After working longer than I care to remember in secondary schools, I thought I knew the journey of young writers pretty well. My only brush with primary education was a two-week work experience placement many moons ago before I started my secondary PGCE, plus the odd transition day, when Year 6s would turn up with eyes like saucers, rucksacks bigger than they were, and that mix of excitement and terror etched across their faces. Well, some of them. One infamous transition day saw myself and the rest of the English department coaxing an adventurous year 6 student off the roof of a pre-fab classroom. But that’s another story for another day…

So when I found myself, as a newly fledged School Advisor for stylus, moderating KS2 writing, it was a bit like stepping into a time machine. Back to the future, if you like. Suddenly, I had a front-row seat to the grammar, syntax, and sheer precision being taught in primary schools. Apostrophes placed with surgical accuracy. Adverbs and subordinate clauses woven expertly into the tapestry of stories . Children of eleven wielding semi-colons with more confidence than many of my Year 11s.  Quite frankly, I was amazed.

And it left me with a question: where does all that knowledge go?

Because here’s the thing: Year 7 arrives, and it’s a blaze of topic-based projects, young adult novels, and big, bold pieces of extended writing. Exciting, yes—but somewhere in the shuffle, the explicit teaching of grammar seems to vanish. Not deliberately, of course; it’s just squeezed out by the need to prepare for monthly assessments, or by the pressure to teach writing through rubrics and frameworks. The countless acronyms we come up with for students to remember the features of different writing types. We start to train students to ‘hit the mark scheme’, and those beautifully varied, risk-taking sentences shrink into formulas designed to satisfy an examiner. PEE paragraphs, I’m looking at you!

By Year 9, the imaginative spark is still there—but it’s wrapped in the same tired in-house style, like everyone’s voice has been pressed through the same mould. That doesn’t seem to happen in primary. There, children are still unashamedly themselves on the page—quirky, bold, sometimes chaotic, but gloriously original. 

So maybe it’s us at secondary who need to go back and take notes. Not just on what primary teaches, but on how it manages to preserve that freshness while still drilling the fundamentals. Marking KS2 taught me something vital: our job at KS3 isn’t to erase what’s been done, but to build on it—to keep grammar alive, keep style fluid, and nurture the fearless little writers who arrive at our door, rucksacks and all.  

In my current role as a school advisor at stylus, this is exactly the philosophy behind our KS3 marking service. It’s been designed to continue the excellent foundations laid at primary level and to demonstrate to teachers—whether they are ECTs just finding their footing or experienced English teachers with years in the classroom—that it is possible to refine and extend those well-taught grammar and writing skills. At the same time, it helps prepare students for the increasing demands of GCSEs, ensuring that creativity is not sacrificed for conformity, but rather harnessed and developed into confident, precise, and original writing.  

I still teach part time and learning more about KS2 has really boosted my confidence. It’s helped me bring a fresh, creative approach to teaching grammar and punctuation with KS3/4. Instead of just focusing on the rules, I like to show how they can be used for impact - how punctuation can add tension, personality, and flair, rather than feeling like a box-ticking exercise. The opening line of A Christmas Carol is a great one for teaching colons - “Marley was dead: to begin with.” That colon is not just grammar -  it screams spooky drama! 

So to all KS3 teachers: I’d encourage you to spend some time exploring the KS2 TAF. It’s a great way to appreciate just how much knowledge and skill your students are already bringing with them. You may be surprised by the breadth of what they’ve covered—yes, even the subjunctive mood makes an appearance! It’s a powerful reminder that we’re building on strong foundations, not starting from scratch.