A Child’s English Level by Age and Grade: How to Check It

English levels in plain language: what your child can actually do

The CEFR scale runs from A1 to C2; for children, the lower half matters most, plus the “zero” step, Pre-A1:

Beginner and Elementary are course names, not CEFR levels; they usually correspond to A1–A2.

English levels at school: what the curriculum expects by grade

If your child is in 8th grade and the NMT is ahead, check their level early: in our article on preparing for the English NMT from 8th grade, we break down how long it takes to go from A2 to B1.

How to check your child’s English level: 5 ways

1. Cambridge Young Learners sample tasks

The most accurate child-friendly tool: pictures, familiar topics, and all four skills. Sample papers are free — you can do them at home at a calm pace. If your child handles Movers easily, that’s a confident A1; Flyers means A2. Taking the actual exam is optional.

2. A trial lesson with a teacher

In half an hour of conversation, a teacher can hear pronunciation and speaking ability — more accurately than an automated test. But anyone selling a course has an incentive to say your child is “starting from zero,” so it’s worth double-checking.

3. Free online tests — with caveats

They’re quick, but they’re designed for adults:

• they only test grammar and reading, not speaking or listening;
• the topics are adult-oriented, so a child may make mistakes because of the context, not the language itself;
• multiple-choice answers make guessing easy, which can inflate the result.

4. An 8-skill checklist

For a week, mark what your child can already do. Every two items roughly equal one step up. Honestly, though: people fill out a checklist like this once, and six months later no one remembers it — so the level only becomes visible when the problem is already showing up on the report card.

1. Can name colors, numbers up to 20, animals, and school items in English. (Pre-A1)
2. Can follow simple instructions in English: Stand up, Give me the pen, Open the book. (Pre-A1)
3. Can answer questions about themselves: What's your name? How old are you? Where do you live? (A1)
4. Can read and understand a short text of 3–5 simple sentences without a dictionary. (A1)
5. Can say 3–4 connected sentences about their day, a friend, or a favorite game. (A2)
6. Can watch a cartoon in English and retell what it was about. (A2)
7. Can write a short message or postcard of 25–35 words with a clear meaning. (A2)
8. Can keep a conversation going on a new topic and explain an opinion: I think… because… (B1)

A confident “yes” on items 1–4 and “partly” on 5–6 usually means A1 with a foundation for A2. To see how many words stand behind each level, read our article how many English words a child should know and the Oxford 3000 list.

5. Level tracking from daily lessons in Mova

Instead of a one-time snapshot, you get hundreds of ordinary answers: the level adjusts every day based on the lesson result, and in the parent account it appears as “approximately grade N” — making it easy to compare with the curriculum above.

In Mova, level is a rating from 0 to 1000. It starts from the child’s age and then adjusts itself after each day, with no separate test. Every word in the lessons also has a CEFR-based difficulty score: A1 ≈ 100–300, A2 ≈ 300–550, B1 ≈ 550–800 — so your child’s rating makes it easy to see where they are on the English-level scale. Parents don’t need to fill anything in or check anything manually: the level is calculated from regular lessons.

Why placement tests are stressful for children — and how Mova works without them

For a child, a placement test feels like an exam: unfamiliar tasks, fear of making mistakes. Under stress, children often perform below their real level, and English outside school begins with an unpleasant experience. Mova works without a test:

• It starts from age. The level on the 0–1000 scale starts deliberately a little lower: it’s easier to move up than to struggle through something too difficult.
• The first week calibrates itself. A good day — the level rises; a weak day — it drops a little, without big swings.
• From to be to Present Perfect. Younger children start with to be and the simplest words; teens progress to Present Perfect and B1-level vocabulary.
• Consistency without reminders. Games on the child’s iPhone unlock for minutes earned through the lesson, and the parent account also shows words learned, the day’s result, and the streak.

Mova does not assess live speaking — for that, you need a teacher or a checklist.

What to do with the result

A level below the curriculum expectation is the most common outcome: school alone usually isn’t enough. Here’s the plan:

1. Record the starting point: date, method, result. In Mova, level history is saved automatically.
2. Don’t try to “catch up in a month.” The next level usually takes 8–12 months; a short daily lesson works better than two hours on Saturday. The problem is that parents usually set a “20 minutes a day” plan and forget about it within a week. In Mova, the daily lesson keeps itself going: games, social media, and videos on the child’s iPhone are locked and only open for minutes earned through the English lesson (“Super” — 30 min, “Good” — 20 min), so there’s nothing to remind and nothing to track.
3. Close the biggest gap — vocabulary. At A1–A2, what limits a child most is vocabulary, not grammar. In Mova, every word is repeated using the Leitner method: forgotten words come back tomorrow, learned ones return after longer and longer intervals.
4. Add level-appropriate reading and listening. If reading in English hasn’t clicked yet, start with phonics — how to teach your child to read in English.
5. Check again in 3–4 months using the same method. Half a step in that time is a good result.

For how to build lessons systematically, see our parent’s guide to English for children.