Developing sentence structures in English

These photographs show examples of children’s writing at Heronsgate. They illustrate how children’s understanding of sentence structure develops, from writing initial sounds and individual words in Reception, to complex multi-clause sentences in Year 6.

Reception Writing Names

In Reception, children have been learning how to write their names and using the phonics sounds they have learnt to identify the initial letters in words. This child has gone one step further – she has written her own and her friend’s name. She has then used her phonic knowledge to write a simple sentence (i luv kiki).

Year 2 Conjunctions

This Year 2 child has used a subordinating conjunction (because) to create a complex sentence with two clauses. He has also included an expanded noun phrase (a beautiful garden) and an exclamation mark to show how exciting and wonderful it is that the character has made the garden.

Year 4 Exploring Clauses

In Year 4 children have been learning to use a wider range of subordinating conjunctions to create subordinate clauses and experimented with placing these at the start of sentences. This child has used ‘although’ to explain her character’s complex feelings. She has moved the subordinate clause to the start of the sentence, and used a comma to separate the two clauses.

Year 6 Complex Sentences

In Year 6 the children have been learning to manipulate clauses to create a range of complex sentences. This child has created a three-clause sentence as part of his persuasive leaflet. It begins with a subordinate clause, then uses a dash to embed a relative clause (an extra clause using ‘who’ to tell us more about the staff) and finally finishes with the main clause (your son will have a better future). The information he has included about the staff in the extra clauses will help persuade parents to send their children to the camp.