1. Spelling, Punctuation & Grammar One stop workshop
Years 3- 6

2. Aim of the session
Explain the spelling system & why the home investigation is so key
Give you an overview of P&G expectations for each year group
Explain how SPaG is assessed in the school
Define a couple of the trickier terminologies!

3. Spelling
It’s about spelling patterns, their rules & exceptions rather than discrete spellings
The aim is to give children skills that they can use based on their knowledge & understanding of how spellings work, in order to have a decent go at any spelling…

4. Eg. Patterns that make a ‘shun’ sound:
NEVER made by ‘shun’ except in the word shun/shunned/shunning….
The actual true suffixes are -ion or -ian . The clues about whether to put t, s, ss or c before comes from the last letter(s) of the root word:
-tion is the most common spelling. It is used if the root word ends in t (invent) or te (hesitate)
-ssion is used if the root word ends in –ss or –mit (omit- omission/ possess – possession)
-sion is used if the root word ends in d or se (comprehend – comprehension/ tense - tension
Exceptions: attend – attention, intend – intention, nation
-cian is used if the root word ends in c or cs (music- musician, politics - politician

5. How it’s taught in class…
Spelling pattern & rule introduced in class. Investigation begun
Homework – further investigation – trying out words with the sounds & the patterns – seeing which fits best - checking in a dictionary. This is key as it’s their chance to try out the structures in class independently
Bring spellings back into class. Share findings, make a short list of spellings from these for next week’s test (not Y6) alongside ‘unseen’ words
Practise for homework
Test & new investigation in following week’s session.
Morning work once or twice a week

6. Punctuation & Grammar
Handouts show content from Years 3-5. In year 6, teachers refresh it all and add a little more.
Trickiest bit – the terminology
2nd trickiest bit – sometimes something can be more than one thing….

7. How it is taught
Discreet ‘teaching’ sessions where a specific SPaG area is looked at
Embedded within writing sessions
Independent homework activity to consolidate once every 3 weeks

8. How it’s all assessed
Spelling, punctuation and grammar are assessed within writing – to be age expected, children must be writing in correct sentences, with no significant spelling weaknesses
Standalone 3 termly assessments for SPaG – involving spelling test, and short answer P& G questions (eg circle the noun, find an antonym, put the correct punctuation into the sentence)

9. Some of the nastier ones…..

10. Perfect form… Can either be present perfect, past perfect
or either combination with progressive (meaning action in process)
Uses has/had/ have (dependent upon whether it’s past or present
Eg She has played the piano (present perfect)
She has been playing the piano (present perfect progressive)
She had played the piano (past perfect)
She had been playing the piano (past perfect progressive)

11. Progressive form
Alongside the ‘perfect’, the progressive form can also be a simple past or present to signify events in process :
Eg. Leah is dancing (present progressive)
He was working (past progressive)

12. The use of the subjunctive verb
Subjunctive form uses the verb in its simplest form, which makes it sound very formal. It often talks about something in the future:
If I were to make a prediction
The travellers were advised to be aware
The driver advised that she be taken directly to the station