2. Welcome We at The Richard Heathcote Community Primary School, together with Sarah Luty and our friends at Wood Lane Primary School, have produced this invaluable guide for parents. It should enable you to clearly see the Government’s requirements in this area of English and also gives you suggestions for fun activities at home that will help your child’s understanding and progression. Mr A. Nash Introduction The DfE has introduced SPaG because they want to make sure all children leave primary school con dent in spelling, punctuation and grammar. The tests at the end of KS1 and KS2 will ensure that” primary schools place a stronger focus on the teaching of these skills.” “Just as you will receive information from your child’s school about how your child is doing in reading and maths, you will also receive information about how they are doing in grammar, punctuation and spelling.” How will my child bene t from the teaching of GPS? The ability to write and communicate are key life skills. In the long term, your child will be able to use these skills throughout their education and employment and their adult life. Notes 20

3. Appendix / Additional Materials This booklet refers to documents published by the government and as teachers we recommend you have a look at these. They will show you expectations of learning and comprehensive lists of speci c terms and words your child should be learning in each age group at school. Please use your internet browser and visit the following web address to see the full ‘English programmes of study: key stages 1 and 2’ (we have made your lives easier by using the web address shortening service ‘Tiny URL’). http://tinyurl.com/english-pos Please view the following sections and pages for additional, useful materials related to this booklet: Vocabulary, Punctuation and Grammar Year 1 to 6 - Pages 65 - 69 Glossary for the Programme of Study Pages 70 - 88 19 Contents Year 1................................................................................ 1 Phonics................................................................... 1 Grammar and Punctuation................................. 3 Year 2................................................................................ 5 Spelling and Phonics............................................. 5 Grammar and Punctuation................................. 7 Year 3 & 4......................................................................... 9 Spelling................................................................... 9 Grammar and Punctuation................................. 11 Year 5 & 6........................................................................ 13 Spelling.................................................................. 13 Grammar and Punctuation................................ 13 Important English Information........................................ 15 Speaking and Listening........................................ 15 Writing.................................................................... 17 Appendix/Additional Information................................. 19

4. All the letters (graphemes) of the alphabet and the sounds (phonemes) they usually represent. Two consonants together to make one sound (consonant digraph) e.g. sh, ch, ff, etc. Two vowels together (vowel digraph) e.g. oo, ai, ea, etc. Breaking down a word into sounds (segmenting) before choosing graphemes to spell the word. Spell words with two consonants next to each other where you can hear two sounds. (e.g. went, stop). Can spell most of the common words correctly (e.g. days of the week). Year 1 Phonics (linked to spelling) Y1 need to learn Correct grammar is given more importance and there are detailed expectations for each year group. Handwriting has been given more importance - children should be joining their handwriting from an earlier age. Organise writing so that different audiences can understand and enjoy what has been written. They need to develop new vocabulary through reading and speaking and listening and use it in their writing. Provide your child with a writing kit- this could include -pencils and paper; white board and pen; tracing materials; tricky words bookmark or dictionary for KS2 child; notebook, exercise book or scrap book. Communicate with school - what are the phonics and spellings being taught? Practise spellings in a fun way- games and writing silly sentences including the words. Follow school’s handwriting style. Encourage your child to write for a real person and purpose: e.g. letters and emails to relatives; invitations; write their own messages in birthday and Christmas cards; write a story or poem for a younger family member; create their own project about an interest; Talk to your child about what they are learning in grammar and encourage them to use correct grammar in speaking and writing. 18

5. Writing What’s new? Children need to learn to plan and improve their own writing. Spelling and phonics expectations are set out clearly for every year group. How Can I Help My Child? Read and speak with your child- most of their language for writing will come from these experiences. When you are writing a list, email or lling in a form, talk to your child about what you are writing and why. Don’t expect your child to spell everything perfectly but help them to learn a few new words each time- record them in the back of the reading diary to create a word bank. Encourage your child to nd their own errors e.g. tell them there are 3 full stops missing and get them to nd them rather than correcting it yourself. You might want to use this simple check list: Full stops; capital letters; interesting words; check simple spellings; nger spaces. Talk to your child about their school writing target and practise at home. School projects and homework - encourage children to complete this independently. Use the pre x (letters added to the beginning of a word) ‘un’ e.g. undo. Add the suf xes ( letters added to the end of a word) -ed -ing -er -est -ly e.g played, playing, player, fairest, fairly. Use the spelling rule for adding – s, -es in plurals e.g. girls or tomatoes. 2

