Teaching relative clauses in KS2 feels much simpler when you’ve got resources that match the UK National Curriculum for Years 4, 5 and 6. Relative clauses add extra information to sentences with pronouns like who, which, where, when, whose and that. They help pupils develop more sophisticated writing skills.
If you want children to understand and use these well, you’ll need clear explanations, lots of practice activities and engaging exercises.
Michelle Connolly, founder of LearningMole and an ex-primary teacher with over 15 years in the classroom, says, “relative clauses can feel tricky at first, but when you break them down with visual examples and give children chances to build their own sentences, they quickly gain confidence.” At LearningMole, a UK educational platform, you’ll find videos and materials that make grammar concepts accessible for children aged 4 to 11.
Whether you’re teaching relative clauses for the first time in Year 4 or revising with older pupils, having a stash of worksheets, activities and lesson plans saves time and helps your class grasp the concept.
This guide brings together practical teaching strategies, common challenges and top recommended resources to support your English lessons.
Key Takeaways
A relative clause is a type of subordinate clause. It adds extra information to a noun or an entire clause in a sentence.
In KS2 English, children use relative pronouns like who, which, where, when, whose and that to introduce these clauses.
A relative clause is a subordinate clause that gives more detail about a noun or clause in a sentence. You introduce these clauses with relative pronouns such as who, which, that, where, when or whose.
Teaching relative clauses in KS2 helps children write more precisely and express their ideas clearly. When pupils know how to use these clauses, they can join simple sentences into more complex ones.
Their writing becomes more interesting and they can show relationships between ideas.
The Year 5 national curriculum says children should use relative clauses starting with who, which, where, when, whose or that. They also need to know when they can leave out the relative pronoun.
Relative clauses do two main jobs. They add information about a specific noun in your sentence.
For example, “The dog that I saw by the river looked lost” uses the relative clause to tell you which dog. They can also add information about an entire event or situation, like “I lost my jumper, which really annoyed my mum.”
You can use defining and non-defining relative clauses to control how important the information is. Defining clauses contain information you need to understand the sentence, and you don’t use commas around them.
Non-defining clauses add extra information you could remove, and you must separate them with commas or brackets.
Here are typical examples you’ll see in KS2 English lessons:
Using who for people:
Using which for things:
Using where for places:
Using when for time:
Using whose for possession:
Relative clauses fall into two main categories. Defining relative clauses provide essential information about the noun.
Non-defining relative clauses add extra details you could remove without changing the main meaning.
A defining relative clause gives you necessary information to identify which person or thing you mean. If you take away this clause, the sentence loses its clear meaning or gets confusing.
You write these clauses without commas. The clause sits right after the noun it describes and you can’t remove it.
Common examples include:
These clauses usually use relative pronouns like who, that, which, where and whose. When you teach at KS2 level, start with simple examples before moving to more complex sentences.
Many teaching resources for relative clauses include worksheets that help pupils practise spotting the essential information.
The National Curriculum expects Year 5 pupils to recognise and use defining relative clauses in their writing. You’ll see that ‘that’ often replaces ‘which’ in spoken English, though both are fine in formal writing.
A non-defining relative clause adds bonus information about a noun that is already clear. If you remove this clause, the sentence still makes sense.
These clauses always need commas before and after them. The commas work like brackets to show the information is extra, not essential.
Key examples include:
Non-defining relative clauses can’t use ‘that’ as the relative pronoun. You must use who, which, whose, where or when instead.
This rule helps pupils tell the difference between the two types when they’re learning about relative clauses at KS2.
Teachers often notice that pupils need extra practice with comma placement in non-defining relative clauses. The pause created by commas changes how you read the sentence aloud, which can help children spot the difference between the two clause types.
Relative pronouns connect two parts of a sentence and add information about a noun. The five main relative pronouns are who, which, that, whose and whom, and each one follows its own rules about when to use it.
The five relative pronouns you’ll teach in KS2 are who, which, that, whose and whom. These words help pupils add detail to their sentences and make writing more interesting.
Who refers to people. Which refers to animals, objects and ideas.
That can refer to people, animals or things. Whose shows possession and can relate to people or things.
Whom refers to people as the object of a verb or preposition, though you’ll see it less in everyday speech.
You might also find where and when used in relative clauses. They aren’t technically pronouns but work in similar ways to add information about places and times.
Use who when you’re talking about people as the subject of your clause. For example, “The teacher who marked my work gave helpful feedback.”
