Consonant spellings, adjacent consonants and vowel digraphs/trigraphs

Written completion only; sound production, listening and segmentation are not assessed.

• Year 1: Short-word consonant spellings
• Year 1: Vowel digraphs and trigraphs

Division of words into syllables

Selected words with stable syllable counts; no spoken-response assessment.

• Year 1: Count syllable beats

Plural/third-person s/es and unchanged verb endings ing/ed/er

Noun plurals, third-person verb s/es and unchanged verb endings are practised.

• Year 1: Plural endings: -s and -es
• Year 1: Add -ing and -ed
• Year 1: From actions to people: -er
• Year 1: Verbs ending in -s and -es

Adjective er/est with unchanged roots

Controlled root-to-word transformations.

• Year 1: Add -er and -est

Prefix un-

Specified prefix transformations; meaning is explained in hints.

• Year 1: Change meaning with un-

Compound words

Join explicitly supplied words.

• Year 1: Build compound words

Common exception words

All example words in Appendix 1 are available as written recognition; school phonics programmes may choose others.

• Year 1: Year 1 common exception words

Name alphabet letters in order

Written alphabetical ordering only; letter names and sounds need spoken practice.

• Year 1: Alphabetical order

Regular plurals, unchanged verb suffixes and un meaning

Forms are practised; explaining their meaning in original writing is not assessed.

• Year 1: Plural endings: -s and -es
• Year 1: Add -ing and -ed
• Year 1: From actions to people: -er
• Year 1: Change meaning with un-

Combine words into sentences and join with and

Controlled sentence construction.

• Year 1: Build a sentence
• Year 1: Join sentences with and

Sequence sentences into a short narrative

Recognition from explicit time clues, not writing an original narrative.

• Year 1: Put a short story in order

Word spaces; capitals, full stops, question marks, exclamation marks

Controlled spacing and sentence-ending practice.

• Year 1: Spaces between words
• Year 1: Capital letters and full stops
• Year 1: Statement or question?
• Year 1: Finish an exclamation

Capitals for names and personal pronoun I

Sentence correction.

• Year 1: Capital letters: names and I

ge/dge/g/j, soft c, kn/gn, wr, le/el/al/il and final y

Selected written-completion examples for each pattern, not listening or dictation.

• Year 2: Year 2 spelling patterns

a before l/ll; o for /ʌ/; ey; a after w/qu; or/ar after w; s for /ʒ/; tion

Selected written-completion examples for each pattern.

• Year 2: Year 2 spelling patterns

es and vowel endings on roots ending in y

Changing y before es/ed/er/est and keeping y before ing.

• Year 2: Change y before an ending
• Year 2: Comparatives and superlatives
• Year 2: Keep y before -ing

Vowel endings on roots ending in e

Explicit forms include ing, ed, er, est and y.

• Year 2: Drop e before an ending

Vowel endings on short roots; final consonant doubling

Explicit forms include consonant doubling and the x exception.

• Year 2: Double consonants before endings

ment, ness, ful, less and ly

Explicit roots and changes, including y to i.

• Year 2: Build words with suffixes
• Year 2: Words ending in -ment and -ly

Contractions and singular possessive apostrophes

Specified contractions and ownership expressions.

• Year 2: Spell contractions
• Year 2: One owner: apostrophes

Homophones and near-homophones

Selected familiar pairs, not all example pairs.

• Year 2: Year 2 homophones

Common exception words

Appendix example list in written recognition; not dictation or free recall.

• Year 2: Year 2 common exception words

Nouns with ness/er and compounds; adjectives ful/less; er/est and ly

Controlled word formation.

• Year 2: Build words with suffixes
• Year 2: Make nouns with -er and compounds
• Year 2: Comparatives and superlatives
• Year 2: Words ending in -ment and -ly

Subordination and co-ordination

Identify specified conjunctions; constructing varied subordinate clauses is not assessed.

• Year 2: Conjunctions: join ideas

Expanded noun phrases

Copy complete noun phrases; original composition is not assessed.

