PSLE English Oral Study Guide · Chapter 2

PSLE English Oral Past-Year Topics (2019–2026), Including the 2026 Topics

Eight years of reported PSLE English Oral photograph themes — including the 2026 paper, sat on 12 and 13 August — the 8 themes we'd prepare for with our reasoning, and the 12 recurring theme clusters that cover virtually every past-year topic. SEAB does not publish topics — this is reconstructed from parent and student reports.

Past-year topics and what to prepare for

English Oral topics are less predictable than Chinese, but clear patterns emerge across a decade of data. Unlike Chinese, SEAB uses photographs rather than videos, so the “topic” is inferred from the image and the three questions that follow.

SEAB does not publish oral topics. The entries below are reconstructed from parent and student reports across multiple sources and should be treated as reported themes, not confirmed questions.

Reported PSLE English Oral themes (2019–2026)

Year	Day 1	Day 2
2026	Children playing at a neighbourhood playground — free time, relaxation	Crowded public bus — public transport, getting around Singapore
2025	Ice cream cart with long queue — food, patience, public spaces	Bustling hawker centre — food, community, life skills
2024	Opening of a new park — outdoors, public behaviour	School Attendants Appreciation Week — elderly, gratitude
2023	Science exhibition at Science Centre — technology, places of interest	Girl writing in diary — memories, treasured items
2022	Recycling old sports shoes — environment, sustainability	Boy playing tablet at homework time — screen time, responsibility
2021	Girl asleep with alarm ringing — time management, sleep	Talk on caring for pets — animals, learning methods
2020	Neighbourhood breakfast gathering — community, neighbours	School graduation concert ticket — performance, arts
2019	Bookshelf with recommendations — reading, libraries	Computer lab rules poster — responsibility, technology

2026 (sat 12–13 August) is as reported by parents and Singapore tuition centres in the days after the exam. We did not sit the paper and SEAB does not publish oral topics, so treat it as reliable on theme and approximate on exact wording.

Eight themes worth preparing for

We wrote this list before the 2026 paper, which featured a playground (free time) and a crowded bus (public transport). We have left it unchanged: the reasoning is about how often each theme appears and how long since it was last tested, and that still holds.

Important: No one can predict what SEAB will set. This list is based on how frequently each theme has appeared in past years and how long it has been since it was last tested. Use it to structure your child's preparation — not as a forecast.

#	Theme	Priority	Why we'd prepare for this
1	Sports & exercise	★★★★★	Appears frequently in prelims but was absent from the actual 2025 PSLE.
2	Technology & AI	★★★★★	Last appeared in 2022. Increasingly relevant and strong territory for opinion questions.
3	Family bonding	★★★★	Common in prelims but not in the actual 2025 exam. Multi-generational angles work well.
4	Environmental sustainability	★★★★	Perennial favourite. Last appeared in the actual PSLE in 2022. Ties to the SG Green Plan 2030.
5	Community service & volunteerism	★★★★	Core values theme. Photographs could show charity events, neighbourhood clean-ups, or similar.
6	Cultural festivals & racial harmony	★★★	SG60 year. Not tested recently. Strong photograph material.
7	Mental health & managing stress	★★★	Increasingly prominent in school syllabi. Strong opinion question territory.
8	Food & hawker culture	★★★	Tested in 2025 on both days. Could return with a different angle — cooking, food waste.

Key insight from 2025: Both days featured food-related photographs. All questions were opinion-based — a major shift from previous years where only one of the three questions required an opinion. Students must be prepared to form and defend viewpoints on the spot, not just describe what they see.

Twelve recurring theme clusters (2015–2025)

These twelve categories account for virtually all PSLE English Oral topics across the past decade. If your child can discuss each one with specific vocabulary and one personal example, there should be no real surprises on exam day.

Family & relationships

School life & learning

Community & social responsibility

Environment & sustainability

Health & well-being

Hobbies & leisure

Technology & screen time

Places of interest

Food & hawker culture

Values & character

Responsibility & time management

Animals & pets

“The evolution to also include preparation for listening comprehension is also very much appreciated…”

A P6 parent · English and Chinese · more parent reviews

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