SPAG for Year 6

[phlebasconsidered]

I'm starting to really worry for my Year 6. Although my school did a great job embedding the past SPAG requirement, the new content that has to be shoved is just killing me in terms of time to fit it in.

So much has changed: they started the school learning connectives, now they need to know co-ordinating and subordinating conjunctions. They were great with verb / tense agreement until I've had to introduce subjunctive and present imperfect, and now they're wary.

I've organised Easter boosters and I will be delivering booster sessions every week early mornings and after school ( bye bye seeing my own kids...) but I'm really after knowing how other people are managing it. Are you setting groups and targeting? On what? I've looked and looked at the available material and expectations and i'm floundering. The nearest practice material is 11 plus stuff. What are others using? I'd feel a lot more confident if I felt that the government was: the first sample material included a textual question, by the second sample that was gone. The first question sample paper was reasonably familiar in layout, the second less so. I just don't trust them to deliver anything in May I recognise! It's bad enough that it's almost 50% new content.

I just realised i'm panicking on the basis of my data. This is a class that was confident in SPAG last year. Easily Level 4 already, now not so.

We have Grammar Hammer, it doesn't seem to be working.
I don't want to "kill" the grammar before they get there, but i'm beginning to think that teaching to the question is the only way some of them are going to get there.

Help!

I totally agree with Edith. I let my ds in Yr3 try this one

www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/439299/Sample_ks2_EnglishGPS_paper1_questions.pdf

on someone's link, and he had no problem at all. I think he answered 80%+ correct.
He has asd traits and loves complex system.

At a LA/SAT briefing today, we were told that 'the new SPaG aspects of the 2014 curriculum and the associated terminology will definitely be a focus of this year's test'.
How helpful/fair it is for that to be shared with a smallish group of teachers, I'm not sure but I think it suggests 'subordinating/coordinating conjunction', 'fronted adverbials' and other 'made up' meanings will be on there.

I'm not a teacher but as a governor of a primary school I have a strong interest in this. Like many if you, I'm horrified by the impact these tests will have on kids and teachers. Most of it seems so utterly pointless and demoralising for all concerned. Mostly, I feel very angry that my kids will have to put up with a ridiculous curriculum when they could be learning a whole lot of vastly more useful stuff.

A lot of teachers seem angry too. So what's the answer? How can school's, teachers and parents make their views heard. Anyone heard mutterings of boycotts?

I agree with the focus and time it's taking away from fun learning too. My daughters school even at year 2 is quite maths and English focused now to get ready for year 6!! One person asked that's, since they were an academy couldn't they choose their own curriculum and the answer was that ad maths and English were the only thing examined that's what the focus is..m

I am amazed more people aren't up in arms actually. The whole xchool experience is being shaped around meaningless tests and I can only see the divide between state and private (who are free to actually educate the child) getting bigger.

People say, "oh it's good they learn grammar" without realising half of its made up and the drain it's having on the rest of school.

I despair, I really do. We did a bit of whole school moderation of writing tonight and, by god, it was so fucking depressing. Several issues reared their heads:

-It's not just the kids who struggle with this stuff, the staff do too. We had lots of furrowed brows and frantic rustling through glossaries.

• the expected level is ludicrously high. I can see there will be some schools where very few children actually achieve 'expected' let alone 'depth'.

• I echo previous posters who said that knowing grammar to this level eg. 'the subjunctive' doesn't mean shit. They might be able to answer a question about it, but write it?!! Make it meaningful and embedded in their writing!?? NAaaahhh.

This is my 3rd year in Y6 and this is the first year I have seriously considered jacking it in. Poor kids. I could cry....I predict a mass exodus & shortage of Y6 teachers.

I posted on this thread the reasons why a boycott would not be easy (or likely, now):

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/the_staffroom/2567129-Writing-exemplifications?

This petition is interesting - but also unlikely, given that she refused to even answer a times table question:

www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-news/one-heads-challenge-nicky-morgan-take-new-sats-and-lets-see-if-you

I am a mum of a Y6 - this SPAG stuff is more terrifying for me than my DS I think - he at least knows what some of the (clearly made up!) terms are. I bought myself a SPAG dictionary :) I had bought a job lot of workbooks as he loves them - and his problem isn't the actual content (he loves rules) but not reading and checking the question/answer, which is what he needs to work on. Unfortunately the only way to do that is practice. He also hates timed exercises so we will need to introduce that soon.
Anyway, real point of post was to give you a piece of light relief which my son just noticed on back of his workbook.... As I say to him frequently - really LOOK at the page..