Key Stage 2: English
Key Stage 2 (KS2) English in the UK covers Years 3, 4, 5, and 6 (ages 7-11), building significantly on the foundations laid in KS1. The aim is to develop articulate and confident communicators, proficient readers who can analyse texts critically, and skilled writers who can adapt their style for various purposes and audiences.
Here's a summary of what's expected in KS2 English, often broken down into lower KS2 (Years 3 & 4) and upper KS2 (Years 5 & 6) due to the progression of skills:
1. Spoken Language (Years 3-6): Spoken language underpins all other aspects of English. Children are expected to:
Listen and Respond: Actively listen and respond appropriately and thoughtfully to adults and peers in various contexts.
Ask and Answer Questions: Ask relevant questions to extend their understanding and knowledge, and to clarify views.
Articulate and Justify: Articulate and justify answers, arguments, and opinions with increasing clarity and evidence.
Give Structured Explanations/Narratives: Give well-structured descriptions, explanations, and narratives for different purposes and audiences, including expressing feelings.
Participate in Discussions: Maintain attention and participate actively in collaborative conversations, staying on topic, building on others' ideas, and challenging views courteously.
Develop Understanding: Use spoken language to develop understanding through speculating, hypothesising, imagining, and exploring ideas.
Standard English: Speak audibly and fluently with an increasing command of Standard English.
Presentations and Debates: Participate in discussions, presentations, performances, role-play, improvisations, and debates.
2. Reading:
Word Reading (Decoding and Fluency):
Phonics Consolidation: While phonics is a major focus in KS1, it continues to be important in KS2 for decoding unfamiliar words, alongside developing knowledge of morphology (word structure, e.g., prefixes, suffixes, root words) and etymology (word origins).
Automaticity: Read a wider range of texts accurately and at an appropriate pace, reading with increasing fluency and automaticity so that they can focus on comprehension.
Pronunciation: Know securely the different pronunciations of words with the same letter-string (e.g., bought, rough, though).
Reading Aloud: Read aloud with appropriate intonation, tone, and volume to make the meaning clear to an audience.
Comprehension: This is a major focus, moving beyond basic understanding to deeper analysis. Children should be able to:
Range of Texts: Read and discuss a wide range of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and plays, including books from other cultures and our literary heritage.
Vocabulary: Understand the meaning of words in context, use a dictionary to check meanings, and explore synonyms and antonyms.
Infer and Deduce: Draw inferences about characters' feelings, thoughts, and motives from their actions, and justify these inferences with evidence from the text.
Predict: Predict what might happen from details stated and implied.
Summarise: Summarise main ideas from more than one paragraph, identifying key details.
Identify Themes and Conventions: Discuss and comment on themes, conventions, and literary devices (e.g., figurative language like similes, metaphors, imagery).
Author's Craft: Evaluate how authors use language, structure, and presentation to create effects and impact on the reader.
Textual Analysis: Make comparisons within and across texts, including different accounts of the same event or different viewpoints.
Retrieve Information: Retrieve, record, and present information from non-fiction texts.
Fact and Opinion: Distinguish between fact and opinion.
Recite Poetry: Learn and recite a wider range of poetry by heart.
Justify Views: Provide reasoned justifications for their views about a book.
3. Writing:
Transcription (Spelling and Handwriting):
Spelling: Apply spelling rules and patterns for prefixes, suffixes, and common exception words (often-misspelled words). They learn to spell homophones and other words that are often confused (e.g., there/their/they're). They use dictionaries and thesauruses effectively (for more information check out KS2 Spelling List).
Handwriting: Develop fluent, legible, and eventually joined handwriting, maintaining legibility when writing at speed. They learn how and when to join letters.
Composition (Articulating Ideas and Structuring):
Planning: Plan their writing by identifying the audience and purpose, drawing on reading and research where needed.
Drafting and Revising: Draft and write, selecting appropriate vocabulary and grammar. They learn to assess and edit their own and others' writing for meaning, clarity, and grammatical errors.
Text Structure: Organise ideas into paragraphs. Use a range of devices to build cohesion within and across paragraphs (e.g., conjunctions, adverbs, pronouns, synonyms).
Sentence Structure: Use a variety of sentence structures, including simple, compound, and complex sentences with main and subordinate clauses. They use expanded noun phrases for detail.
Figurative Language and Dialogue: Integrate dialogue to convey character and advance the action, and use figurative language to create atmosphere and effect.
Formality: Select vocabulary and grammatical structures that reflect the appropriate level of formality for the purpose and audience (e.g., using contracted forms in dialogue, passive voice in formal reports).
Narrative and Non-narrative: Write effectively for a range of purposes and audiences, including narratives (stories), reports, explanations, persuasive writing, and poetry.
Vocabulary, Grammar, and Punctuation (SPaG): This area sees a significant increase in complexity. Children are taught to:
Punctuation: Use the full range of punctuation taught at KS2 mostly correctly, including:
Capital letters, full stops, question marks, exclamation marks.
Commas for lists, after fronted adverbials, and to clarify meaning or avoid ambiguity.
Apostrophes for contraction and possession (singular and plural).
Inverted commas (speech marks) and other punctuation (e.g., commas, full stops) to indicate direct speech.
Brackets, dashes, or commas to indicate parenthesis.
Colons to introduce a list and semi-colons within lists.
Semi-colons, colons, and dashes to mark the boundary between independent clauses.
Hyphens to avoid ambiguity (e.g., man-eating shark vs. man eating shark).
Grammar:
Identify and use nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, and determiners.
Understand and use different verb forms (e.g., simple past/present, progressive, perfect).
Use modal verbs to indicate possibility.
Use the passive and active voice.
Understand and use relative clauses.
Use fronted adverbials.
Understand the difference between phrases and clauses.
Terminology: Use appropriate grammatical terminology with increasing accuracy and confidence.
At the end of Year 6, children undertake national curriculum assessments (SATs) in English reading and English grammar, punctuation, and spelling, as well as teacher assessment for writing, which collectively assess their achievement against these expectations, language and literacy (for more information check KS2 SATs) .