6. Year 1 Grammar and Punctuation Y1 need to learn to Make sentences. Make stories written in sentences. Join words and clauses with and use nger spaces between words. Use capital letters at the beginning of a sentence, their name and for I. Use full stops, capital letters, exclamation marks and question marks to end a sentence. Use capital letters for proper nouns (e.g. Mrs Chell, Alsagers Bank, Sunday). Use a verb (action word). Use a range of nouns (naming words). Use an adjective (describes a noun). Use some exciting words. 3 Encourage your child to pronounce sounds and words correctly (in their own accent). Ask in school if unsure how to say the sounds on the sound mats. Demonstrate the correct grammar to your child. Examples of common mistakes: We was going- we were going Them ones- those ones Going shops- going to the shops Summat- something Should of, could of, would of= should have, 16 could have, would have

7. 15 Important English Information... Speaking and Listening What’s new? Speaking and listening is very important in all areas of the curriculum and in developing social skills. Children should be taught how to talk through, explain and discuss their ideas. Children must have the opportunity to take part in role play and drama. How Can I Help My Child? Talk with your child. The more you talk, the better your child’s understanding, vocabulary, reading and writing will be. Encourage your child to ask questions. Help your child learn new vocabulary from visits, books and TV. Develop listening skills by telling and reading stories and listening to the radio and podcasts. Encourage your child to take part in role play. This could include dressing up, pretending to do a job or be someone else, use dolls, gures, toy animals and cars to make up stories and situations. Possible Activities Show your child a picture about something they are interested in e.g. favourite TV character (CBeebies, Marvel Comics website) Get them to make up sentences about pictures. Say and write sentences about family, friends, pets, toys, anything!!! Make up stories together- take it in turns to say a sentence. This can be a retelling of a favourite story, a funny family story or made up using TV characters, etc. Say a boring sentence, add in more interesting words. E.g “The cat ran across the road.” becomes “The scared, tortoiseshell cat scampered across the busy road.” Always check that your child uses capital letters to begin a sentence, to begin a name and for the word I. When sharing a book, nd examples of full stops, exclamation marks and question marks. Read! Read! Read! Children who are always reading tend to be good at writing and spelling too.

8. searc Find differ ples o uf xe ooks and s in b arou Year 2 Phonics and spelling Y2 need to learn to Use phonic knowledge learnt in Y1 to spell words. Spell most of the common exception words (see additional materials in appendix). Add the suf xes ( letters added to the end of a word) to spell longer words e.g. –ment -ful - ness –less – ly. e.g. enjoyment, careful, happiness, careless, slowly. Spell some homophones ( words that sound the same but are spelt differently) e.g. –their/there/they’re. Correctly spell common contractions ( words with miss- ing letters) e.g. can’t, isn’t. ( the o is missing) Possible Activities Try some of these activities to help your child... Suf x h exam ent s f nd and about. 5 Use relative clauses beginning with who, which, when, whose, or that. Use commas to clarify meaning or avoid ambiguity. Use hyphens to avoid ambiguity. Use dashes, brackets or commas to indicate parenthesis. Use semi-colons, colons or dashes to mark boundaries between independent clauses. Use colons to introduce lists. Punctuate bullet points consistently. 14

9. Games ord Anothe r idea f spelling s is to in corpor to word e.g. pu into lon play co untdown, an, etc hangm Woctive rd rds wo De les e ae a sam - ca mp n he t et e l ty ay xa ren nd a wa w lle dift so Co u fe nt p wp w ith ere tha pe e de d e ue u e se s ar om r th em elling u c be s? rem sp Year 5 & 6 Spelling The trick in upper key stage 2 is to learn about families of words. Understanding root words helps children to understand more complicated suf xes and pre xes. Help your child to understand homophones (eg aisle/isle). We look at words ending in –cious and –tious, -ance and –ence, -able and –ible. The ‘i before e except after c’ rule still applies but we have to be aware of plenty of exceptions (protein, caffeine, seize). We also look at the letter string –ough and silent letters in words. Grammar and Punctuation Year 5 and 6 need to: Remember all the above! Recognise vocabulary that is appropriate for formal speech and writing (including the horrible ‘subjunctive’!). Use passive verbs to affect the presentation of information in a sentence. Use the perfect form of verbs to mark relationships of time and clause. Use expanded noun phrases to convey complicated information concisely. Use modal verbs or adverbs to indicate degrees of possibility....More W them in ate... or learning games t them words, ger. c t te of nd yo to lt iff 6

