Primary 4 in 2027: Syllabus, Exams and the Foundation or Standard Choice

The P4 syllabus is the last year of content every child shares. In 2027 it covers big new Maths topics like fractions, decimals and composite area, and Science moves on to plants, the digestive system, matter, light and heat. The end-of-year exam then shapes whether your child takes each subject at Standard or Foundation level in P5 and P6.

This guide is for parents of a child entering Primary 4 in 2027. It sets out MOE's topic lists on the page, how school assessments work, what the banding decision means, and where children most often slip. Every syllabus fact here comes from MOE's own documents, listed at the end.

Who is in Primary 4 in 2027?

Children born in 2017 who entered Primary 1 in January 2024. Three things make this cohort a little different from the classes before it.

For the full story on what replaced the GEP, read our GEP replacement guide.

The official syllabus documents for P4 in 2027

All of these are free PDFs from MOE's primary syllabus page.

P4 Maths syllabus: the topic table

MOE's 2021 Mathematics Syllabus (Primary 1 to 6), updated October 2025, lists these P4 topics. MOE says the P1 to P4 syllabus is common to all students, so every P4 child learns all of it.

What is new in Maths compared with P3

From P5, MOE splits Maths into Standard and Foundation. Standard continues from the P4 syllabus. Foundation revisits key P1 to P4 concepts, and its new content is a subset of Standard.

P4 Science syllabus: the topic table

MOE's 2023 Primary Science syllabus (updated January 2026) organises Science into five themes. These are the P4 topics and the learning outcomes MOE lists.

What is new in Science compared with P3

In P3 your child covered the diversity of living and non-living things, the diversity of materials, life cycles of plants and animals, and magnets. P4 adds the first two Systems topics and the first Energy topics. Heat and light are where children first plan and judge experiments rather than mostly recall facts.

Science skills and experiments expected by the end of P4

MOE's syllabus sets out the "ways of thinking and doing" a child should manage by the end of P4, and how they grow by P6.

The P4 topics come with named practical skills too: measuring mass and volume (Matter), observing plant parts, investigating what changes a shadow (Light), and measuring temperature with a thermometer or datalogger (Heat).

Performance tasks that count

MOE recommends that school-based Science assessment is 70% to 85% written tests and 15% to 30% performance-based assessment. The syllabus lists the modes teachers can use: checklists, debates, drama or show and tell, games and quizzes, learning trails, model-making, posters, practicals, projects, reflections or journals, and teacher observations. Ask your child's school which of these count in P4, since a practical or project done well in class can lift the year's Science result.

Model answer, P4 heat question. Question: Ali wrapped one can of cold drink in a wool sock and left another unwrapped. After 30 minutes the unwrapped can was warmer. Explain why. A full-mark answer: "Wool is a poor conductor of heat. It slowed down the heat gained by the wrapped can from the warmer surrounding air, so the unwrapped can gained heat faster and became warmer." The key words are poor conductor, heat gained, and from the warmer surroundings. Saying "the sock kept the cold in" loses the mark, because heat moves, not cold.

P4 English: what is covered and how papers are set

P4 follows MOE's 2020 English Language syllabus. It has six areas of language learning: Listening and Viewing, Reading and Viewing, Speaking and Representing, Writing and Representing, Grammar, and Vocabulary. MOE does not publish a P4 paper format, so each school sets its own. St Gabriel's Primary's 2026 P4 end-of-year English paper is a clear, published example.

The same parts appear in the PSLE, at a higher mark count, so P4 is where the habits form. The skills that move marks most in P4 English:

• Composition. A clear beginning, a problem, a turning point and an ending, built around the pictures given. Our composition guide and free English composition phrases PDF carry over directly.
• Synthesis and sentence combining. Joining two sentences with a given word ("although", "unless", "which") without changing the meaning.
• Open-ended comprehension. Inference questions with the evidence quoted (see the struggles section below).
• Oral. Reading with expression and pauses, then giving a personal view with a reason and an example in the conversation.

Our P4 English tuition page has more on the skills that carry into the PSLE.

P4 Mother Tongue: the 2024 syllabus

This cohort is the first to reach P4 on MOE's 2024 primary Mother Tongue curriculum, which MOE says is rolled out progressively from the 2024 Primary 1 cohort. MOE's announcement says the curriculum puts more weight on communication and other 21st century competencies, uses more authentic contexts and materials linked to children's daily lives, and makes wider use of gamification, differentiated resources and technology. The Malay syllabus sets out the standard expected by the end of P2, P4 and P6, so P4 is a checkpoint year.

St Gabriel's Primary's 2026 P4 end-of-year paper is the same shape for Chinese, Malay and Tamil:

Higher Mother Tongue in P5 depends on how your child does in P4 (see the banding section below). For Chinese writing practice, our free Chinese composition phrases PDF is a useful start.

How are P4 students assessed in 2027?

There is no P4 mid-year exam. MOE announced on 7 March 2022 that mid-year exams would be removed for all primary and secondary levels by 2023, freeing about three weeks of teaching time per level. That announcement named Primary 4, Primary 6, Secondary 2 and Secondary 4/5 as the remaining levels still to drop them, so P4 was one of the last levels to go.

Instead, schools use a few weighted assessments (WAs) during the year and an end-of-year exam (often called the EYE, EOY or SA2). Schools set their own plans. Two published 2026 P4 examples:

A sample P4 end-of-year paper format

St Gabriel's Primary's 2026 P4 plan gives the full Maths and Science formats. Each subject is out of 100 and the exams ran from 6 to 29 October 2026.

