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English // English Thinking

Understand that reading is about making meaning, not just saying words correctly — a text that can be decoded but not understood has not been read

English // English Thinking

Notice the difference between decoding words and actually understanding them — recognise when you've read the words but not grasped the meaning, and do…

English // English Thinking

Distinguish between what a text explicitly says and what you have inferred, assumed, or read in — knowing which is which is fundamental to honest comprehension

English // English Thinking

Recognise how an author's deliberate choices — of words, structure, tone, and perspective — create particular effects on you as a reader

English // English Thinking

Evaluate whether your own writing achieves the effect you intended on a reader — go beyond checking for correctness to asking whether it actually works

English // English Thinking

Monitor your own vocabulary gaps — notice words you half-know, distinguish confident from uncertain knowledge, and develop strategies to resolve the uncertainty

English // English Thinking

Reflect on yourself as a language user — how your reading, writing, and speaking shift across audiences, purposes, and contexts, and where you want to develop…

English // Grammar & Punctuation

Understand that words combine to make sentences — a sentence expresses a complete thought; produce and expand complete sentences in speech and writing

English // Grammar & Punctuation

Separate words with spaces in writing; understand that spaces mark word boundaries in print

English // Grammar & Punctuation

Begin sentences with a capital letter and end them with the appropriate mark (full stop, question mark, or exclamation mark); recognise and name end punctuation

English // Grammar & Punctuation

Use frequently occurring nouns (people, places, things) and verbs (action words) appropriately in speech and writing

English // Grammar & Punctuation

Understand and use question words (who, what, where, when, why, how) to form and answer questions

English // Grammar & Punctuation

Join words and clauses using the conjunction 'and' to create longer sentences

English // Grammar & Punctuation

Form and use regular plural nouns orally and in writing by adding -s or -es; understand that plural means more than one

English // Grammar & Punctuation

Understand and use the most frequently occurring prepositions of location and direction (e.g. to, from, in, out, on, off, for, by, with)

English // Grammar & Punctuation

Use basic grammatical terminology when discussing reading and writing: letter, capital letter, word, singular, plural, sentence, punctuation, full stop…

English // Grammar & Punctuation

Use capital letters for proper nouns (names of people, places) the days of the week, and the personal pronoun 'I'

English // Grammar & Punctuation

Use verbs to convey past and present tense correctly and consistently, including the progressive form (e.g., she is drumming, he was shouting), understanding…

English // Grammar & Punctuation

Understand and use the four sentence types — statement, question, exclamation, and command — recognising how grammatical patterns indicate sentence function

English // Grammar & Punctuation

Use commas to separate items in a list within a sentence (e.g., 'I bought apples, bananas, and oranges')

English // Grammar & Punctuation

Use and understand Year 2 grammatical terminology in discussion: noun, noun phrase, statement, question, exclamation, command, compound, suffix, adjective…

English // Grammar & Punctuation

Use subordination (when, if, that, because) and co-ordination (or, and, but) to join clauses and create compound and complex sentences

English // Grammar & Punctuation

Use apostrophes in writing for both contraction (marking omitted letters) and singular possession, distinguishing the two uses

English // Grammar & Punctuation

Use expanded noun phrases to describe and specify, adding adjectives and other modifiers before a noun (e.g., 'the blue butterfly', 'the old, creaky door')