Year 2 - Working towards the expected standard

The pupil can, after discussion with the teacher:

• write sentences that are sequenced to form a short narrative (real or fictional)
• demarcate some sentences with capital letters and full stops 
• segment spoken words into phonemes and represent these by graphemes, spelling some words correctly and making phonically-plausible attempts at others 
• spell some common exception words* 
• form lower-case letters in the correct direction, starting and finishing in the right place 
• form lower-case letters of the correct size relative to one another in some of their writing 
• use spacing between words.

Year 2 - Working at the expected standard

The pupil can, after discussion with the teacher:

• write simple, coherent narratives about personal experiences and those of others (real or fictional)
• write about real events, recording these simply and clearly
• demarcate most sentences in their writing with capital letters and full stops, and use question marks correctly when required
• use present and past tense mostly correctly and consistently 
• use co-ordination (e.g. or / and / but) and some subordination (e.g. when / if / that / because) to join clauses
• segment spoken words into phonemes and represent these by graphemes, spelling many of these words correctly and making phonically-plausible attempts at others 
• spell many common exception words* 
• form capital letters and digits of the correct size, orientation and relationship to one another and to lower-case letters 
• use spacing between words that reflects the size of the letters. 

Y2 - Working at greater depth within the expected standard

The pupil can, after discussion with the teacher:

• write effectively and coherently for different purposes, drawing on their reading to inform the vocabulary and grammar of their writing
• make simple additions, revisions and proof-reading corrections to their own writing
• use the punctuation taught at key stage 1 mostly correctly^
• spell most common exception words* 
• add suffixes to spell most words correctly in their writing (e.g. –ment, –ness, –ful, –less, –ly)*
• use the diagonal and horizontal strokes needed to join some letters.