Written question asked by Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Conservative Independent), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Lord Adonis (Labour) on Monday, 9 January 2006.

Schools: English Grammar

Question: Whether they will promote the study of English grammar in schools, particularly with regard to the differences between the demonstrative adjective ““that”” and the relative pronoun ““which””.

Answer: There are well established national expectations for what children should achieve as they move through primary school, set out in termly word, sentence and text level objectives. The vast majority of maintained primary schools in England teach these through a daily literacy hour as recommended by the National Literacy Strategy Framework for Teaching.The framework for teaching English at KS3 and 4 includes guidance on vocabulary, punctuation, sentence construction, grammar and style. It incorporates key principles and activities for the teaching and learning of writing, including sentence-level grammar, appropriate to individual year groups.

Secondary information