10. Year 2 Grammar and Punctuation Y2 need to learn to Use Y1 punctuation accurately. Use commas for lists and “ “ (inverted commas - this has replaced speech marks). Pick out nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs (see glossary). Use lots of different adjectives in writing. Use descriptive phrases (a group of words) to add detail, including similes, alliteration and onomatopoeia (see glossary). Use adverbs to describe actions- slowly walking. Use present tense and past tense properly. Begin to use apostrophes e.g. the girl’s book. Pick out and use the four different types of sentence- statement, question, exclamation and command. Use different conjunctions (joining words)- and, but, so, yet, because. 7 Use and punctuate direct speech correctly (including inverted commas, commas, new speaker/ new line). Use conjunctions, adverbs and prepositions to express time and cause. Use fronted adverbials correctly ensuring that a comma follows them e.g. Swimming cautiously, Later that day, Use the present perfect form of verbs in contrast to past tense. I’ve played the guitar ever since I was a teenager. Use a or an depending on what the next word begins with. If it is a vowel, ‘an’ is needed e.g. an old house. Letter of information A letter or email to a relation telling them about something they are proud of or something funny. Letter of Persuasion A persuasive letter to you e.g. why you should have the new computer game. Booklets Make a story or information book for a younger member of the family- they could cut out pictures or draw to illustrate. Scrap booking this could be a holiday diary or tracking a new pet or baby’s development. The best way you can help your child with the very challenging list above is to get them to practise all their skills in writing for a real person or reason. Challenge your child to nd as many examples of wrongly used apostrophes, missing capital letters, etc. Look out and about and on the internet. E.g. apple’s 50p each. Get your child to re- read their own homework for errors and to make improvements. Letting them do this for themselves rst will make them more independent and better writers in the long term. Don’t be tempted to do it for them- this is a real life skill!

11. 11 Year 3 & 4 Grammar and Punctuation Y3 and Y4 need to learn to Write in complex sentences to show time, until, during, meanwhile, while and following. Use words that are interesting and appropriate. Use noun phrases by adding more detail e.g. the teacher becomes the strict, maths teacher with curly hair. Write sentences where nouns and verbs agree e.g. ‘the man was’ not ‘the man were’. Experiment with a wide range of punctuation, such as …, ! ? : “ “ ‘.‘ : ; Include pronouns in sentences to avoid repetition- “The man walked to the shops and the man bought some milk” becomes “The man walked to the shops and he bought some milk.” Proof read for spelling and punctuation errors. Extend sentences with more than one clause (a phrase with a verb) by using a wider range of conjunctions (joining words), when, if, because, although. Use the possessive apostrophe for plurals e.g. girls’ names (for more than one girl. Remember it is the owner that has the apostrophe-girls ends in s). and magazines; recipes and instructions; newspapers; lea ets and brochures. Give points and prizes as rewards. Word Hunter Learn new vocabulary through books. Encourage your child to record the new words, phrases and punctuation you have found together in their home/school book - your child’s class teacher will be thrilled! Adverb Charades Choose an adverb e.g. slowly, awkwardly, stupidly, shyly, sleepily. The rest of the family give you actions (verbs) to perform e.g. eat a meal, get out of bed, hoover, etc. You perform the actions using your secret adverb- the family have to guess the adverb. Question Time All primary age children enjoy listening to stories and poems being read aloud- whilst reading, Possible Activities Try some of these activities to help your child... Treasure Hunt Find as many different punctuation or sentence types as possible. Use books, websites; TV guides point out or question your child on different word and sentence types. Food Game Keep adding adjectives to your favourite food. e.g. The ham pizza; the ham and cheese pizza; the delicious, ham and cheese pizza, the hot, delicious, ham and cheese pizza, etc. Don’t forget the commas in a list! Walking Games Go on a family walk and nd examples of apostrophes in the wrong place e.g. MOT’s,CD’s, banana’s for sale. Awesome Sentences Add more interesting phrases in to boring sentences. e.g “The cat ran across the road.” becomes “The cute, colourful cat capered across the busy road like a rocket.” 8

12. Games ord Anothe or learn r idea f spelling ing corpor them in ate games e.g. pu into lon play co untdown, an, etc hangm Year 3 & 4 Spelling Y3 and Y4 need to learn to Spell the words on the Y3 and Y4 statutory list (These are words the children have to learn by law!). (see additional materials in appendix) Recognise and spell more sets of homophones/near homophones (e.g. accept/except). Use the pre xes (beginning with) dis-, mis-, in- and im- il-, re-, sub-, inter-, anti-, auto-. Spell words with the suf xes (ending in) –tion, -sion, -cian, - ssion. -ly, -ation, -ous. Spell longer polysyllabic (more than one syllable) words accurately e.g. hippopotamus. Use the rst 2/3 letters in a word to check its spelling in a dictionary. Write from memory simple sentences dictated by their teacher. Possible Activities Try some of these activities to help your child... 9...More W s is to in to word t them words, ger.... 10