KS2 grammar, punctuation and spelling

The GPS papers — often called SPaG — carry 70 marks between them. More than any other paper, they reward knowing precise grammatical vocabulary.

The terminology that earns marks

Children are expected to identify and use terms including: noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, determiner, preposition, conjunction, clause, subordinate clause, relative clause, relative pronoun, modal verb, subjunctive, active and passive voice, subject and object, prefix and suffix.

These are not optional vocabulary. Questions ask directly: 'Circle the subordinating conjunction'. A child who knows what a conjunction does but not which word is the conjunction will not score.

This makes GPS unusually efficient to revise. Each term maps to a small number of predictable question types.

Punctuation that comes up every year

Commas in lists and after fronted adverbials; apostrophes for possession and contraction; inverted commas for direct speech; semicolons, colons and dashes to join clauses; brackets, dashes and commas for parenthesis; hyphens.

The commonest lost mark across all of these is the possessive apostrophe with plurals — 'the childrens' toys' rather than 'the children's toys'.

The spelling paper

Twenty sentences read aloud, one missing word each, 20 marks. The words come from the Year 5 and 6 statutory spelling list plus common patterns.

Spelling responds well to little-and-often practice with the specific words that get missed, rather than general spelling work. Keep a list of the ones your child actually gets wrong and revisit those.

How to revise it without it being dull

Ten questions a day is plenty. GPS is well suited to short bursts because each question is self-contained.

When a term is not known, teach it once with two clear examples rather than a definition. Children remember 'the word that joins two ideas: because, although, while' far better than a formal definition.