You can also use relative clauses to add information about the person you’re describing.
Which works for animals and things. Write “The book which sits on the shelf is my favourite.” That is more flexible and often sounds less formal.
You can say “The dog that barked loudly” or “The girl that won the race.”
Whose shows that something belongs to someone or something. Try “The pupil whose pencil broke borrowed mine.”
Whom pops up mainly in formal writing. You’d write “The author whom I admire most” rather than using who in formal contexts.
You can sometimes leave out relative pronouns when they’re the object of the clause. The sentence “The book I’m reading is brilliant” works perfectly without adding “that” or “which” after “book.”
This only works when the pronoun isn’t the subject doing the action. You can’t remove it from “The teacher who teaches Year 5” because who is the subject.
But “The teacher I met yesterday” doesn’t need a pronoun because the teacher isn’t doing the action in the relative clause.
Many KS2 grammar resources on relative clauses include activities for spotting when you can drop pronouns. Your pupils might find this tricky at first, so give them lots of examples to work through.
Relative clauses act as subordinate clauses and add extra detail to your sentences. They connect to main clauses with relative pronouns and can pop up in different positions to create varied, lively writing.
You can put relative clauses at different points in your sentences depending on what you want to add. The most common spot is right after the noun you’re describing.
This helps readers quickly see what the clause refers to.
When you place a relative clause in the middle of a sentence, you need commas to separate it from the main clause. For example: “My brother, who loves football, practises every Saturday.”
The main clause “My brother practises every Saturday” still makes sense on its own.
You can also put relative clauses at the end of sentences. This works well when you’re adding information about a whole event or action.
An example would be: “I forgot my homework, which made my teacher cross.”
Year 5 pupils often find it tough to decide where to place their relative clauses. Teachers find it handy to give children simple sentences and ask them to insert relative clauses in different spots to see how the meaning changes.
A main clause has a subject and verb and makes sense by itself. The subordinate clause can’t stand alone and depends on the main clause for its meaning.
In the sentence “The dog that barked loudly woke everyone up,” the main clause is “The dog woke everyone up.”
You could remove “that barked loudly” and the sentence would still work. The subordinate clause “that barked loudly” adds detail but isn’t essential for the basic meaning.
Knowing this difference helps you punctuate complex sentences correctly. Non-defining relative clauses (subordinate clauses with extra information) need commas or brackets.
Defining relative clauses (subordinate clauses with essential information) don’t need punctuation marks around them.
Noun phrases work as single units in sentences. Relative clauses often expand these phrases, giving more detail or precision.
When you write “the girl,” that’s a basic noun phrase. If you add a relative clause, you get “the girl who sits next to me.” Now, the noun phrase has extra information.
Complex sentences always include at least one main clause and one subordinate clause. The relative clause acts as the subordinate part.
Take the sentence “Children who enjoy reading often visit the library.” It uses both a main and a subordinate clause, creating a more interesting structure than a plain sentence.
Teaching relative clauses in KS2 encourages children to build complex sentences step by step. You might hand pupils a main clause and ask them to add a relative clause starting with “who” or “which.”
This scaffolded method builds confidence with trickier sentence structures, which the National Curriculum expects in Year 5 and Year 6.
Punctuation in relative clauses depends on whether the information is essential. Non-defining clauses need commas, brackets or sometimes colons. Defining clauses don’t need any punctuation.
Non-defining relative clauses add extra information you could remove without changing the main meaning. Always put commas before and after these clauses.
For example: My sister, who is called Laura, is really annoying. The bit “who is called Laura” just adds extra detail. The sentence still works without it: My sister is really annoying.
Brackets or colons can work too. My dog (which is always hungry) munched the sofa is the same as My dog, which is always hungry, munched the sofa. Both follow proper SPaG rules for Year 5 pupils.
Teachers often notice children forget to close the punctuation. If you open with a comma, bracket or colon, you need to close with the same thing at the end of the clause.
Defining relative clauses give essential information. You don’t use any punctuation for these because removing the clause would change the meaning.
For example: Footballers who practise regularly are more likely to be picked for top teams. Without the clause, it just says Footballers are more likely to be picked for top teams, which isn’t right. The clause “who practise regularly” tells you which footballers you mean.
Another one: It is best not to approach dogs that you do not know. You’re not talking about every dog, just unfamiliar ones.
Understanding when commas change meaning really helps children see the difference. Mangoes which are grown in hot countries taste delicious means only those mangoes. Mangoes, which are grown in hot countries, taste delicious means all mangoes, and by the way, they’re grown in hot countries.
