Year 5 English · Key Stage 2 · Vocabulary, grammar and punctuation – English Appendix 2

Year 5 cohesion in writing: linking ideas across paragraphs

In Year 5, children learn how to make a piece of writing hold together, which teachers call cohesion. Within a paragraph, they link sentences with pronouns, connecting words and phrases. Across paragraphs, they use adverbials of time, place and number, and careful choices of tense, so the reader can follow from one part to the next without losing the thread.

Cohesion within and across paragraphs, explained

A text has cohesion when its parts clearly belong together. Think of two versions of the same story: one where every sentence starts with the character’s name and the next event, and one where the sentences lean on each other, using she or it, a word like then or after that, and a clause that says how one thing leads to another. The second reads as one piece rather than a list. The curriculum asks Year 5 children to use devices that build cohesion within a paragraph, and its grammar appendix suggests examples such as then, after that, this and firstly. Schools choose which devices to focus on.

Within a paragraph, cohesion usually comes from a handful of tools. Pronouns (he, she, it, they, this) refer back to something already mentioned, so the writer doesn’t keep repeating a name. Conjunctions and relative pronouns join ideas inside a sentence. Adverbials such as then or after that show the order of events. Repeating a key word, or swapping it for a close alternative or a noun phrase such as “the creature”, keeps the reader on the same subject. Children are taught to choose these on purpose and to read aloud to check that the sentences flow.

Across paragraphs, the writer has to bridge a gap, because a new paragraph signals a change of time, place, topic or speaker. Adverbials do this job. Time words include later, the next morning or meanwhile. Place words include nearby, back at the camp or across the valley. Number words, such as firstly, secondly and finally, suit non-fiction where points are made in order. Tense choices help too. Past tense is the usual choice for a story, but the past perfect (had plus the verb) lets a writer step back to an earlier moment, as in “He had seen her before”. This explains why something happens now without halting the story.

Cohesion matters in reading as well as writing. When children read, they have to follow pronouns back to who or what they mean, and see how a text moves from one idea to the next. A child who can spot those links in a book is better at answering questions about it, and will find it easier to build them in their own writing. Year 5 children are expected to recognise and use the term cohesion, and you may also hear everyday words such as “linking” and “flow” used for the same idea.

Words your child will hear

Cohesion: How well the sentences and paragraphs of a text are linked, so that it reads as a whole.
Pronoun: A word such as he, she, it, they or this that stands in for a noun already mentioned.
Conjunction: A joining word such as and, but, because or when that links words, phrases or clauses.
Adverbial: A word or phrase that adds information about when, where, how or in what order, such as later or nearby.
Paragraph: A group of sentences about one idea, time, place or speaker, starting on a new line.
Tense: The form of a verb that shows when something happens, such as past, present or past perfect.
Past perfect: A verb form made with had plus the past participle, used to show something happened before another past event.

What the National Curriculum says

The programme of study for Year 5 says:

Pupils should be taught devices to build cohesion within a paragraph
Pupils should be taught linking ideas across paragraphs using adverbials of time, place and number or tense choices
Pupils should be taught to recognise and use the grammatical terminology: cohesion

Objectives from the National Curriculum in England, © Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Try it: making a text hang together

Improve this text so that it reads smoothly and links its ideas. “Maya found a key. Maya opened the box with the key. The box had a map in it. Maya followed the map to the woods. Maya had never been to the woods. Maya saw a cave.”

Spot the repetition. Maya and the box and the key are each named again and again. Use a pronoun for the girl, and “it” for the key: “Maya found a key. She used it to open the box.”
Join two ideas with a relative clause, so the map is tied to the box it came from: “…the box, which held a folded map.” The word which links the two ideas inside one sentence. The first paragraph is complete.
Begin a new paragraph, since the story is about to move to a new time and place, and bridge the gap with an adverbial of time: “Later that day, she followed the map to the woods…” The reader knows time has passed.
Add a past perfect to step back in time without halting the story: “…a place she had never visited before.” The word had shows that this fact belongs to a time before the events being told, so the reader learns it is new territory for her.
Link the last sentence with an adverbial of place: “Nearby, she saw the mouth of a cave.” Nearby ties the cave to the woods in the sentence before.

Maya found a key. She used it to open the box, which held a folded map. Later that day, she followed the map to the woods, a place she had never visited before. Nearby, she saw the mouth of a cave.

Common mistakes and how to help

Starting every sentence with “then” or “and then”

Then is the first linking word children learn for putting events in order, so it is easy to rely on it. Pages of “then” make a story sound like a list.

What helps: Vary the link: use a pronoun, a different adverbial (after that, a little later, nearby) or a conjunction to fold two events into one sentence. Read the page aloud and listen for the repeats.

Using pronouns when it is unclear who or what they mean

A child who has learned that he and it are good ways of avoiding repetition may use them when two boys or two objects have been mentioned. The writer knows who “he” is, but the reader cannot tell.

What helps: Ask a reader, “Who is he?” If there is any doubt, use the name or a noun phrase. A pronoun works best when it clearly points back to the last person or thing mentioned.

Starting each paragraph as if the story had just begun

Children are told to start a new paragraph for a new time, place or speaker, and then forget that the reader still needs a bridge to cross.

What helps: Look at the first words of each paragraph. Does an adverbial of time, place or number, or a link back to the previous paragraph, tell the reader how it connects?

Slipping between tenses or using “had” everywhere

Children change tense without noticing, or learn the past perfect and then put had in front of every verb. The past perfect is only for something that happened before another past event.

What helps: Pick the main tense for the piece, usually the past in a story. Use had only when stepping back to an earlier event, such as “She had lost her key before she got there”.

How to help at home

Retell with links. Ask your child to retell a film or their day in five sentences, using a different linking word or phrase each time. Count how many different ones they manage.
Spot the pronoun. Read a short paragraph from a book together and ask what each he, she, it, they and this refers back to. Point to the word it replaces with a finger.
Bridge the paragraphs. Look at the first sentence of each paragraph in a chapter or an article. Find the words that connect it to the one before, such as later, meanwhile, nearby or secondly.
Instructions in order. Ask your child to explain a recipe or how to set up a game, using firstly, secondly, after that and finally. Then tell it again in a story voice, with time and place words.
Before and after. Make up a sentence about something that happened before today’s events, using had: “By the time we left, I had lost my glove.” It gets the past perfect used naturally.

Updated 20 October 2026.