Two things to note. The Maths paper covers every P4 chapter from numbers to 100 000 through to nets and symmetry. The Science paper tests P3 revision topics (diversity, materials, life cycles and magnets) as well as all the P4 topics, so P3 work matters again in Term 4. WAs are shorter: the same school's P4 Science WAs were 30 to 40 marks, and its Maths WAs 30 marks in 50 minutes.

Your school's own assessment plan, usually shared on Parents Gateway early in the year, is the one to follow. We explain what WA1, WA2 and SA2 mean in WA1, WA2 and SA2 explained.

The end-of-P4 banding choice: Foundation or Standard

This is the biggest decision of the P4 year. From P5, English, Maths, Science and Mother Tongue can each be taken at Standard or Foundation level. MOE's subject-based banding page sets out how it works.

What your child is offered

Worked example 1. Mei passes English, Maths and Chinese but fails Science. That is three passes, so she is offered 4 Standard subjects and carries on with Standard Science in P5.

Worked example 2. Arif passes only English and Malay. With two passes, the school may recommend Foundation Maths and Science. His parents can choose from the five combinations in the last row. MOE's end-of-P5 review lets the school move him to a different level if he is coping better, or worse, than expected.

What Foundation means later

MOE says taking subjects at Foundation level "is not a disadvantage" and helps build the fundamentals. In numbers, at the PSLE a Foundation subject is graded A, B or C, which count as AL6, AL7 and AL8 in the PSLE Score. A Foundation grade A lets your child take that subject at G2 in Secondary 1. Our PSLE AL scores guide shows the full scoring, and our guide to Foundation vs Standard subjects in P5 and P6 covers the papers, posting and switching after P5.

2027 term dates for Primary 4

From MOE's School terms and holidays for 2027:

Primary schools also close for Children's Day on Friday 8 October 2027. Our school holidays 2027 guide lists every public holiday and day off.

Where P4 children commonly struggle

Fractions with unlike denominators

P3 fractions stay within one whole and use related denominators. P4 adds mixed numbers, improper fractions and two different denominators, and many children add the bottoms as well as the tops.

Worked example. 3/4 + 5/8. Change 3/4 to 6/8. Then 6/8 + 5/8 = 11/8, which is the improper fraction 1 3/8. For a fraction of a set: 2/3 of 24 marbles is 24 ÷ 3 × 2 = 16 marbles.

Worked example with decimals. 7 ÷ 4. Four goes into 7 once, remainder 3. Carry on into tenths and hundredths to get 1.75. P4 is the first year a whole number divided by a whole number can give a decimal answer.

Area and perimeter of composite figures

Children often mix up the two, or think that cutting a piece out of a shape always shortens the perimeter.

Worked example. A 12 cm by 8 cm rectangle has a 4 cm by 3 cm piece cut from one corner. Area: 12 × 8 = 96 cm², minus 4 × 3 = 12 cm², gives 84 cm². Perimeter: the two new inside edges are exactly as long as the two edges that were removed, so the perimeter stays 2 × (12 + 8) = 40 cm. Drawing the figure and labelling every side is the habit that prevents most errors.

Heat and light experiments

The common slips are confusing heat with temperature, saying "cold flows in", and changing more than one thing in an experiment.

• Heat. A metal spoon in hot water warms up quickly because metal is a good conductor of heat, and heat flows from the hotter water to the cooler spoon. A plastic spoon warms slowly because plastic is a poor conductor.
• Light. Move a toy closer to a torch and its shadow on the screen gets bigger. In a fair test your child changes only that distance and keeps the object, the torch and the screen the same.

Exam answers need the full chain: what changed, why, and the science word that explains it.

Comprehension inference

P4 passages ask why a character acted or how they felt, and the answer is not printed word for word. Children copy a nearby sentence or give a feeling with no evidence. Teach a two-part answer: the inference ("Ben was nervous") and the clue from the text ("because his hands were shaking as he held the letter"). Our post on open-ended comprehension shows the same method at PSLE level.

Free P4 practice papers and worksheets

These are all free, with no sign-up.

A word on the school papers: they were set in 2023, when P4 was still on the older Science syllabus (the 2023 syllabus reached P4 in 2024). Most topics are still taught, so they remain good practice for matter, light, heat, plant parts and the digestive system. If a question looks unfamiliar, check it against the topic table above before your child spends time on it. Our P4 Maths and English papers are not online yet. In the meantime, the textbook workbook and the school's own revision papers are the best match for your child's school.

How parents can help at home

When does tuition help in P4?

Tuition helps most when it targets a specific gap rather than adding more of the same homework. Signs it may be worth it:

• WA results drop in one subject for two terms running, especially Maths after fractions and decimals start.
• Your child can recall Science facts but loses marks on experiment and explanation questions.
• A Foundation recommendation looks likely in one subject and you want to give your child the best chance before the end-of-year exam.
• Your child is doing well and wants stretch work beyond the school syllabus.

If you decide to get help, start early in the year so there is time before the end-of-year exam. See Primary 4 tuition, or go by subject: P4 Maths, P4 Science and P4 English. Our guide on when to start tuition covers the timing question in more depth.

P4 to P6 timeline for this cohort

PSLE dates for 2029 have not been published. The dates below are labelled expected and follow the pattern of the 2026 PSLE.

What the PSLE itself tests is set out in our PSLE Maths and PSLE Science syllabus pages, and the full exam is explained in our PSLE format, scoring and timeline guide.