• Year 2: Find the expanded noun phrase

Statement, question, exclamation and command

Recognition includes grammatical What/How exclamations.

• Year 2: Statements, questions, commands and exclamations

Present/past consistency and progressive forms

Short controlled sentences, not tense consistency across extended writing.

• Year 2: Choose the past tense
• Year 2: Present and past progressive

Sentence endings, list commas, contractions and singular possession

Includes consolidation of Year 1 punctuation.

• Year 1: Capital letters and full stops
• Year 1: Statement or question?
• Year 1: Finish an exclamation
• Year 2: Commas in a list
• Year 2: Spell contractions
• Year 2: One owner: apostrophes

Vowel suffixes on words of more than one syllable

Stressed and unstressed endings, including double and single consonants.

• Year 3: Suffixes and stressed syllables

y for /ɪ/ and ou for /ʌ/

Written recognition of selected spellings; no sound assessment.

• Year 3: Years 3–4 spelling patterns

Further prefixes

Specified prefixes include assimilated in/il/im/ir and noun prefixes super/anti/auto.

• Year 3: Practise word prefixes
• Year 3: More prefixes: in-, im-, il-, ir- and others

ation and ly

Controlled transformations with explicit root changes.

• Year 3: Words ending in -ation and -ous
• Year 3: Adverbs ending in -ly

ous

Selected forms; not every statutory pattern or exception.

• Year 3: Words ending in -ation and -ous

tion, sion, ssion and cian

Explicit word families covering all four endings.

• Year 4: Noun endings: -tion, -sion and more

ch for /k/ and /ʃ/, gue/que, sc, ei/eigh/ey

Selected written examples of each spelling pattern.

• Year 3: Years 3–4 spelling patterns

Plural possessive apostrophes, including irregular plurals

Regular and irregular plural ownership.

• Year 4: More than one owner
• Year 4: Irregular plural owners

Homophones and near-homophones

Selected context sentences, not every listed example.

• Year 3: Choose a word in context

Statutory word list

All list entries and listed variants are in the bank. Recognition/completion is available; dictation and independent recall are not assessed.

• Year 4: All Years 3–4 statutory-list words

cious/tious and cial/tial

Selected proofreading and completion examples.

• Year 6: Proofread -cious and -tious
• Year 5: Words ending in -cial and -tial

ant/ance/ancy and ent/ence/ency

Selected examples cover ant/ance/ancy and ent/ence/ency families.

• Year 5: Proofread -ant, -ent, -ance and -ence
• Year 5: Words ending in -ancy and -ency

able/ible and ably/ibly

Selected proofreading examples include adjective and adverb forms.

• Year 5: Proofread -able and -ible

Vowel suffixes on fer words

Explicit single/double-r forms reflect changing stress.

• Year 5: Adding endings to -fer

Hyphens joining prefixes to roots

Task requests a hyphen; optional unhyphenated variants are not presented as universally wrong.

• Year 5: Hyphens after prefixes

ei after c and letter-string ough

Selected completion examples; exceptions and pronunciation need additional teaching.

• Year 5: Spellings with ei and ough

Letters not predicted by pronunciation

Selected silent-letter proofreading.

• Year 6: Silent-letter spellings

Homophones and other commonly confused words

Selected contextual contrasts.

• Year 6: Choose commonly confused words

Statutory word list

All list entries and listed variants are in the bank. Recognition/completion is available; dictation and independent recall are not assessed.

• Year 5: All Years 5–6 statutory-list words

Noun prefixes and word families

Noun prefixes and controlled word-family recognition.

• Year 3: Practise word prefixes
• Year 3: Find the related word
• Year 3: More prefixes: in-, im-, il-, ir- and others

Use a/an by the following sound

Examples include hour, unicorn and one-eyed.

• Year 3: Choose a or an

Time/place/cause through conjunctions, adverbs and prepositions

Word-class recognition in context, not free sentence construction.

• Year 3: Time, place and cause
• Year 3: Find the preposition

Paragraphs, headings and sub-headings

Choose a heading for related material; full paragraph organisation is not assessed.

• Year 3: Headings and related sentences

Present perfect compared with simple past

Both form changes and explicit contrasts in time/context.

