Year 4 English: what your child learns

Unsure what your child gets up to in English lessons? Get clued up with our guide to the Year 4 English curriculum.
Literacy still brings together the three elements of:
- Reading
- Writing
- Speaking and listening
In literacy this year, the children could be studying one or more of the following topics:
- Stories with an historical setting
- Stories in imaginary worlds
- Stories from other cultures
- Plays
- Newspapers and magazines
- Information texts
- Persuasive writing


Start the Year 4 Learning Programme today!
- Weekly maths & English worksheets direct to your inbox
- Follows the National Curriculum
- Keeps your child's learning on track
Reading in Year 4 – your child will:
- apply their growing knowledge of root words, prefixes and suffixes to read aloud and understand the meaning of new words they meet
- read a range of fiction, poetry, plays and non-fiction texts
- re-tell stories orally
- perform poems and play scripts, showing understanding through intonation and action
- infer characters' feelings though their actions, justifying their inference with evidence
- identify main ideas drawn and summarise these
Try this at home:
- Bedtime stories are still important – choose something which may be a little tricky for your child to read themselves
- Take an interest in what your child reads and encourage them to explain why they like a certain book or author
- If you have a reluctant reader, try something which is funny, such as a comic or joke book
- Be a role model – let them see you reading!
Writing in Year 4 – your child will:
- understand how to spell words with a variety of prefixes and suffixes
- use the possessive apostrophe in words with regular plurals
- use a wider range of connectives (when, before, after, while, so, because)
- start using inverted commas to punctuate speech
- use fronted adverbials with commas (for example: Cautiously, she opened the door...)
- become more confident in joining their handwriting, increasing its legibility and quality
- create settings, characters and plot in narratives using a range of descriptive language
- use paragraphs to organise ideas around a theme
- assess and improve their writing

Try this at home:
- When you are away, encourage your child to send postcards to their friends, or help them find a penpal
- Suggest your child keeps a diary, writing a little every day, or tries another fun writing activity
Check your Y4 child's progress in English with our free Y4 English Progress checks, three mini-tests for the autumn, spring and summer terms.

Explore the Year 4 English and Maths Learning Journey programmes