The most frequent error is adding commas to defining relative clauses. Children sometimes assume every relative clause needs commas, which actually changes the meaning.
The children who loved painting enjoyed the art lesson refers to a specific group. If you add commas (The children, who loved painting, enjoyed the art lesson), it now says all the children loved painting and all enjoyed the lesson.
Pupils also forget the closing comma in non-defining clauses. Writing My cat, which loves tuna is asleep leaves the sentence hanging. You need both commas: My cat, which loves tuna, is asleep.
Some children mix up punctuation marks. You can’t open with a bracket and close with a comma. The marks need to match: both commas, both brackets or both colons.
Good teaching strategies help children get to grips with relative clauses using clear modelling, support and engaging practice activities. Start with clear examples, then move towards creative tasks. Visual aids make grammar ideas stick.
Show children simple sentences and demonstrate how relative clauses add detail. Use colour coding to highlight the noun and the clause that follows it. For example, write “The dog” in one colour and “that lives next door” in another.
Hand out sentence starters with relative pronouns already there. Prompts like “There’s the dog that…” or “This is the park where…” encourage children to finish the sentences. This method helps when teaching relative clauses because it builds confidence before pupils write independently.
Show incorrect examples and let pupils fix them. For instance, “The girl where won the race” instead of “The girl who won the race”. Children learn which pronouns fit people, places, times and things. A chart with who, which, where, when, whose and that works well for quick reference.
Offer cloze sentences with gaps for relative clauses. For example: “My cat, _____________, curled up with me” and give information such as “My cat is very fluffy”. Children turn it into “My cat, which is very fluffy, curled up with me”.
Break the process into small steps. Ask pupils to spot nouns first, then add simple information, and finally turn it into a relative clause with the right pronoun and punctuation.
Use sentence frames like “_________, which _________, _________” so children can practise the structure without worrying about the pronoun. This helps them focus on the clause itself. Gradually, you reduce the support as their KS2 grammar skills improve.
Create word banks with useful verbs and adjectives for different relative pronouns. Children can pick words from these lists to build clauses, focusing on structure rather than thinking up new words.
Try spinning wheels with relative pronouns. Children spin, pick a pronoun, and then make a sentence with it. This works for the whole class or in small groups during SPaG curriculum lessons.
Play matching games where children pair sentence beginnings with suitable relative clauses. For example, “The book” on one card and “that I borrowed from the library was excellent” on another. Pupils have to find the right pairs and explain their choices.
Set up sorting tasks for defining and non-defining clauses. Give pupils sentences and ask if commas are needed. For example, “My sister who lives in London is visiting” versus “My sister, who lives in London, is visiting” shows how punctuation changes meaning.
Run relative clause building challenges. Teams compete to write the longest correct sentence using multiple relative clauses. Offer points for correct pronoun use and punctuation. This bit of competition keeps children motivated and gives them lots of practice.
Teachers can use lots of practical activities to help pupils master relative clauses, from worksheets to interactive games. The right mix of visual aids and hands-on tasks makes grammar lessons more lively.
You can find differentiated worksheets that develop skills step by step. Pupils start by spotting clauses, then move on to writing their own sentences. These worksheets, with answers, let children work alone while you support anyone who needs extra help.
Activity booklets for Year 5 and 6 include clear instructions and guides that parents can use at home. Begin with cloze sentences, then move to tasks where pupils add their own clauses.
Test practice worksheets mirror KS2 SATs questions. Pupils underline clauses, circle pronouns or insert commas, just like in the Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling tests.
Animated PowerPoints let you model examples before pupils try writing on their own. Grammar resources with visual modelling guide sentence work and writing challenges.
Display posters showing each relative pronoun (who, which, that, where, when, whose) with simple examples. Pupils can check these during writing. Slides also help demonstrate how commas change meaning in different clauses.
LearningMole has curriculum-aligned videos with animations and real-world examples. These suit visual learners who prefer seeing ideas in action.
A board game format brings friendly competition to grammar practice. Pupils get a sentence start with a relative pronoun and need to finish it creatively.
Hand pupils a main clause and ask them to add a relative clause showing a consequence or opinion. For example, ‘The teacher announced a surprise test’ becomes ‘The teacher announced a surprise test, which made everyone nervous’. This gets children thinking about how clauses add meaning.
Regular assessment lets you track how well pupils understand relative clauses and spot where they need more help. Quizzes and structured practice materials help measure progress. Peer assessment builds independence and helps pupils catch errors themselves.
