1. Spelling, Punctuation & Grammar workshop

2. Aim of the session
Explain the spelling system & why the home investigation is so key
Give you an overview of SPaG 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. Trickiest bit – the terminology
Punctuation & Grammar
Handouts show terminology. In the start of the year, teachers refresh previous learning then start adding onto this with their year group’s content.
Trickiest bit – the terminology
2nd trickiest bit – sometimes something can be more than one thing….

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

8. Assessment
Spelling, punctuation and grammar are assessed within writing – to be ‘age expected’, children must be writing in correct sentences in neat, joined handwriting, 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. Example of Content – Year 3
Using noun prefixes (eg- super–, anti–, auto–)
Conjunctions to express time/place/cause ( eg when, before, after, while, so, because)
Adverbs – quickly, carefully
Prepositions – through, over, behind

10. Example of Content in Year 4
The difference between plural use of –s (girls) and possessive use of –s (the girl’s bag)
The correct use of plural possessive (the girls’ bags)
Punctuation of direct speech (punctuation prior to speech, inverted commas to open, initial capital letter, closing punctuation, inverted commas to close

11. Example Year 4 Questions
Underline the adverbial phrase in this sentence:
In the afternoon, the whole class went swimming.
Write one suffix which can be used with all of these words:
appoint
agree
pay
Rewrite the following words as contractions with apostrophes:
They have =
We would =

12. Example of Content in Year 5
The use of relative pronouns
Bracket, dashes & commas for parenthesis
Commas within clauses to avoid ambiguity (A panda eats, shoots and leaves/ a panda eats shoots and leaves)

13. Example Year 5 Questions
Circle the two prepositions in this sentence:
There are two good toyshops in my town and one of them is beside my house.
Insert the correct relative pronoun to fill the gap in this sentence:
Scotland, __________ my mother was born, is our favourite place to go on holiday.
Underline the subordinate clause in this sentence
While you were sleeping, I made you a lovely breakfast

14. Example of Content in Year 6
Synonyms and antonyms
(Synonyms – two words that mean a similar thing e.g. happy & joyful
Antonyms – opposite words e.g. happy/sad)
Active and passive verb forms
(the dog ate the bone/ the bone was eaten by the dog)
6 tense types

15. Example Year 6 Questions
Rewrite this sentence using the passive voice
Leila and Joshua tidied the whole classroom while the others went outside
Add dashes to this sentence
On the farm which is near out school there are pigs, goats and cows.
Explain why a colon is used in this sentence.
In the summer, we will visit a number of people in our family: aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents.

16. Some of the trickier ones…..

17. Can either be present perfect or past perfect
Perfect form…
Can either be present perfect or past perfect
Uses a past tense verb and ‘has/had/have’ (dependent upon whether it’s past or present)
She has played the piano (present perfect)
She had played the piano (past perfect)

18. Can either be Present progressive or past progressive.
Progressive form
Can either be Present progressive or past progressive.
The progressive tense needs an ‘-ing’ verb and ‘is/am/are’ in front of it depending on who is doing it:
Leah is dancing (present progressive)
He was working (past progressive)

19. The use of the subjunctive verb
Subjunctive form sounds 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…