What the Grade 5 English exams and assessments cover
These Grade 5 English assessments test the four English strands set out in the KICD curriculum design – Listening and Speaking, Reading, Grammar in Use, and Writing – across the themes covered each term. They give you end-of-term exams, mid-term tests and continuous-assessment tasks so you can check whether each learner is meeting the specific learning outcomes for Grade 5 English, and pick up early where a learner needs more support.
Every paper is built from the outcomes in the current KICD Grade 5 English design, so what you assess matches what the design says should be taught. Papers are marked where a marking guide is provided, which makes grading faster and more consistent.
Assessment under CBE: what has changed
Assessment in Kenyan schools has shifted with the move to competency-based education. The Kenya National Examinations Council, as the national assessment body, has realigned assessment to the curriculum through the Competency Based Assessment Framework. Competency Based Assessment (CBA) puts the weight on formative assessment – assessment for learning – rather than only on end-of-term examinations, and it assesses higher-order skills, values, and the learner's ability to apply English in real contexts, not just recall.
In practice this means a Grade 5 English assessment is not only a final exam mark. It is a mix of continuous observation, tasks, and tests through the term that build a picture of what the learner can actually do.
How Grade 5 English is graded: BE, AE, ME, EE
Competency Based Assessment reports each learner against four performance levels rather than a single percentage:
- BE – Below Expectation: the learner has not yet met the outcome and needs significant support.
- AE – Approaching Expectation: the learner is close, with some gaps.
- ME – Meeting Expectation: the learner has met the outcome as intended.
- EE – Exceeding Expectation: the learner has gone beyond the outcome.
This four-level scale is used across every learning area and grade. CBE deliberately moved away from class rankings and percentage labels so that the focus is on whether each learner is meeting the expected competency, not on comparing them to classmates. A rating tells you exactly which skill to work on next – for example, a learner might be ME in Reading but AE in Writing, which points your re-teaching precisely.
Using these assessments well
The most useful assessment is planned at the start of the term, not written the night before the exam. Build (or download) the papers and rubrics against the specific learning outcomes for the strands you will cover that term, so your teaching and your assessment are aligned from day one. These Grade 5 English papers are organised by term and by strand to make that straightforward: you can assess Reading and Grammar in Use after the sub-strands that develop them, and use the Writing and Listening and Speaking tasks as the term progresses.
Assessment on sensitive or personal themes – some Grade 5 topics touch on health, safety and family life – should be handled with care and framed around the learning outcome, not the learner's personal circumstances.
Grade 5 English assessment in 2027
Term 1 2027 opens on 4 January and runs 14 weeks to 9 April, so a Grade 5 English teacher has room for an opener paper, a mid-term check before half term (19 to 28 February) and an end-term paper. Term 2 runs 13 weeks from 3 May and Term 3 only 10 weeks from 30 August. Grade 5 has no national assessment; that comes at the end of Grade 6 with KPSEA. The work in Grade 5 is building the reading and writing a learner will carry into it. Our Kenya School Calendar 2027 guide has every date.
Who these are for
- Grade 5 English teachers: editable papers and tasks, organised by term and strand, aligned to the KICD design.
- Learners and parents: practice across listening and speaking, reading, grammar in use and writing, for revision at home.
- Trainee teachers: worked examples of competency-based assessment, graded on the four CBC levels rather than a percentage.
- Anyone downloading on a teacher's behalf (at a cyber café or school office): confirm Grade 5, English and the term. A Term 1 paper is a different file from Term 2.
Frequently Asked Questions
What do the Grade 5 English assessments cover? All four strands of the KICD Grade 5 English design: Listening and Speaking, Reading, Grammar in Use and Writing, organised by term.
How are Grade 5 English assessments graded? On the four CBC performance levels: Exceeding Expectation (EE), Meeting Expectation (ME), Approaching Expectation (AE) and Below Expectation (BE), against the specific learning outcomes.
Do the papers come with marking guides? Papers are marked where a marking guide is provided. Check the file titles in the catalogue.
Is there a national exam in Grade 5? No. KPSEA is sat at the end of Grade 6. Grade 5 assessment is school-based and continuous.
More Grade 5 resources
These English assessments are one part of the Grade 5 set. Our Grade 5 Exams & Assessments hub covers every Grade 5 learning area, and the Grade 5 English schemes of work and Grade 5 English lesson plans hubs cover the teaching these assessments check.
Download the exams and assessments (Editable Word)
The full set of Grade 5 English exams and assessments – Term 1, Term 2 and Term 3 – is in our catalogue as editable Word files, aligned to the current KICD Grade 5 English design. Because they are editable, you can add your school details and adapt the questions to your class before printing. Use the link below to get the complete set.