Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar - SPaG

The National Curriculum states that “the grammar of our first language is learnt naturally and implicitly through interactions with other speakers and from reading. Explicit knowledge of grammar is, however, very important, as it gives us more conscious control and choice in our language. Building this knowledge is best achieved through a focus on grammar within the teaching of reading, writing and speaking.”

We, at Castle Hill, believe that once pupils become familiar with a grammatical concept, that has been taught explicitly or implicitly, they should be encouraged to apply and explore this concept in the grammar of their writing through the writing process. Young pupils, in particular, use more complex language in speech than in writing, and teachers at Castle Hill build on this, aiming for a smooth transition to sophisticated writing, again through the writing process and other writing opportunities in subjects such as Learning Challenge and Science.

We teach pupils to:

• recognise sounds in the words;
• identify sounds in the words they want to write;
• identify spelling patterns and exceptions to the rules;
• recognition of word families and their names;
• identify different word groups/ families to develop sentence construction;
• recognise and use grammar terminology when reading & writing;
• recognise and use a variety of punctuation marks when reading & writing;
• form letters correctly teaching them to join letters using exit joins, this has proven to help with spelling.