Identifying relative clauses test practice prepares Year 5 and Year 6 pupils for SATs-style questions. These usually ask children to tick or underline the relative clause, just like in the real tests.
Short quizzes at the start or end of lessons check understanding fast. You might ask pupils to circle the relative pronoun, add a missing clause, or spot whether a sentence has a relative clause.
Many teachers use quick five-question quizzes on different pronouns (who, which, that, where, when, whose) to target specific areas. This way, you can spot patterns in mistakes. Pupils often mix up ‘who’ and ‘which’ or forget commas in non-essential clauses.
Peer assessment helps pupils develop grammar skills by checking each other’s work. Ask them to swap sentences and see if their partner used the pronoun correctly or if the clause makes sense.
Self-assessment checklists are handy for relative clauses. Pupils tick off things like ‘I used a relative pronoun’, ‘My relative clause adds detail about a noun’, and ‘I punctuated my sentence correctly’. This builds confidence in spotting their own mistakes.
Try displaying sentences with deliberate errors and ask the class to fix them together. This helps children recognise and fix issues before they appear in their own writing.
Keep track of each pupil’s progress by recording which relative pronouns they can use confidently. A simple chart with who, which, that, where, when, and whose makes it easy to spot gaps quickly.
Many teachers prefer a traffic light system. Pupils colour-code their confidence: green for independent use, amber for some support, and red for direct teaching.
LearningMole has curriculum-aligned grammar videos that support your tracking system and let pupils revisit tricky concepts on their own. You could also keep writing samples from the start and end of your relative clauses unit to show pupils how much their sentences have changed.
Teachers can find plenty of free and paid resources on educational websites, including ready-made packs and both printable and digital tools. These options help you plan lessons that fit the Key Stage 2 curriculum.
Twinkl offers a wide range of materials like worksheets, PowerPoints, and editable documents. Their relative clauses pack gives examples at KS2 level with activities for English lessons.
BBC Bitesize explains how relative clauses add information to sentences using pronouns. The site works well for pupils who need a bit more support at home.
LearningMole features curriculum-aligned videos and teaching materials for Years 3 to 6. You’ll find free videos that break down relative pronouns and show how to use them in different sentences.
Complete lesson packs put several teaching tools together in one download. These usually include information sheets that explain each relative pronoun with clear examples.
Many packs take a step-by-step approach. Pupils start by spotting clauses in sentences, then move on to writing their own.
Year 4 lesson resources focus on relative clauses as a new type of subordinate clause. You can easily adapt these materials for your class.
Worksheets are still popular for practising how to spot and use relative clauses. You can put information sheets on the classroom wall for quick checks during writing.
Digital resources include interactive games and Google Slides that work well with interactive whiteboards. These tools let pupils play with sentences and see how changing relative pronouns shifts the meaning.
SMART slides with visual modelling show how relative clauses fit into different sentence structures. Guided sentence work and writing challenges give pupils a chance to try out what they’ve learned.
Students often get stuck on three things: adding too many clauses to one sentence, mixing up clause types, and placing commas incorrectly. These slip-ups can make writing a bit of a muddle.
Pupils sometimes cram multiple relative clauses into one sentence, which gets confusing. Take this: “The girl, who was wearing a red coat, who lived next door, who had a dog, went to the shop.” That’s just too much.
Teach your class to stick to one or two relative clauses per sentence. They need to decide if each clause adds anything useful or just makes things messy.
Ambiguity creeps in when it’s unclear which noun the clause describes. Look at “The teacher told the student who was late to sit down.” Is the teacher or the student late? Help pupils spot this by checking which noun comes right before the relative pronoun. Ask them to rewrite unclear sentences so the meaning is obvious.
Many Year 5 and Year 6 pupils mix up relative clauses with other subordinate clauses. Relative clauses always start with a relative pronoun (who, which, that, whose, where, when) and add detail about a noun.
Adverbial clauses explain when, where, why, or how something happens and start with words like because, although, or while. For example, “I stayed inside because it was raining” has an adverbial clause, not a relative clause.
Set up comparison activities where pupils sort sentences by clause type. Use teaching resources with visual modelling to show the differences. Practice exercises help pupils spot that relative clauses always link back to a noun in the main clause.
Comma placement causes the most confusion with relative clauses. Pupils need to know that commas depend on whether the information is essential or extra.
