The English checklist for trainee teachers (grammar, spelling, punctuation, reading)

Every accredited ITT provider in England must assure that trainees have fundamental English at a standard equivalent to GCSE grade 4. Whether your provider does that by accepting your existing qualifications or by running their own equivalence test, the underlying skills are consistent: the ability to use written English accurately, read with comprehension, and apply the conventions that a professional working with language is expected to know.

This checklist covers the core areas. Use it to audit where you’re confident and where you have gaps — then put your preparation time into the right places.

1. Grammar

Sentence structure

• Identify and write grammatically complete sentences (subject + verb)
• Avoid sentence fragments and run-on sentences
• Construct simple, compound and complex sentences correctly
• Use subordinate clauses and relative clauses (who, which, that, where, when)

Parts of speech

• Identify nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions and determiners
• Understand how modifiers change meaning
• Use conjunctions to link clauses (although, because, however, therefore, while)

Verb forms and tense

• Maintain consistent tense within a passage
• Use subject-verb agreement correctly, including with collective nouns and compound subjects
• Use active and passive voice appropriately
• Form the perfect tense correctly (I have completed / she had written)

Other grammar areas

• Use pronouns consistently — avoid ambiguity (unclear antecedents)
• Recognise dangling modifiers and misplaced clauses
• Apply correct comparative and superlative forms (better/best, more carefully/most carefully)

2. Punctuation

• Full stops — end every sentence; don’t use commas where full stops belong (comma splice)
• Commas — separate items in a list; after introductory phrases; to mark subordinate clauses; before coordinating conjunctions in compound sentences
• Apostrophes — distinguish possessive (the pupil’s work / the pupils’ work) from contraction (it’s = it is; don’t = do not); never use for simple plurals (no “apple’s”)
• Colons — to introduce a list or to expand on a statement
• Semicolons — to link closely related independent clauses; to separate items in a complex list
• Speech marks — punctuate direct speech correctly; placement relative to other punctuation
• Hyphens and dashes — hyphenate compound modifiers before a noun (well-prepared student); use dashes for parenthetical information
• Capital letters — proper nouns, titles, beginning of sentences and direct speech

3. Spelling

High-frequency words teachers need to spell correctly

Errors in these words appear in teacher feedback and written reports. Know them cold:

• accommodate, across, address, answer, beginning, believe, calendar, committee, definite, develop, disappear, embarrass, environment, February, government, grammar, immediately, independent, necessary, neighbour, occurred, opportunities, perhaps, receive, recommend, relevant, separate, successfully, unfortunately, until, Wednesday

Homophones and commonly confused words

• affect / effect
• practise (verb) / practice (noun)
• their / there / they’re
• your / you’re
• its / it’s
• whose / who’s
• principal / principle
• accept / except
• complement / compliment
• stationary / stationery

Spelling rules and patterns

• Prefixes that don’t change root spelling (dis-, mis-, un-, re-)
• Suffixes: -able vs -ible; -ance vs -ence; -ary vs -ery vs -ory
• ie/ei rule and its exceptions
• Silent letters (knowledge, Wednesday, rhythm, Wednesday)
• Doubling the final consonant before a vowel suffix (beginning, occurring, committed)

4. Vocabulary

• Understand words in context — infer meaning from surrounding text
• Choose precise words over vague ones (distinguish rather than tell the difference between)
• Understand formal vs informal register and choose appropriately
• Identify synonyms and antonyms
• Recognise and use common Latin and Greek roots (bene-, mal-, pre-, post-, -ology, -tion)

5. Reading comprehension

• Identify main ideas — what is the central point of a passage or paragraph?
• Extract specific information — locate and cite a particular piece of detail from a text
• Infer meaning — understand what is implied but not explicitly stated
• Identify the writer’s purpose — is the text informing, persuading, explaining, instructing?
• Distinguish fact from opinion
• Understand text structure — how is the argument or information organised?
• Evaluate language choices — why did the writer use this word or phrase?
• Summarise a passage — convey the main points accurately and concisely

How to use this checklist

English literacy weaknesses tend to be specific rather than general. Most applicants are strong in some areas and less secure in others. Go through each section and mark items honestly:

• Confident — I get this right consistently
• Uncertain — I know the rule in principle but sometimes slip
• Need to learn — I’m genuinely unclear on this

Your “uncertain” and “need to learn” items are your preparation list. Don’t spend time on what you already know — go straight to the gaps.

Get an instant picture of your English skills

Our free UK diagnostic assesses across these areas and returns an instant score with a topic-level breakdown — so you know exactly what to work on before your provider’s equivalence assessment.

Take the free English diagnostic →

— The people of SN Academy