• Year 3: Build the present perfect
• Year 3: Present perfect or simple past?

Introduce inverted commas for direct speech

Single and double quotation marks accepted.

• Year 3: Mark direct speech

Plural versus possessive s; Standard English verb inflections

was/were and did/done plus plural/ownership contrasts.

• Year 4: Plural or possessive s?
• Year 4: Standard English: was and were
• Year 4: Standard English: did and done

Expanded noun phrases and fronted adverbials

Recognise noun phrases and punctuate supplied adverbials; independent construction is not assessed.

• Year 4: Expand noun phrases
• Year 4: Comma after a fronted adverbial

Paragraph themes and appropriate noun/pronoun choice

Short recognition tasks; editing longer paragraphs is not assessed.

• Year 4: Keep paragraphs on one theme
• Year 4: Replace repeated names

Full direct-speech punctuation

Reporting comma, speech marks and punctuation inside the marks.

• Year 4: Punctuate a full speech sentence

Plural possession and commas after fronted adverbials

Regular/irregular ownership and supplied opening phrases.

• Year 4: More than one owner
• Year 4: Irregular plural owners
• Year 4: Comma after a fronted adverbial

Verb suffixes and prefixes

Suffixes ate/ise/ify and prefixes dis/de/mis/over/re.

• Year 5: Make verbs with suffixes
• Year 5: Change verbs with prefixes

Relative clauses with who/which/where/when/whose/that or omission

Controlled completion, clause identification and omission, including cases where omission is impossible.

• Year 5: Choose a relative pronoun
• Year 5: Build and recognise relative clauses

Degrees of possibility through modals and adverbs

Identification; nuanced comparison of certainty in original writing is not assessed.

• Year 5: Find the modal verb
• Year 5: Adverbs of possibility

Cohesion within/across paragraphs and tense choices

Controlled links and earlier/later events; extended paragraph editing is not assessed.

• Year 5: Link sentences and paragraphs
• Year 5: Past perfect and time relationships

Parenthesis with brackets, commas and dashes

All three specified punctuation styles.

• Year 5: Brackets for extra information
• Year 5: Parenthesis with commas and dashes

Commas clarifying meaning or avoiding ambiguity

Direct address and contrasts between defining and non-defining relative clauses.

• Year 5: Commas for direct address
• Year 5: How commas change meaning

Formal vocabulary; synonyms and antonyms

Controlled contextual equivalents and meaning relationships.

• Year 6: Formal and informal vocabulary
• Year 6: Synonyms and antonyms in context

Passive voice and formal/informal structures including subjunctives and tags

Controlled rewrites, base-verb subjunctives and tags.

• Year 6: Change active to passive
• Year 6: Formal subjunctive forms
• Year 6: Complete a question tag

Cohesive devices, repetition, ellipsis and layout

Recognition and short completions only; composition and paragraph-level mastery are not assessed.

• Year 6: Contrast, consequence and ellipsis
• Year 6: Headings, tables and bullet points

Semicolons, colons and dashes between independent clauses

Specified clause joining, without implying this is the only valid punctuation.

• Year 6: Join clauses with a semicolon
• Year 6: Colons and dashes between clauses

List colons, semicolons within lists and consistent bullet punctuation

Controlled complex lists and a stated full-sentence bullet style.

• Year 6: Introduce a list with a colon
• Year 6: Semicolons inside complex lists
• Year 6: Consistent punctuation in bullet points

Hyphens avoiding ambiguity

Compound modifiers plus recover/re-cover and reform/re-form meaning contrasts.

• Year 6: Hyphens before a noun
• Year 6: Recover or re-cover?

Spoken segmentation, dictated sentences, independent spelling recall

The current generator has no audio or dictation assessment.

Pupil terminology used and discussed accurately

Many terms are practised, but not every term in every context or discussion.

• Year 2: Find nouns, verbs and adjectives
• Year 2: Find an adverb
• Year 3: Time, place and cause
• Year 4: Determiners and possessive pronouns
• Year 6: Find the subject or object