Skip to content

Year 3 english lesson plans (national curriculum)

Every Year 3 english statement from the national curriculum programme of study, grouped by strand. Choose "Plan this" and Heapso plans a lesson that covers it.

Spoken language

  • ENG-NC-EN-Y16-001

    listen and respond appropriately to adults and their peers

    Taught across Years 1 to 6

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y16-002

    ask relevant questions to extend their understanding and knowledge

    Taught across Years 1 to 6

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y16-003

    use relevant strategies to build their vocabulary

    Taught across Years 1 to 6

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y16-004

    articulate and justify answers, arguments and opinions

    Taught across Years 1 to 6

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y16-005

    give well-structured descriptions, explanations and narratives for different purposes, including for expressing feelings

    Taught across Years 1 to 6

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y16-006

    maintain attention and participate actively in collaborative conversations, staying on topic and initiating and responding to comments

    Taught across Years 1 to 6

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y16-007

    use spoken language to develop understanding through speculating, hypothesising, imagining and exploring ideas

    Taught across Years 1 to 6

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y16-008

    speak audibly and fluently with an increasing command of Standard English

    Taught across Years 1 to 6

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y16-009

    participate in discussions, presentations, performances, role play/improvisations and debates

    Taught across Years 1 to 6

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y16-010

    gain, maintain and monitor the interest of the listener(s)

    Taught across Years 1 to 6

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y16-011

    consider and evaluate different viewpoints, attending to and building on the contributions of others

    Taught across Years 1 to 6

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y16-012

    select and use appropriate registers for effective communication

    Taught across Years 1 to 6

    Plan this

Reading - word reading

  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-001

    apply their growing knowledge of root words, prefixes and suffixes (etymology and morphology) as listed in - see English appendix 1, both to read aloud and to understand the meaning of new words they meet

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-002

    read further exception words, noting the unusual correspondences between spelling and sound, and where these occur in the word

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this

Reading - comprehension

  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-003

    develop positive attitudes to reading, and an understanding of what they read, by:

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-003.1

    listening to and discussing a wide range of fiction, poetry, plays, non-fiction and reference books or textbooks

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-003.2

    reading books that are structured in different ways and reading for a range of purposes

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-003.3

    using dictionaries to check the meaning of words that they have read

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-003.4

    increasing their familiarity with a wide range of books, including fairy stories, myths and legends, and retelling some of these orally

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-003.5

    identifying themes and conventions in a wide range of books

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-003.6

    preparing poems and play scripts to read aloud and to perform, showing understanding through intonation, tone, volume and action

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-003.7

    discussing words and phrases that capture the reader’s interest and imagination

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-003.8

    recognising some different forms of poetry [for example, free verse, narrative poetry]

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-004

    understand what they read, in books they can read independently, by:

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-004.1

    checking that the text makes sense to them, discussing their understanding, and explaining the meaning of words in context

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-004.2

    asking questions to improve their understanding of a text

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-004.3

    drawing inferences such as inferring characters’ feelings, thoughts and motives from their actions, and justifying inferences with evidence

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-004.4

    predicting what might happen from details stated and implied

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-004.5

    identifying main ideas drawn from more than 1 paragraph and summarising these

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-004.6

    identifying how language, structure, and presentation contribute to meaning

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-005

    retrieve and record information from non-fiction

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-006

    participate in discussion about both books that are read to them and those they can read for themselves, taking turns and listening to what others say

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this

Writing - transcription: Spelling - see English appendix 1

  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-007

    use further prefixes and suffixes and understand how to add them - see English appendix 1

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-008

    spell further homophones

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-009

    spell words that are often misspelt - see English appendix 1

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-010

    place the possessive apostrophe accurately in words with regular plurals [for example, girls’, boys’] and in words with irregular plurals [for example, children’s]

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-011

    use the first 2 or 3 letters of a word to check its spelling in a dictionary

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-012

    write from memory simple sentences, dictated by the teacher, that include words and punctuation taught so far

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this

Writing - transcription: Handwriting

  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-013

    use the diagonal and horizontal strokes that are needed to join letters and understand which letters, when adjacent to one another, are best left unjoined

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-014

    increase the legibility, consistency and quality of their handwriting, [for example, by ensuring that the downstrokes of letters are parallel and equidistant, and that lines of writing are spaced sufficiently so that the ascenders and descenders of letters do not touch]

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this

Writing - composition

  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-015

    plan their writing by:

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-015.1

    discussing writing similar to that which they are planning to write in order to understand and learn from its structure, vocabulary and grammar

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-015.2

    discussing and recording ideas

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-016

    draft and write by:

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-016.1

    composing and rehearsing sentences orally (including dialogue), progressively building a varied and rich vocabulary and an increasing range of sentence structures English appendix 2

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-016.2

    organising paragraphs around a theme

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-016.3

    in narratives, creating settings, characters and plot

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-016.4

    in non-narrative material, using simple organisational devices [for example, headings and sub-headings]

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-017

    evaluate and edit by:

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-017.1

    assessing the effectiveness of their own and others’ writing and suggesting improvements

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-017.2

    proposing changes to grammar and vocabulary to improve consistency, including the accurate use of pronouns in sentences

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-018

    proofread for spelling and punctuation errors

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-019

    read their own writing aloud to a group or the whole class, using appropriate intonation and controlling the tone and volume so that the meaning is clear

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this

Writing - vocabulary, grammar and punctuation

  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-020

    develop their understanding of the concepts set out in English appendix 2 by:

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-020.1

    extending the range of sentences with more than one clause by using a wider range of conjunctions, including: when, if, because, although

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-020.2

    using the present perfect form of verbs in contrast to the past tense

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-020.3

    choosing nouns or pronouns appropriately for clarity and cohesion and to avoid repetition

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-020.4

    using conjunctions, adverbs and prepositions to express time and cause

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-020.5

    using fronted adverbials

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-020.6

    learning the grammar for years 3 and 4 in [English appendix 2]/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/335190/English_Appendix_2_-_Vocabulary_grammar_and_punctuation.pdf)

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-021

    indicate grammatical and other features by:

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-021.1

    using commas after fronted adverbials

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-021.2

    indicating possession by using the possessive apostrophe with plural nouns

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-021.3

    using and punctuating direct speech

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this
  • ENG-NC-EN-Y34-022

    use and understand the grammatical terminology in English appendix 2 accurately and appropriately when discussing their writing and reading

    Taught across Years 3 and 4

    Plan this

Questions teachers ask

What do pupils learn in Year 3 english?
The national curriculum has 65 statutory english statements for Year 3. They are listed on this page by strand, each with a code.
How do I plan a Year 3 english lesson for a statement?
Choose "Plan this" next to the statement. Heapso opens a lesson plan set to Year 3 english with that statement linked. You can change anything before Pip writes.

Plan your next Year 3 english unit

Heapso opens a unit plan set to Year 3 english. Add the statements you're teaching and Pip cites only those, in British English.

Plan this unit free

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: Department for Education, National curriculum in England (2013, updated 2014–2021). Open Government Licence v3.0.

Heapso is an independent planning tool. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Department for Education, the Welsh Government, the Department of Education (Northern Ireland), CCEA, Ofqual, Qualifications Wales or any exam board. Curriculum statements are reproduced from official sources under the Open Government Licence v3.0, with a link to each source. Always check the official documents for what is statutory.