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Grammar in The National Curriculum
in summer 2013 the UK government introduced the Year 6 Grammar, punctuation and spelling (SPAG) test. This introduced a more formal approach to grammar in primary schools.
Where the previous national curriculum was quite vague about how grammar should be taught the 2014 version describes in detail which grammatical concepts should be taught in each school year.
You can read or download the full National Curriculum document "English Programmes of Study : Key Stages 1 and 2". The English Appendix 2 Vocabulary, grammar and punctuation starts on page 64 and consists of five pages of tables detailing the content which should be introduced to pupils in years 1-6 divided into "Word", "Sentence", "Text"," Punctuation" and "Terminology for pupils".
Here are the extracts relating to sentences. Links are to other pages on the Language In Use site. A list of vocabulary and linguistic terms is here.
| Year 2 |
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| Sentence |
Subordination (using when , if , that , because) and co-ordination (using or , and , but )
Expanded noun phrases for description and specification [for example, the blue butterfly , plain flour , the man in the moon ]
How the grammatical patterns in a sentence indicate its function as a statement, question, exclamation or command |
| Year 3 |
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| Sentence |
Expressing time, place and cause using conjunctions [for example, when , before , after , while , so , because ], adverbs [for example, then , next , soon , therefore ] , or prepositions [for example, before , after , during , in , because of ] |
| Year 4 |
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| 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 [for example, Later that day , I heard the bad news. ] |
| Year 5 |
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| Sentence |
Relative clauses beginning with who , which , where , when , whose , that , or an omitted relative pronoun Indicating degrees of possibility using adverbs [for example, perhaps , surely ] or modal verbs [for example, might , should , will , must ] |
| Year 6 |
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| Sentence |
Use of the passive to affect the presentation of information in a sentence [for example, I broke the window in the greenhouse versus 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 [for example, 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 some very formal writing and speech] |
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