Year 2: age, curriculum and assessments

Year 2 is the last year of Key Stage 1, and the last year of infant school where schools split infants and juniors.

The answer

Children in Year 2 are 6 or 7 years old. Year 2 is in Key Stage 1, and every child turns 7 during the year.

Year 2 at a glance

Year 2 is the final year of Key Stage 1. Key Stage 1 is Years 1 and 2, ages 5 to 7. Year 2 is when reading usually becomes fluent and the first times tables arrive: the 2, 5 and 10 times tables are expected by the end of the year.

Age: 6 to 7
Key stage: Key Stage 1
Where: Primary school
National assessments: Phonics screening check retake; End of Key Stage 1 tests (optional)

What children learn in Year 2

Taken from the national curriculum in England (2014), Year 2 programmes of study for mathematics and English, and English Appendix 2.

Maths in Year 2

Know the place value of each digit in a two-digit number, and compare and order numbers to 100 using <, > and =.
Recall addition and subtraction facts to 20 fluently, and use them to work out related facts to 100.
Add and subtract a two-digit number and ones, a two-digit number and tens, two two-digit numbers, and three one-digit numbers.
Recall the 2, 5 and 10 times tables and the division facts that go with them, and recognise odd and even numbers.
Find 1/3, 1/4, 2/4 and 3/4 of a length, shape, set or quantity, and see that 2/4 is the same as 1/2.
Tell the time to five minutes, including quarter past and quarter to.
Use £ and p, make the same amount with different coins, and give change.
Read and make pictograms, tally charts, block diagrams and simple tables.

English in Year 2

Keep using phonics until decoding is automatic, and read familiar words quickly without sounding them out.
Read longer words, words with common suffixes, and more common exception words.
Spell contractions, some homophones, and words ending in -ment, -ness, -ful, -less and -ly.
Use apostrophes for missing letters (can’t) and for one owner (the girl’s book), and commas in lists.
Write statements, questions, exclamations and commands, and use expanded noun phrases such as the blue butterfly.
Join ideas with when, if, that and because, as well as and, or and but, and keep to the past or present tense.
Start joining some letters in handwriting.

Tests and assessments in Year 2

Phonics screening check retake: In June; Only for children who did not meet the expected standard in Year 1.
End of Key Stage 1 tests (optional): Usually in May, if the school uses them; The reading, grammar, punctuation and spelling, and maths papers have been optional since the 2023/24 school year. Schools may still use them to inform teacher assessment, but they do not have to report the results to you.

Telling the time

Year 2 children tell the time to five minutes, including quarter past and quarter to. Set a time and see it on the clock face and in words.

An interactive example loads here in your browser.

Is your child in Year 2?

Enter a date of birth to see the year group today, and the dates that matter from Reception to Year 7.

A school year finder loads here in your browser: enter a date of birth to see the year group.

How to help at home in Year 2

Say the 2, 5 and 10 times tables out loud, forwards and backwards, and ask the matching division facts: how many 5s make 35?
Use real money: let your child pay for something small and work out the change.
Read the time on an analogue clock in five-minute steps.
Keep reading aloud to your child: books above their own reading level build vocabulary and understanding.

Other year groups

Questions parents ask

What age is Year 2?

Children in Year 2 are 6 or 7 years old. Children in the same year group are born between 1 September in one year and 31 August the next, so each child turns 7 at some point during Year 2.

What key stage is Year 2?

Year 2 is the final year of Key Stage 1. Key Stage 1 is Years 1 and 2, ages 5 to 7.

Are Year 2 SATs still compulsory?

No. The end of Key Stage 1 tests have been optional since the 2023/24 school year. Some schools still use them, but they do not have to report the results to parents.

Which times tables should my child know by the end of Year 2?

The 2, 5 and 10 times tables, with the division facts that go with them. Year 3 adds the 3, 4 and 8 times tables, and every table up to 12 × 12 is expected by the end of Year 4.

Building the basics for later years

The early years are about sounds, stories and number sense, not tests. When your child reaches Years 4 to 6, our free diagnostic checks maths, English and both kinds of reasoning and shows what to practise next. No card is required.

Start free diagnostic