Key Stage 2 English: spelling, punctuation & grammar

Key Stage 2 national curriculum for SPaG

Year 3 (ages 7–8)

Word

• Formation of nouns using a range of prefixes (e.g. super–, anti–, auto–)

• Use of the forms a or an according to whether the next word begins with a consonant or a vowel (e.g. a rock, an open box)

• Word families based on common words, showing how words are related in form and meaning (e.g. solve, solution, solver, dissolve, insoluble)

Sentence

• Expressing time, place and cause using conjunctions (e.g. when, before, after, while, so, because), adverbs (e.g. then, next, soon, therefore) or prepositions (e.g. before, after, during, in, because of)

Text

• Introduction to paragraphs as a way to group related material

• Headings and sub-headings to aid presentation

• Use of the present perfect form of verbs instead of the simple past (e.g. He has gone out to play contrasted with He went out to play)

Punctuation

• Introduction to inverted commas to punctuate direct speech

Terminology for pupils

• preposition, conjunction

• word family, prefix

• clause, subordinate clause

• direct speech

• consonant, consonant letter vowel, vowel letter

• inverted commas (or ‘speech marks’)

Year 4 (ages 8–9)

Word

• The grammatical difference between plural and possessive –s

• Standard English forms for verb inflections instead of local spoken forms (e.g. we were instead of we was, or I did instead of I done)

Sentence

• Noun phrases expanded by the addition of modifying adjectives, nouns and preposition phrases (e.g. the teacher expanded to: the strict maths teacher with curly hair)

• Fronted adverbials (e.g. Later that day, I heard the bad news.)

Text

• Use of paragraphs to organise ideas around a theme

• Appropriate choice of pronoun or noun within and across sentences to aid cohesion and avoid repetition

Punctuation

• Use of inverted commas and other punctuation to indicate direct speech (e.g. a comma after the reporting clause; end punctuation within inverted commas: The conductor shouted, “Sit down!”)

• Apostrophes to mark plural possession (e.g. the girl’s name, the girls’ names)

• Use of commas after fronted adverbials

Terminology for pupils

• determiner

• pronoun, possessive pronoun

• adverbial

Year 5 (ages 9–10)

Word

• Converting nouns or adjectives into verbs using suffixes (e.g. –ate; –ise; –ify)

• Verb prefixes (e.g. dis–, de–, mis–, over– and re–)

Sentence

• Relative clauses beginning with who, which, where, when, whose, that, or an omitted relative pronoun

• Indicating degrees of possibility using adverbs (e.g. perhaps, surely) or modal verbs (e.g. might, should, will, must)

Text

• Devices to build cohesion within a paragraph (e.g. then, after that, this, firstly)

• Linking ideas across paragraphs using adverbials of time (e.g. later), place (e.g. nearby) and number (e.g. secondly) or tense choices (e.g. he had seen her before)

Punctuation

• Brackets, dashes or commas to indicate parenthesis

• Use of commas to clarify meaning or avoid ambiguity

Terminology for pupils

• modal verb, relative pronoun

• relative clause

• parenthesis, bracket, dash

• cohesion, ambiguity

Year 6 (ages 10–11)

Word

• The difference between vocabulary typical of informal speech and vocabulary appropriate for formal speech and writing (e.g. find out/discover; ask for/request; go in/enter)

• How words are related by meaning as synonyms and antonyms (e.g. big, large, little)

Sentence

• Use of the passive to affect the presentation of information in a sentence (e.g. I broke the window in the greenhouse vs. The window in the greenhouse was broken (by me).)

• The difference between structures typical of informal speech and structures appropriate for formal speech and writing (e.g. the use of question tags: He’s your friend, isn’t he?, or the use of subjunctive forms such as If I were or Were they to come in formal writing and speech)

Text

• Linking ideas across paragraphs using a wider range of cohesive devices: repetition of a word or phrase, grammatical connections (e.g. the use of adverbials such as on the other hand, in contrast, or as a consequence), and ellipsis

• Layout devices (e.g. headings, subheadings, columns, bullets, or tables) to structure text

Punctuation

• Use of the semi-colon, colon and dash to mark the boundary between independent clauses (e.g. It’s raining; I’m fed up)

• Use of the colon to introduce a list and use of semi-colons within lists

• Punctuation of bullet points to list information

• How hyphens can be used to avoid ambiguity (e.g. man eating shark vs. man-eating shark, or recover vs. re-cover)

Terminology for pupils

• subject, object

• active, passive

• synonym, antonym

• ellipsis, hyphen, colon, semi-colon, bullet point