Non-essential relative clauses get commas on both sides: “My brother, who lives in Manchester, visits every month.” Essential clauses don’t: “The boy who won the race got a medal.” If removing the clause changes the meaning, it’s essential and needs no commas.
Common comma mistakes:
You can use worksheets and PowerPoints for punctuation practice at KS2. Give your pupils sentences to punctuate and ask them to explain their choices. This helps them understand why commas go where they do.
Teachers often wonder how to bring relative clauses into their KS2 classrooms, from picking the right worksheets to making grammar lessons less dry. Here are answers to some of the most common questions about teaching this Year 5 and Year 6 grammar skill.
Sentence building games work well for introducing relative clauses. Give children cards with nouns on some and relative clauses on others, then let them match pairs to make sentences.
A favourite activity uses sentence starters like “There’s the dog that…” or “This is the park where…” and asks pupils to finish them in their own way. This helps children see how relative pronouns introduce clauses and gives them a bit of creative freedom.
Interactive sorting activities let children tell the difference between defining and non-defining relative clauses. Display sentences and have pupils decide which need commas, brackets or dashes.
Role-play activities where children describe classmates using relative clauses make lessons more personal. Try “This is the pupil who sits next to me” or “Here’s the student whose pencil case is blue.”
LearningMole has curriculum-aligned resources with step-by-step grammar activities for Year 5 and Year 6. Their materials break down tricky ideas into smaller steps, which is handy for mixed-ability classes.
The Twinkl resource pack gives you worksheets with different tasks to help pupils practise using relative pronouns and clauses. You can adjust these for different levels in your class.
CGP Plus offers worksheets that get children to spot relative clauses and pronouns and add their own clauses to sentences. Example answers are included, which saves time when marking.
BBC Bitesize has free online resources with clear examples. Many teachers use these for homework or for pupils who need extra practice.
Defining relative clauses give essential information that the sentence needs to make sense. Tell pupils that if they remove this information, the sentence either becomes confusing or changes meaning.
Use simple examples like “Footballers who practise regularly are more likely to be picked for top teams” to show how the clause matters. Ask what happens if you take out “who practise regularly”—the sentence gets too vague.
Remind pupils that defining relative clauses don’t need commas because the information is vital. Show pairs of sentences to highlight how commas can change the meaning.
A good tip is to ask, “Can I remove this information and still understand the sentence?” If not, it’s a defining relative clause. This check works well for Year 5 and Year 6 pupils who are still getting the hang of it.
Everyday examples help children understand quickly. Try “The boy who lives next door has a new bike” or “The park where we play football is closed today.”
Animal examples grab younger pupils’ attention: “My dog, which is always hungry, ate my homework” or “The cat that sits on our wall is very friendly.” These sentences feel familiar.
School-based examples make the grammar more relatable: “Children who finish their work early can read quietly” or “The teacher whose class won the competition was very proud.” Year 5 pupils often respond to things they know.
You can make things trickier with examples like “Tuesday, when it was the school play, was a very exciting day” or “The library, where we go every week, has new books.” These show different relative pronouns in use but stay accessible.
Start with identification exercises where pupils underline the relative clause in each sentence. This helps them spot the structure before writing their own.
Gap-fill activities are great for practising the right pronoun. Give sentences like “The girl ___ won the race was very fast” and let pupils pick from who, which, that, where or when.
Sentence combining tasks show how relative clauses improve writing. Give two simple sentences, such as “My sister loves painting. My sister is younger than me,” and ask pupils to join them using a relative clause.
Punctuation activities challenge pupils to add commas, brackets or dashes to non-defining relative clauses. These exercises come up in SATs papers, so they’re helpful for test prep.
Correction exercises where pupils fix sentences with missing or wrong relative pronouns develop editing skills. For instance, write “The house when we visited was very old” and let them swap ‘when’ for the correct pronoun.
Try a relative clause hunt. Ask pupils to search for examples in their reading books or around the classroom. Kids quickly realise that relative clauses pop up in real texts, not just grammar worksheets.
Set up interactive whiteboard games. Let teams compete to build the longest, correct sentence using relative clauses. The competition gets them practising without it feeling like work.
Bring in drama activities. Pupils act out sentences, which adds movement and a bit of silliness. One child could play “the boy” and another does the action in the relative clause, like “who scored the winning goal.” It sticks better when they move.
Try a mystery description game for engagement. One pupil thinks of a classmate and describes them using relative clauses: “I’m thinking of someone whose hair is brown and who sits near the window.” The class has
Leave a Reply