Grammar schools / Sutton boys' Stage 2 English (written) / Mock 2
Sutton Boys' Second Stage Examination · Second Stage
Sutton Boys' Second Stage English Mock Paper 2
Preparation for the Sutton Boys' Second Stage Examination, sat for admission to Wilson's School, Sutton Grammar School and Wallington County Grammar School. This is an original mock paper written by Revision Library. It is not a past paper and it is not an official specimen.
Print the paper (PDF)Paper and mark scheme (PDF)
- Time allowed
- 50 minutes
- Total marks
- 30
- Questions
- 1
- Level
- Familiarisation
- You have 50 minutes. There is one task on this paper and it is worth 30 marks.
- Read the stimulus material and then the task itself twice before you begin. Everything you have to do is written down for you.
- Spend the first five to ten minutes planning, and plan on the paper rather than in your head. Planning is never marked as writing and crossing it out costs you nothing.
- Write in continuous prose on the lined pages. Use headings only if the form you have been asked for normally has them.
- Keep the last five minutes to read your work back for spelling, punctuation and sense. Your handwriting should stay readable when you are writing at speed.
- This is a practice paper written for Revision Library. Wilson's, Sutton Grammar and Wallington County Grammar release no specimen papers, so the task type here follows consistent independent accounts of the real examination rather than any published material.
English
Read the notice below, then answer the task that follows it. Write your answer on the lined pages.
- 130 marks
Stimulus: a notice on the door of Harlow Road Leisure Centre
NOTICE TO ALL USERS. From the first of November the outdoor pool will close and it will not reopen. The pool was dug in 1936 and now loses water faster than it can be filled. Repairing the tank would cost more than this centre earns in a year.
The indoor pool will stay open as usual and lessons will move to Tuesday evenings. Comments on this decision should be sent in writing to Councillor Ruth Mensah, Chair of the Leisure Committee, before the thirtieth of September.
Task: write a letter to Councillor Mensah persuading the committee to keep the outdoor pool open. She has never met you and she has already read this notice, so your letter must give her reasons she has not already thought of.
Planning: choose your three strongest reasons before you write a single sentence, and save the best of them for last. Your letter must say plainly at the start why you are writing, give reasons that go beyond how much you personally enjoy swimming, and answer the notice's own argument that the repairs cost too much.
The examiners want to see that you have done exactly what the task asks, that the letter was planned before it was written, and that the writing itself is well shaped and precisely worded.
Spend about 40 minutes on this task.
Answers, mark scheme and worked explanations
- 130 marks
Following the task (8 marks)
- Set out as a letter and addressed to the named councillor rather than to nobody in particular.
- The register is formal and respectful throughout, as it must be when writing to a stranger who holds a decision.
- All three planning points are met, including a direct answer to the cost argument in the notice.
- The details in the notice are used as evidence rather than left untouched.
Planning and structure (7 marks)
- An opening that states the purpose of the letter, a middle that develops one reason per paragraph, and a close that asks for something specific.
- Reasons are deliberately ordered rather than arriving as they occurred to the writer, with the strongest given room.
- Connectives carry the argument forward instead of stacking claims side by side.
Quality of writing and vocabulary (9 marks)
- Persuasion is done through reasoning and well-chosen words, not through exclamation marks or capital letters.
- Vocabulary suits a formal letter: facility, provision, maintenance, alternative, community.
- Sentence lengths vary, and at least one sentence is built so that the important idea lands at the end.
Technical accuracy (6 marks)
- Letter conventions are correct, including the greeting and a sign-off that matches it.
- Spelling and punctuation are secure, with apostrophes used only where they belong.
- Paragraphs are clearly separated and the writing is legible.
The strongest letters on this task sound like an adult wrote them, and that comes from register rather than from long words. Open with Dear Councillor Mensah, say in your first sentence that you are writing about the notice on the door of the leisure centre and that you are asking the committee to think again, then give your reasons one paragraph at a time. Because you have named the person, close with Yours sincerely.
Use the notice rather than ignoring it. Everything you need to argue against is in it: the pool was dug in 1936, it leaks, the repairs cost more than the centre earns, and lessons are moving indoors. Notice what the notice does not say. It does not say what happens to the space afterwards, it does not say how many people use the outdoor pool in summer, and it does not say whether repairing in stages was considered. Questions like those are far more persuasive than telling a councillor that swimming is good for you.
The instruction to answer the cost argument is the one most children skip, and it is worth a large share of the first eight marks. You do not have to prove the council wrong about money. You have to show that you have read what they said and thought about it. A sensible move is to concede the point and then narrow it: agree that three thousand pounds a year cannot come from nowhere, then suggest a summer-only opening, a small charge, a fundraising season, or a decision delayed by one year while the town is asked. Something modest and possible beats something enormous and imaginary.
Two other things quietly cost marks. The first is anger. A letter that accuses the committee of not caring gives the reader an easy reason to stop reading, and rudeness is the fastest way to lose a formal-register mark. The second is writing about yourself the whole way through. One sentence about learning to swim there is evidence; five paragraphs about it is a diary entry with a stamp on it.
Timing: five minutes to pick your three reasons and put them in order, about thirty minutes to write four or five paragraphs, five minutes at the end to check the greeting, the sign-off, your apostrophes and any sentence that has lost its way. Aim for quality over length. A tight page of real argument beats two pages of enthusiasm.
Sutton Boys' Second Stage Examination, Second Stage, English (written). Written by Revision Library on 2026-08-28, independent check pending.
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