Year 3 & 4 English curriculum

Learn what’s taught in Years 3 and 4 English across the subjects of reading, comprehension, writing, composition, and grammar.

Author
Mhairi Sim

Published
August 2024

Year 3 & 4 English curriculum

Learn what’s taught in Years 3 and 4 English across the subjects of reading, comprehension, writing, composition, and grammar.

Author
Mhairi Sim

Published
August 2024

Year 3 & 4 English curriculum

Learn what’s taught in Years 3 and 4 English across the subjects of reading, comprehension, writing, composition, and grammar.

Author
Mhairi Sim

Published
August 2024

Key takeaways

There is one singular programme of study for the English curriculum for Years 3 and 4
In the Year 3 and Year 4 national English curriculum, students cover aspects of reading, writing, and spoken language
There are no mandatory English assessments for Year 3 or Year 4 students

Table of contents

While there are separate curricular outlines for Year 1 and Year 2 English, targets for Key Stage 2 students are grouped by either upper or lower Key Stage 2 years.

The lower Key Stage 2 programme of study details the curriculum goals that Year 4 and Year 3 national curriculum English students should aim to achieve.

What is taught in Year 3 and Year 4 English?

Students who are working through the Year 3 and Year 4 English curriculum will notice a bit of a step up across the entire English curriculum. They’ll be asked to read more challenging texts, learn new reading strategies, and increase the technicality of their writing.

We’ve broken down each area of the curriculum below to take a closer look at what’s covered in each subject. Let’s get started!

Reading

In Key Stage 2, reading objectives shift away from word reading to focus primarily on comprehension. While word reading skills are still practised, a larger portion of time is spent developing reading and comprehension skills.

Word reading

By Years 3 and 4, students should have a firm grasp on decoding, sounding out, and reading unfamiliar words. Their knowledge of root words, prefixes, and suffixes will help with this! In addition, they’re expected to read exception words (words that sound different to how they are spelt).

Comprehension

Reading comprehension becomes an integral part of the English curriculum as students enter Key Stage 2. In lower Key Stage 2, students are building the essential skills they’ll need for Key Stage 2 SATs.

In Year 3 and 4 English students:

Read and listen to a range of texts including fiction, non-fiction, poems, plays, and reference books
Use dictionaries to clarify the meaning of new words
Write poems and play scripts to perform for others
Retrieve and record information from non-fiction texts
Make inferences (or read between the lines) on aspects like characters’ feelings and provide evidence from context clues in the text to back up their points
Identify key themes and the main idea of a text
Summarise what they have read

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Writing

With the basics now well under their belts, Year 4 and Year 3 English curriculum students will focus on how to compose their written work.

Transcription (spelling and handwriting)

By the lower Key Stage 2, students’ handwriting should be clear and legible with neat joins between letters where appropriate.

They’ll continue to learn new spelling rules as they become more independent in their writing. They are expected to:

Use a range of prefixes and suffixes
Spell certain homophones
Master commonly misspelled words for this year group
Use an apostrophe in plural possessions (e.g. boys’, girls’)
Use a dictionary to check the spelling of a word

Composition

Through Key Stage 2, learners will continue to develop their written work by planning and editing what they have written. Following the English national curriculum, students will:

Discuss similar pieces of writing to what they’re going to write and identify key structures, vocabulary, and other features they should include
Think about the sentences they are writing before putting them on paper
Organise their writing in themed paragraphs
Create settings, characters, and plots in fiction texts
Organise information with headings and subheadings in non-fiction texts
Read over their work and their peers work to suggest improvements
Proofread to catch spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors

Year 3 and Year 4 learners do a lot of work on writing as they move into the upper Key Stage 2 and secondary school where they’ll be expected to write essays!

Vocabulary, grammar, and punctuation

Throughout the Year 4 and Year 3 English national curriculum kiddos will also expand their knowledge of vocabulary, grammar and punctuation.

They’ll cover:

Choosing to use nouns or pronouns in writing to improve clarity and avoid repetition
Using fronted adverbials with appropriate punctuation
Conjunctions, prepositions, and adverbs in their writing
Using direct speech in their writing
Proper punctuation

Are there English assessments in Year 3 or Year 4?

There are no mandatory English assessments for Year 3 or Year 4 students. Instead, students are developing the skills needed for Key Stage 2 SATs at the end of Year 6.

How can I help my child with Year 2 English?

There are lots of ways to help your kiddos in Year 3 or 4 English! Exposing them to a variety of reading materials is always a great place to start.

Here are some ideas:

Let them explore different genres of stories, read recipes with them, let them read the news (Newsround is a great, age-appropriate resource for this), or even let them read the instructions to a board game on your next family game night! Any opportunity for them to read is fantastic.
What fosters excitement for writing like a writing competition? The BBC’s 500 Words Competition opens in September each year and is open to kids aged 5-11!
Practise writing around the house! Have your kids write down a shopping list for you, encourage them to keep a diary, or even challenge them to create a bedtime story for themselves or a younger sibling!
For kids who love interactive games and activities, the DoodleLearning English app is a superb option for making English fun! With thousands of curriculum-aligned activities, they might have so much fun they forget they’re even learning!

While there are no big tests or assessments in English during Year 3 or Year 4, these are still important years for our learners. The change of pace and step up in difficulty is not to be underestimated.

But fear not – with the right support and encouragement, they’ll do just fine! Try out our tips above to keep their learning on track and ensure they smash all those curriculum goals we’ve outlined in this guide.

Parents, try DoodleEnglish for free today!

Year 3 & 4 English curriculum

Year 3 & 4 English curriculum

Year 3 & 4 English curriculum