Your child's SEAG year starts in P6

I'm Sam Stirling, a former P7 teacher. I've spent about ten years getting children in Northern Ireland ready for the transfer test, and this is what I tell any P6 parent to start with.

The SEAG test is two papers, each with English and maths, sat on two Saturdays in November of P7: for your child, November 2027. You register them yourself at seagni.co.uk (this year it cost £20, free with Free School Meals Entitlement).

Places at the grammar schools

Each grammar school has a set number of Year 8 places. In Lisburn, for example, the Education Authority's figures for this year's Year 8 (2026-27) show that Friends' School Lisburn had 324 applications for 165 places, and The Wallace High School had 318 applications for 176 places.

A family can apply to more than one school, so these are applications, not children. I'm not sharing them to worry anyone: it's one reason a steady, little-and-often start in P6 helps.

What matters most

Two things, more than anything: times tables known inside out, including the division facts, and reading every day.

Reading is the biggest skill of all

I can't say this strongly enough. Year after year, the children who do best are the best readers. They work out what a question is asking quickly and understand it first time, so they have far more time and head space left for the harder thinking. Both sections reward that, because even the maths is worded: a child who reads the problem quickly gets straight to the maths.

Your child doesn't have to love reading, but they do need to be good at it. I wouldn't worry too much about what they read, as long as it's something: comics, books about their sport or hobby, stories, facts. What matters is the habit: 10 to 20 minutes, every day.

A tutor can teach your child a skill in an hour. No tutor can teach a child to read quickly and understand quickly in a session. That happens at home, and it's the best thing you can do for them this year.

Your SEAG timeline: P6 to the test

1. P6Until January

   Times tables, including the division facts, and reading.

2. P6From January

   10 to 15 minutes of English and maths questions a day, plus one set session a week, about an hour, to learn a new skill. This is where my course starts: a lesson a week, and the Daily 10, ten short questions a day revising the weekly lessons in a systematic order. It brings in the topics in a set order, a week at a time, so that by the test your child has met everything it checks and knows how to do it. It opens for families at home on Monday 4 January 2027, and sign-up opens on Wednesday 9 December 2026.

3. P6From Easter

   The same 10 to 15 minutes a day and the same hour a week. Practice papers come in now, and they're done at school: most schools start adding them in from Easter. Registration for the test opens in May, at the end of P6, so check the dates on seagni.co.uk.

4. SummerBetween P6 and P7

   Keep the little and often going: 10 to 15 minutes of questions a day and one practice paper a week (both part of my course). SEAG puts four free practice papers on its website, but I'd steer clear: most schools use them in class, so check with your child's teacher first. Keep the reading going, and keep it light.

   Silly mistakes are normal at this age and stage. It's a conversation I have with parents every single year: they're part and parcel of the process. What matters is whether your child can spot the mistake and put it right.

5. P7September

   Registration closes in September, so check the dates on seagni.co.uk in good time. From here it's a balancing act between practice and keeping your child motivated, with their energy up. Clubs and sport aren't a distraction now: they're an essential way to switch off.

   As the test starts to feel real, focus usually arrives on its own: silly mistakes drop, and scores jump about less from week to week. This is the most important time for progress: in my experience, children regularly gain 10 to 20 per cent when they tackle it the right way.

6. P7October and November

   Hand it over. If your child is starting to struggle with it all, or getting sick of it, start handing the baton over: let them choose what to revise and when (within reason). Still 10 to 15 minutes a day, done happily. A child who's happy to revise will do better than a child who's being made to, because their head space is right. Focused learning over a shorter time always wins over forced learning over a longer one.

7. P7November

   The two papers, on two Saturdays.

How school and the course fit together

If your child is on my course, this is how it sits alongside what school does.

That's a paper every week for the last 24 weeks before the test. You won't need the school's revision pack: the course has a paper every week from the end of May. If school also sends a paper home, let ours be the one you do at home, rather than doing both.

From the end of May to mid-July, some weeks have a lesson, a course paper, the Daily 10 and a school paper too. If a week feels heavy, it's fine to ease off for a day or two: it's the habit over the year that counts, not any one week.

The last few weeks

By October of P7, nearly every child knows the work: they've met every topic that's going to come up. What makes the difference then is focus: applying what they know when a question is put a different way, reading every question carefully, and cutting out mistakes. It's not about getting more questions right, it's about getting fewer questions wrong.

If your school has given you its own Stirling Tuition web address, please sign up there instead, so your school is counted.

Thanks for reading.
Sam