different backgrounds, so they start from scratch a bit in year 7, anyway.

Look up national curriculum for y6, it should have some of what they are being taught or should know by end of year. Cup books are great for this, they have stretch books for greater depth.