The Year 5 English Curriculum
An Interactive Deep-Dive into Grammar, Spelling, and Pedagogy
The Statutory Landscape
The Year 5 English curriculum is designed as an interconnected ecosystem. Its components are not discrete subjects but are intended to be taught in an integrated way, where skills in one area support development in others. This section provides an overview of its core components.
Spoken Language
The foundation for literacy. Pupils develop confidence in articulating ideas, justifying opinions with evidence, and participating in formal debates, building the vocabulary and grammatical structures needed for formal writing.
Reading
A primary vehicle for grammar acquisition. Pupils read widely, draw inferences about characters’ feelings and motives, and analyse how authors use language, implicitly absorbing the structures they need to write effectively.
Writing
The application of all skills. Pupils plan, draft, and edit their work, making conscious choices about grammar and vocabulary to achieve their desired effect on the reader, and ensuring consistent use of tense.
Curriculum Explorer
Dive into the specific statutory requirements for Year 5. This interactive explorer details the key concepts pupils are expected to master in grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Click on any topic to expand it and see examples.
Grammar & Punctuation
Spelling Rules & Patterns
Pedagogy Playbook
Effective grammar instruction is about more than rules. This playbook outlines research-backed strategies for teaching grammar in a way that is contextualised, interactive, and has a proven impact on writing quality.
Assessment & Critique
The Year 6 SPaG test casts a long shadow over the Year 5 curriculum. This section breaks down the assessment’s structure and critically evaluates its impact on classroom practice, highlighting the disconnect between policy and research.
KS2 SPaG Test: Content Weighting
Source: STA Test Framework. This chart shows the approximate mark allocation for the KS2 test, which heavily influences teaching in Year 5.
The Research-Policy Disconnect
A fundamental “assessment paradox” exists: the test format encourages teaching methods that research has shown to be ineffective for improving real-world writing. This can lead to the development of “brittle knowledge”โfacts that can be recalled for a test but not applied flexibly in authentic writing.
Policy & Assessment Demands
The test incentivises teaching grammar through decontextualised drills, practice papers, and the memorisation of terminology to prepare for discrete-item questions.
Research-Based Pedagogy
Research shows that grammar instruction is only effective when it is contextualised, integrated with reading and writing, and focused on authorial effect.
This “negative backwash effect” means valuable curriculum time for authentic writing and reading for pleasure can be lost to test preparation that doesn’t significantly improve writing ability.
