English Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling (EGPS) Progression Grid - January 2015
Guidance
 Children should be able to use the terminology for their year group.
 Children will be expected to apply the terminology in their writing.
 Terminology and content for previous years should be constantly revised, as the objectives are progressive.
 If children are ready for progression into the next year group’s terminology, allow for this within differentiation.
Foundation/ Year 1
-letter (consonants and vowels)
-capital letter
-word
-noun
-adjective
-verb
-statement
-question
-singular
-plural
-sentence (subject / verb)
-punctuation
-full stop
-question mark
-headings/ sub headings to aid presentation
-identify joining words (conjunctions) and joining
clauses using and, but and or
-exclamation mark
-suffixes that can be added to verbs when no change
is need e.g. helping, helped and helper)
-the prefix un e.g. unkind
-separation of words with spaces
Note – in the Foundation Stage content will be
delivered verbally and revisited in Year 1.
Year 2
-noun phrase
-command
-exclamation
-bullet points
-headings/ sub headings to aid presentation
-compound words (whiteboard, Superman,
playground and football)
-sentence (subject / verb)
-adverb
-progressive form of verbs in the present and past
tense to mark actions in progress e.g. she is
drumming.
-subordination (using when, if, that, because) and
co-ordination (using or, and, but)
-formation of nouns using suffixes (-ness, -er, -ful
and -less)
-formation of adjectives using suffixes (-ful and –
less)
-use of the suffixes –er/ -est in adjectives
(comparative and superlative)
-use of –ly to turn adjectives into adverbs
-tense (past and present)
-apostrophe of omission (to form contractions)
-comma to separate items in a list
Year 3
-word family e.g. solve, solution, solver, dissolve,
soluble
-conjunctions to express time, place and cause (e.g.
when, before, after, while, so, because)
-adverb (e.g. then, next, soon, therefore)
-preposition (before, after, during, in, because of)
-direct speech
-inverted commas (or speech marks)
-prefix (super-, anti-, auto-)
-use of a / an
-sentence (subject / verb)
-clause
-subordinate clause
-paragraphs used as a way to group related
material
-headings and subheadings to aid presentation
-use of the past progressive instead of the simple
past e.g. he has gone out to play instead of he
went out to play.
Year 4
-determiner
-pronoun
-sentence (subject / verb)
-possessive pronoun
-adverbial
-inverted commas and other punctuation needed
for speech (before speech opens / closes)
-apostrophes to mark singular and plural
possession e.g. the girl’s name
-difference between plural and possessive s
-commas used after fronted adverbials (e.g. Later
that day, I heard the bad news)
-paragraphs used to organise ideas around a
theme
-use of pronouns to avoid repetition e.g. he
-expanded noun phrases e.g. ‘the teacher’
expanded to ‘the strict maths teacher with curly
hair’
-Standard English instead of spoken verbs e.g.
We were instead of we was.
Year 5
Year 6
-modal verb
-sentence (subject / verb)
-sentence (subject / verb)
-object
-relative pronouns (who, which, where, when,
-active
whose, that) and omitted relative pronouns
-passive
-relative clause
-differences between formal and informal speech
-converting nouns or adjectives into verbs using
-subjunctive forms e.g. If I were
suffixes e.g. –ate, -ise, -ify).
-synonym
-verb prefixes (e.g. dis-, de-, mis-, over-, and re-)
-antonym
-indicating degrees of possibility using adverbs
-ellipsis
e.g. perhaps/ surely or modal verbs e.g. might,
-cohesive devices – repetition of a word, phrase,
should, will, must)
grammatical connections e.g. the use of
-parenthesis
adverbials such as on the other hand, in contrast
-bracket
or as a consequence) and ellipsis
-dash
-layout devices e.g. headings, sub-headings,
-cohesion
columns, bullets, or tables, to structure text)
-ambiguity
-hyphen used to avoid ambiguity e.g. man eating
-brackets, dashes and commas to indicate
shark/ man-eating shark
parenthesis
-colon
-commas to clarify meaning and avoid ambiguity -semi-colon
-devices to build cohesion within a paragraph e.g. -bullet points
then, after that, this, firstly
-semi-colon, colon and dash to mark the
-linking ideas across paragraphs using adverbials boundary between independent clauses e.g. It’s
of time (e.g. later), place (e.g. nearby) and
raining; I’m fed up.
number (e.g. secondly)
-use of colon to introduce a list