If you take a look at Primary School Websites like the ones that are created by companies like www.fsedesign.co.uk/websites-for-schools/primary-school-websites/ you will see that there are a number of key stages to a childs primary school education. The three stages are as follows:
Early Years – this starts at nursery school, but doesn’t actually finish until the end of a child’s Reception year at school. All children will be assessed against the Early Years framework to see whether they have reached all the standards that have been set and whether they are at an age expected level. In some cases a child may exceed their age expected level or may not have achieved this.
Key Stage 1 – this is Years 1 and 2 of primary education and starts to look at the National curriculum at a lower level. This is where the foundations are laid down in subjects like English and maths as well as spelling, punctuation and grammar and other important education skills such as phonics.
Key Stage 2 – this is Years 3 to 6 and is what was formerly known as Junior school. During this stage the foundations that were laid down in Key Stage 1 are now built upon to increase a child’s knowledge. More subjects may be studied including history, geography and in some schools a language like French will also be taught to the pupils.