Primary English

What is English?

English lessons are where students learn how to effectively communicate ideas (where English is their first language).

English is taught across primary school and secondary school in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and several other English-first countries, and typically follows a national curriculum. Each year group in primary school has a set of learning objectives to be attained by students within the school year. In the United States, English is known as language arts, and schools follow the Common Core curriculum.

The UK National Curriculum is split into Key Stage 1 (KS1) and Key Stage 2 (KS2). KS1 covers Years 1 and 2, whilst KS2 covers Years 3 to 6. Throughout their primary school journey, children work on their English skills, from gaining basic literacy skills such as understanding phonics, to using punctuation correctly, to learning about sentence structure. Children will learn a host of writing skills, from using thesauruses, to effectively using figurative language, to creating engaging plots for stories.

What are the components of English?

• Reading
• Writing
• Spelling
• Grammar
• Punctuation

The guides linked above detail the standards required at each year group of primary school for each of the components. They also feature resources, instructional materials and top tips on how to help your child reach meet the requirements of the primary English curriculum. Teaching English can be challenging, whether you’re a parent or a teacher, and our free resources are here to help.

Why is English important?

English is important because it teaches your child all of the communication skills required for both everyday life and their future education. It teaches them how to write, speak, listen, read and interpret a wide variety of content produced in a variety of contexts: from texts, to films, to life-like conversations. It is possibly the most important subject your child will study in terms of real-life, everyday value. Helping your child succeed in English is a great thing to do as a parent.

How can Night Zookeeper help?

Our reading & writing program makes learning English skills easy and fun! It covers the English National Curriculum for KS1 and KS2, and is used by parents around the world to supplement their child’s English learning, whether their learners attend primary school or are homeschooled.

By using a high-quality gamified and incentivised experience, our program makes reading & writing fantastically fun for young learners, teaching them through thousands of Games, Challenges & Lessons. It works on tablets, laptops and PCs, making it flexible and easy to access.

You can try it for free with our 7 day trial!