Step Two

Figurative language

Similes, metaphors and personification — spotting them, and working out what they actually do.

How the Tortoise Cracked His Shell

A myth. Questions about how a story explains the world, and how a writer uses language for effect.

Reading a news report

How a report is built, what is fact and what is somebody's view, and what the order of the paragraphs does to a reader.

Should Phones Be Allowed in School?

A discursive text that argues both sides. Questions about balance, evidence and how an argument is built.

Two poems, one subject

The same rain in two voices. What each poet does with it, and how to compare two poems without just picking the one you like.

Apostrophes and inverted commas

The two jobs an apostrophe does, and how to punctuate what someone actually said.

Main and subordinate clauses

Which part of a sentence could stand alone, and which part needs the other half.

Commas that change meaning

The four jobs a comma does, and the sentences where moving one changes who did what to whom.

Tense and consistency

Past, present and future, and the rule that matters most: pick one and stay in it, unless you tell the reader you are moving.

How a paragraph is built

A topic sentence, sentences that develop it, and the linking words that hold it together — and what a paragraph is not.

Writing a report

A non-chronological report: headings, present tense, technical words, and facts a reader could check — with no opinions in it.

Writing to persuade

The tools that move a reader — a fact, a question, a strong word, a clear request — and the difference between persuading and shouting.

Angles

An angle is an amount of turn: acute, right, obtuse and straight, and the facts about a line and a full turn.

Area and perimeter are different questions

One is the fence, the other is the grass. Why they need different units, and why two shapes can share one and not the other.

Coordinates

Along first, then up: naming a point with two numbers, and why (2, 5) and (5, 2) are different places.

Symmetry, reflection and translation

Mirror lines, what a reflection keeps and what it flips, and sliding a shape by counting squares.

Timetables and durations

Reading a bus timetable in 24-hour time, working out how long a journey takes, and choosing the bus that gets you there.

Triangles and quadrilaterals by their properties

Naming shapes by their sides and angles rather than how they look — and why a square is also a rectangle and a rhombus.

Units and converting

Metres and centimetres, kilograms and grams, litres and millilitres — and why the number gets bigger when the unit gets smaller.

Below zero

The number line carries on past zero, and everything you know about bigger and smaller flips over.

Factors, multiples and primes

Numbers that divide in, numbers that come from multiplying, and the numbers that only divide by themselves and one.

Order of operations

Why 3 + 4 × 2 is 11 and not 14, what brackets are for, and why everyone has to agree on the order.

Rounding decimals

Nearest whole number, one decimal place, two decimal places — which digit decides, and when rounding is the wrong thing to do.

What a decimal is

The columns carry on past the point. Why 0.7 is bigger than 0.25, and why more digits does not mean a bigger number.

What a percentage is

Out of a hundred — and why that makes percentages the fairest way to compare two things of different sizes.

What a ratio is

Comparing parts to each other rather than to the whole — and why 2 : 3 is not the same as 2/3.

Likely, unlikely, certain

The words for chance, putting events in order of likelihood, and why a coin has no memory.

Reading charts critically

The same numbers drawn two ways. Where the axis starts, what that does to the bars, and the words a poster puts next to them.

What an average actually tells you

Mean, median, mode and range — what each one is for, and when an average hides more than it shows.

How living things suit where they live

Adaptation — the features that help a living thing survive in its own habitat.

Grouping animals

Sorting animals into groups by their features, and why a clear rule matters.

Tiny living things

Micro-organisms too small to see — some helpful, some harmful — and why hygiene matters.

The life cycle of a flowering plant

How a flowering plant grows from a seed and makes new seeds, and why the order matters.

The skeleton and muscles

What our bones and muscles do — support, protect and move the body.

Dissolving and separating mixtures

What dissolving is, and ways to separate a mixture again — sieving, filtering and evaporating.

Reversible and irreversible changes

Changes you can undo, like melting, and changes you cannot, like burning — and how to tell.

Evaporation, condensation and the water cycle

How water turns to vapour and back again, and how that drives the water cycle.

Science keeps us safe and well

Using science — about the Sun, germs and clean water — to make safe, healthy choices.

Rocks and soils

Different rocks have different properties, and soil forms from broken-down rock and living things.

The Sun, the Earth and the Moon

What orbits what — the Earth round the Sun, the Moon round the Earth — and how long each takes.

The Moon and its phases

Why the Moon shines and why its shape seems to change through the month.

The planets of the solar system

The Sun and the planets that orbit it, and where the Earth fits in.

Conductors and insulators

Which materials let electricity through, which do not, and why wires are made the way they are.

Energy: heat, light, sound and movement

Energy comes in forms — heat, light, sound, movement, electrical — and why we should not waste it.

Gravity and friction

Gravity pulling things down, and friction slowing things that rub together.

How we see: light and reflection

Light travels in straight lines and bounces off things into our eyes, which is how we see.

Magnets: pushes and pulls without touching

What magnets attract, how poles attract and repel, and testing a fair way.

High and low, loud and soft

Two ways sounds differ — how high or low (pitch) and how loud or soft (volume).

Reading results and drawing conclusions

Reading a results table, spotting the pattern, and deciding what it does and does not show.