Young Tom gives little Katherine full marks (6)

I believe the answer is:

kitten

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'young tom' is the definition.
(tom is a cat so young tom is a kitten)

'little katherine full marks' is the wordplay.
'little' indicates taking the first letters.
'full marks' becomes 'itten' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
The initial letter of 'katherine' is 'k'.
'k'+'itten'='KITTEN'

'gives' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for kitten that I've seen before include "New cat" , "Young of a beaver" , "youngster" , "Young feline animal" , "Young rabbit" .)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.

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