1. The impact of the SPaG tests
Dick Hudson
OCR English Forum, November 2016

2. What are the SPaG tests? The Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar tests
known officially in the Standards and Testing Authority as ‘GPS’ tests
For KS2 children
2013 based on the old National Curriculum,
2016 based on the new NC, and much more ambitious.
For KS1
2016 – abandoned because of an accidental leak
2017 – optional
Two papers:
Spelling
Punctuation and grammar

3. E.g KS2 test

4. Includes meanings and dialect differences

5. More grammar and meaning

6. Grammar and lexical relations

7. The terminology to be tested

8. Some comments Just 40 terms spread across six years
6-7 per year.
These terms are relevant to Foreign Languages as well as to English.
Secondary FL teachers seem unaware of the SPaG terminology.
Secondary FL and English could help each other a lot more.
NATE and ALL (Association for Language Learning) have just collaborated in publishing an article about this.

9. Official status One of three SATs tests: Reported:
Maths
Reading
SPaG (called ‘writing’??)
Reported:
as individual marks to pupil, via school
as aggregate score for school on public league table website
Primary schools have taken SPaG tests seriously

10. Importance The National Curriculum always required grammar teaching
But there was no test of knowledge about grammar (KAG)
So pupils and teachers got no credit for KAG
Last time KAG was tested: early 1960s in O-level English
Result: primary schools are teaching grammar.
Most children seem to be reasonably happy with the tests, or even to like them.
But teachers are very anxious.

11. Why are primary teachers anxious?
Because they’ve never been taught grammar
Not at school
Not at university
Because grammar is technical
Because they need to apply it as needed
without preparation.
But they seem to be doing well
72% of pupils achieved the expected standard in SPaG.
Not 94%, as in the presentation! But this is still higher than Maths (70%) and Reading (66%)

12. Secondary schools are different
No SPaG
So English teachers can ignore grammar.
But GCSE could give credit to grammatical analysis and commentary.
English teachers are subject specialists
But most have never been taught grammar, either at school or at university
Some English PGCE courses are strongly against grammar teaching
So some English teachers are reluctant to start teaching grammar.
Y7 pupils already know some grammar.
So they may spot teacher mistakes
Foreign-language teachers could use grammar and support English.

13. Some questions Is grammar worth teaching?
Will the GCSE specifications motivate teachers to teach grammar?
How will teachers learn enough grammar to teach effectively?
How can exam boards such as OCR help them?
Are publishers working on good text books and training books?