The Storm at Heron’s Rest
A tense story about a boy, a failing lighthouse lamp and a storm, with eight questions on evidence, figurative language and summarising.
Read the passage
By the time Ellis reached the harbour wall, the sky had turned the colour of old slate. Out at sea, the waves were growing taller, and the wind had begun to howl through the rigging of the small boats. Ellis pulled his hood tight and pushed on towards the lighthouse.
Heron’s Rest had been home to the Penhallow family for four generations. Ellis’s great-grandfather had kept the lamp burning through storms long before electricity reached the coast, and Ellis’s mother still checked the light each evening. Tonight, though, she was away at the mainland hospital, and the keys were in Ellis’s pocket.
He climbed the winding stairs two at a time, his breath ragged. At the top, the great lamp sat dark and silent. Ellis fumbled with the switch. Nothing. He tried again, and a faint crackle of static was the only reply.
Through the glass he could see a single fishing boat battling the swell, its tiny lantern flickering like a dying star. Somebody out there was relying on this light, and the only person who could help was a twelve-year-old with cold hands and a pounding heart.
Ellis took a deep breath. He remembered the old brass lantern that his mother kept in the cupboard beneath the stairs, “for emergencies only”. He raced down, wrenched open the door and found it wrapped in a blanket, its glass polished and its oil topped up.
Back at the top, his hands shook as he struck the match. The flame caught, steadied and grew. Ellis lifted the lantern high in the window and began to swing it in slow, deliberate arcs, just as he had seen his mother do on the night of the last big storm.
Out on the water, the little boat turned slowly towards the safety of the harbour.
Answer the questions
- For how many generations had the Penhallow family lived at Heron’s Rest? (1 mark)
- Why was Ellis alone at the lighthouse that evening? (1 mark)
- Find and copy one word from the third paragraph that tells you the stairs were not straight. (1 mark)
- How can you tell that Ellis was nervous as he climbed to the lamp room and lit the lantern? Give two pieces of evidence from the story. (2 marks)
- The author describes the boat’s lantern as “flickering like a dying star”. What does this comparison suggest about the boat’s situation? (2 marks)
- Why do you think Ellis’s mother kept the brass lantern “for emergencies only”? (2 marks)
- Summarise the story in no more than three sentences. Say what the problem was, what Ellis did and what happened in the end. (3 marks)
- How do you think Ellis’s mother will feel when she hears what he did? Use evidence from the story to explain your answer. (2 marks)
Answer key for parents and teachers
1. Four generations. (1 mark)
Finding information (2b). A fact to find in the second paragraph.
2. His mother was away at the mainland hospital. (1 mark)
Finding information (2b). The reason is stated, so the child practises locating and rewording it.
3. winding (1 mark)
Word meaning (2a). Practises matching a word to a description.
4. Any two of: “a pounding heart”, “his hands shook”, “fumbled with the switch”. (“Breath ragged” is not accepted on its own, because it could just mean he was out of breath from the stairs.) (2 marks)
Inference (2d). The author never says “Ellis was scared”. The child finds the clues that show it.
5. The light is weak and could go out, so the boat is in danger. (2 marks)
Language choices. Understanding what a simile suggests, not just spotting it, is an upper-primary reading skill.
6. So there would be a light to use if the main lamp failed; Ellis used it when the lamp would not work. (2 marks)
Inference (2d). The child links a detail from earlier in the story to what happens later.
7. 1 mark each for: the lamp would not work while a boat was in danger in the storm; Ellis fetched and lit his mother’s emergency lantern and swung it in the window; the boat saw the light and turned safely towards the harbour. (3 marks)
Summarising (2c). A good summary keeps the main events and leaves out the small details. This is the core Year 5 and 6 reading skill.
8. Proud (or relieved/amazed): he acted bravely, used the lantern she kept for emergencies, and copied what she had done in the last storm. (2 marks)
Giving a view with evidence. There is more than one good answer here. What matters is a sensible feeling backed by evidence from the text.
What this practises
Finding information (2b), Word meaning (2a), Inference (2d), Language choices, Summarising (2c), Giving a view with evidence. The codes in brackets are the reading content domains from the national curriculum test framework. Marks and answers are a guide: accept any sensible answer that is backed up by the text.
Now try the writing task
Write the next scene. Ellis’s mother comes home. What does she say, and what does Ellis tell her?
Aim for eight to twelve sentences. Read it back aloud together and fix anything that does not sound right.
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More Year 5 worksheets
Free to print and copy for your own family or classroom. Please do not sell or republish. The passage and questions were written for LiteracyLab AI.