ST. ANNE’S CATHOLIC PRIMARY SCHOOL Spelling, Punctuation and grammar in EYFS and KS1

What we do at St. Anne’s to teach spelling We primarily teach spelling through phonics through Reception, Y1 and Y2. In year 2, some children will move onto a programme called ‘support for spelling’ when they are secure in all aspects of phonics, which is preparing them for KS2 We ‘segment’ words to spell. Cat = c-a-t We also teach children to spell ‘tricky’ words, words that cannot be segmented to spell such as I, so, the, was. We teach spelling through handwriting in KS1. This helps children improve handwriting through learning spellings.

Spelling We focus on pure sounds not letter names. For example: e is sounded as ‘eh’ not ‘eee’ f is sounded as ‘ffff’ not ‘eff’ This has a huge impact on their spelling. Once the children are happy using the sounds they can begin to build words within their reading and writing.

Summary of phonics in reception Children are primarily in phase 2 phonics were all letter sounds are taught including ff, ll, ss, zz, ck. They are taught how to read and write these ‘phonemes’ Children will move onto phase 3 when all other letters are learnt. Phase 3 includes ‘digraphs’ which are 2 letters that make 1 sound. These include ai, ee, igh, oa, oo, th, sh, ng and many more.

Phonics in Y1 Most children will be onto phase 4 and phase 5 phonics which is compound words (lunchbox) and alternative spellings for main digraphs. E.g.. ai can be spelt ay, a-e, eigh, etc. See best bet resource

Year 2 phonics Most of Y2 is consolidating phase 5 phonics and moving onto phase 6 which is spelling patterns such as suffixes and prefixes.

Progression of Punctuation through Reception to Y2. In reception, children are taught to add a capital letter for their name. We look at spaces between words and are beginning to look at full stops. In year 1, children are expected to add a full stop to their sentences, add capital letters at beginning of their sentences. They are also expected to use capital letter for the pronoun I. They are beginning to use question marks. In year 2, children are taught to use question marks, explanation marks, commas and speech marks. At St Anne's, 1 or 2 literacy lessons a week are solely for punctation and grammar. Phonics is taught every day.

Grammar in Reception To expect written text to make sense and to check for sense if it does not. To know that words are ordered from left to right

Grammar in Y1 To reread own writing and check whether it makes sense. To expect reading to make sense and check if it does not. To read aloud with pace and expression appropriate to the grammar, e.g. pausing at full stops, raising voice for questions To use “and” to join 2 simple sentences.

Grammar in Y2 To read aloud with intonation and expression appropriate to the grammar and punctuation (sentences, speech marks, commas, exclamation marks) To reread own writing to check for grammatical sense (cohesion) and accuracy (agreement) – identify errors and suggest alternative constructions. To understand the need for grammatical agreement, matching verbs to nouns/pronouns, e.g. I am; the children are; To use simple gender forms, e.g. his/her correctly To use standard forms of verbs in speaking and writing, e.g. catch/caught, see/saw, go/went and to use the past tense consistently for narration To use a greater variety of connectives to join 2 sentences To understand and use the terms “noun”, “adjective” and “verb” To turn statements into questions, learning a range of “wh” words, typically used to open questions: what, where, when, who, and to add question marks.

Up-levelling With our new marking policy in school, children are given time each day to ‘up-level’ or improve on their writing from the previous day. For example ‘The cat went along the wall.’ The teacher will tell the child to ‘up-level’ this sentence by adding more ‘wow’ words. ‘The fluffy, ginger cat crept along the high wall’ It might be a much simpler up-levelling task such as ‘add your missing full stops’ or ‘put in your capital letters’.

Targets Each child has writing targets that are in their literacy book. The children know their targets and these are referred to in our marking. If their targets have been met, we give the child a new target. Targets are achievable and smart.