Reading, writing and grammar, from age 4 to the 11+
Three skills build together across the primary years: comprehension, story writing, and grammar and punctuation. Here is how they grow, and how you can help your child at home without needing to be a teacher.
Comprehension
Reading closely and thinking about the text: finding facts, understanding words in context, and reading between the lines.
Story writing
Building from a single dictated sentence up to a planned, polished story written under exam timing.
Grammar and punctuation
The national-curriculum journey from capital letters and full stops through to semi-colons, colons and the passive voice.
The one rule that lifts marks most
The marks tell your child how much to write. One mark means one point, so a five-mark question wants five separate points. And for any question that asks “how do we know?”, teach the habit of point, then proof: make the point, then back it with evidence from the text. Said out loud often enough, it becomes automatic.
How it builds, year by year
Difficulty grows in vocabulary, complication and length, and practice steps up in frequency as the 11+ approaches. Milestones such as the 7+, 8+ and 11+ are flagged along the way.
Age 4 to 5
ReceptionLearning to read (phonics)One short, playful, mostly spoken session every two weeks.Comprehension
20 to 40 words
One character, one simple event, a clear beginning, middle and end. Picture-supported.
Story writing
Draw and dictate a sentence, caption a picture, tell a story out loud.
Grammar & punctuation
Holds a pencil well, writes their name, leaves spaces between words. Hears where a sentence ends. Speaks in full sentences.
Age 5 to 6
Year 1Early reading fluencyOne short session a week.Comprehension
40 to 70 words
Two characters, a simple problem and a resolution.
Story writing
Write one to three sentences with a capital letter, finger spaces and a full stop.
Grammar & punctuation
Capital letters to start a sentence and for names and "I". Full stops and question marks. Joining ideas with "and". Regular plural "-s".
Age 6 to 7
Year 27+ entrance windowOne session a week.Comprehension
70 to 120 words
A clear plot with a change of feeling or a small twist, and simple cause and effect.
Story writing
A short story with a beginning, middle and end using joining words (and, but, because).
Grammar & punctuation
Exclamation marks, commas in a list, apostrophes for contractions and singular possession. Conjunctions (and, but, because, when). Nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs. Past and present tense.
Age 7 to 8
Year 38+ entrance windowOne session a week.Comprehension
120 to 200 words
Several events, character motivation and described settings.
Story writing
A structured narrative in paragraphs with varied openers and descriptive detail.
Grammar & punctuation
Paragraphs and headings, inverted commas for direct speech. Prepositions and conjunctions for time and cause, the present perfect tense, expanded noun phrases, prefixes and word families.
Age 8 to 9
Year 4Building toward the 11+One to two sessions a week.Comprehension
200 to 300 words
Subplots, more than one perspective, feelings that are implied rather than stated.
Story writing
Planned narrative (story mountain) with paragraphs, punctuated dialogue and show-not-tell.
Grammar & punctuation
Full speech punctuation, apostrophes for plural possession, commas after fronted adverbials. Standard English verb forms (we were, not we was), pronouns to avoid repetition.
Age 9 to 10
Year 511+ core preparation yearTwo to three sessions a week, ramping up.Comprehension
300 to 500 words
Theme, the author viewpoint, inference across the whole text and simple comparison.
Story writing
Timed plan and write with sophisticated vocabulary, varied sentences and atmosphere.
Grammar & punctuation
Commas to avoid ambiguity, brackets, dashes or commas for parenthesis, relative clauses (who, which, that), modal verbs (might, should, must), suffixes that convert word classes.
Age 10 to 11
Year 611+ exams and secondary transitionThree sessions a week, intensive in the weeks before the exam, then easing afterwards.Comprehension
500 to 700 words
Whole-text inference, theme, authorial intent, comparison and evaluation.
Story writing
Timed creative writing to a stimulus, polished structure, punctuation for effect, then editing.
Grammar & punctuation
Semi-colons, colons and dashes to join or separate clauses, colons to introduce lists, hyphens to avoid ambiguity, bullet points. Active and passive voice, the subjunctive, and choosing formal or informal register.
Ready for real practice?
This guide is free, and always will be. When your child is ready to practise, our bespoke tutorials build original comprehension, story-writing and grammar papers matched to their age and the reading they enjoy, each one with a full mark scheme.
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