Why a Grade 2 English scheme of work matters
Grade 2 is a foundational year for English. Learners are still building the habits the whole of primary depends on – listening carefully, speaking in simple sentences, matching sounds to letters, and forming their first neat, legible words on the page. Get the sequence right and the year carries a child steadily from the sounds and vocabulary of Grade 1 toward the more independent reading and writing of Grade 3. Get it wrong, or skip about, and gaps open that are hard to close later. A scheme of work is what holds that sequence together.
The scheme takes the KICD Lower Primary curriculum design for Grade 2 English Language Activities and spreads it across the school calendar – what to teach each week, the specific learning outcome, the suggested learning experiences, the key inquiry questions, the resources and the assessment. Ours are built this way from the current design by educators experienced in Lower Primary and Early Years CBC delivery, checked against the design before publication, and supplied as editable Word files you can shape to your own class and calendar. Our catalogue also carries versions developed against specific KICD-approved publisher coursebooks alongside the generic CBC-aligned one – open the full set below and read the file titles if you want one matched to your school's book.
The four strands of Grade 2 English
The KICD design organises Grade 2 English into four strands across 150 lessons for the year. At this level the balance sits deliberately on the oral and the foundational:
- Listening and Speaking (30 lessons) – pronunciation and vocabulary, the oral base that everything else in the year is built on. A Grade 2 learner who can hear and say a word confidently is ready to read and write it.
- Reading (60 lessons, the largest strand) – divided evenly between fluency (30 lessons) and comprehension (30 lessons), moving a learner from decoding words toward reading short texts with understanding.
- Language Use (30 lessons) – word classes (20), tense (4) and word structures (6), absorbed through use rather than taught as named grammar (see the note below).
- Writing (30 lessons) – handwriting (8), spelling (8), punctuation (4) and guided writing (10), taking a learner from forming letters neatly toward writing simple sentences of their own.
A note on grammar at this level: the KICD design is explicit that Grades 1–3 should not name grammatical terms such as "word classes" to learners. Children at this stage are not yet ready to hold grammar as an abstract idea, so the design has them absorb these structures implicitly, through plenty of varied, age-appropriate language – explicit grammar teaching begins only at Grade 4. Our Grade 2 scheme keeps that distinction, building the structures into everyday language work rather than teaching grammatical labels.
How the scheme relates to the other documents
For anyone new to how these fit together: KICD produces the curriculum design, which sets the strands, sub-strands, learning outcomes, competencies, values and assessment rubric. The scheme of work lays that design out across Term 1, Term 2 and Term 3, week by week. A lesson plan turns one week's entry into a single worked lesson. A record of work is filled in afterward, showing what was actually taught. Design, then scheme, then lesson plan, then record – and the scheme is where a year of English first takes shape.
What a Grade 2 learner is working toward
The year moves a learner toward listening and responding to simple information, speaking in clear short sentences, reading short texts with growing fluency and understanding, and writing simple sentences legibly with basic punctuation. The scheme sequences the four strands so each week's work builds toward those outcomes rather than merely covering a topic – which matters most at Grade 2, where the skills are still being laid down for the first time.
Term-by-term sequencing
The scheme spreads the four strands across the three terms, each week tied to a specific learning outcome from the design, with assessment and revision built in through the year rather than left to the end. For the exact week-by-week order in your term, open the term-specific file from the catalogue below.
How Grade 2 English is assessed
The design's rubric describes a learner against performance levels – from exceeding expectation down to below expectation – on concrete, skill-specific descriptors rather than one overall mark. A learner reading a short text fluently and accurately sits at a different band from one still decoding word by word, with clear steps in between, and the same descriptor approach applies to listening, speaking, writing and punctuation. Our Grade 2 scheme builds this guidance into its assessment sections so you can see exactly which skill a learner needs more support with.
Who relies on this hub
- Teachers wanting a dependable, editable Grade 2 English scheme built from the current design by educators experienced in Lower Primary CBC delivery.
- Trainee teachers and education students needing a clear, authoritative account of what a scheme of work is and how it sits between the curriculum design and the lesson plan.
- Researchers, administrators and other education-sector professionals needing accurate, current reference information on Lower Primary implementation documents.
- Proxy-downloaders – school office staff or cyber café operators fetching a file for a teacher – who need to be certain of the exact grade, subject and term before downloading.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this scheme built from the current KICD curriculum design? Yes. Every Grade 2 English scheme of work in our catalogue is developed from the current KICD Lower Primary design, checked against it before publication, and kept aligned to the current school calendar.
Why doesn't the scheme teach grammar terms like "noun" or "verb"? Because the KICD design instructs against it at this level. Grades 1–3 absorb grammar implicitly through exposure to age-appropriate language; naming grammatical terms explicitly only begins at Grade 4. Our scheme follows this deliberately.
How many English lessons does Grade 2 have a week? English Language Activities carries five lessons a week, within the Lower Primary timetable of eight learning areas and thirty-one lessons.
Can I get a version matched to a specific coursebook? Some schemes in our catalogue are developed with reference to a particular KICD-approved publisher's coursebook, alongside the generic version. Open the full Grade 2 English set and check the file titles.
I'm downloading this for someone else – how do I confirm it's correct? Check the grade, subject and term against what you were asked to fetch, and match the file name to the request. If unsure which term is needed, confirm with the teacher or school first.
Get the Grade 2 English schemes of work (Editable Word)
The complete Grade 2 English schemes of work – covering Term 1, Term 2 and Term 3 – are in our catalogue as editable Word documents, built from the current KICD curriculum design and kept aligned to the current school calendar. Use the link below for the full set.