KS2 SATs: The 5 most common grammar mistakes
Discover the five most common year 6 grammar mistakes and how to fix them. Boost children’s confidence and SATs results ahead of the year 6 GPS/ SPaG test.
Is your year 6 grammar long term plan focused on the areas that trip pupils up the most? Learning by Questions’ Year 6 National Curriculum Test Practice (SATs): Set 1 English Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling has been completed nearly 145,000 times now, revealing the top five weakest areas amongst pupils. Whether you’re teaching grammar discretely, through your writing lessons, or a mixture of both, targeting these areas in your teaching will ensure your class is fully prepared for the year 6 GPS (SPaG) test.
If you’re looking for a comprehensive overview of the SATs, including a full breakdown of the GPS papers, check out The Ultimate Guide to SATs.
The most common grammar mistakes, at a glance
Identifying verbs (particularly auxiliary verbs)
Using the present progressive tense
Identifying subordinate clauses
Using commas in a list
Recognising relative clauses
These 5 areas seem to trip children up again and again, and are essential for your planning and preparation for the KS2 SATs grammar paper!
1. Identifying verbs (including auxiliary verbs)
KS2 SATs questions that ask children to “identify all verbs” in a sentence are notoriously tricky. In these, there is almost always at least one word that the children are likely to miss, particularly auxiliary (or ‘helper’) verbs.
Question 64
Percentage answered correctly: 20%
Correct answer: b, f, j, o
Most common incorrect answer: lots of children identified begin, picked and throwing, but not was; instead, they picked nearly, journey or into
The teaching point: The verb was is a tricky verb to spot! It’s worth emphasising with your class that words such as is, am, are, was, were, had and have are all verbs. They are often used as ‘helper’ verbs (formally known as auxiliary verbs) - the children should recognise this from their learning about progressive and perfect tenses.
Verb resources from Learning by Questions:
2. Using the present progressive tense
Children need a strong understanding of verbs (particularly auxiliary verbs) to be able to conjugate into different tenses on the GPS (SPaG) paper.
Question 65
Percentage answered correctly: 30%
Correct answer: am building
Most common incorrect answer: building
The teaching point: Most children have understood the ‘present tense’ aspect of this question, but have forgotten the auxiliary verb (‘am’). There’s a need here to reinforce that the present progressive requires both an auxiliary verb and the present participle (- ing form).
Progressive form resources from Learning by Questions:
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3. Identifying subordinate clauses
Teach children that a subordinate clause always starts with a subordinating conjunction, and that this can come at the start of a sentence, in the middle, or at the end!
Question 66
Percentage answered correctly: 32%
Correct answer: because we are taking cake
Most common incorrect answer: they are going to be happy because we are taking cake; closely followed by they are going to be happy
The teaching point: The structure of the sentence here (main clause, main clause, subordinate clause) has clearly caught children out. Some have clearly spotted the first main clause, but then incorrectly labelled the second half of the sentence as the subordinate clause.
Subordinate clause resources from Learning by Questions:
4. Using commas in a list
Year 6 children are expected to know a number of ways in which commas are used: in a list, between phrases or clauses, as parenthesis, and within dialogue.
Question 7
Percentage answered correctly: 34%
Correct answer: 5 and 6
Most common incorrect answer: lots of children identified 6, but not 5; instead, they chose either 4 and 6, 7 and 6, or just one number (4, 5, 6 or 7)
The teaching point: One obvious mistake here is not reading the question clearly when it states to Tick two numbers - seasoned year 6 teachers know that this is the most frustrating mistake that seems to happen every year! It also says to make it clear that Sam has four favourite things; of course, by only putting a comma in position 6, Sam only has three favourite things: walking dogs, football and reading.
Practising commas resources from Learning by Questions:
5. Recognising relative clauses
Year 6 children must be able to recognise relative clauses.
Question 49
Percentage answered correctly: 37%
Correct answer: that had the most memory
Most common incorrect answer: that
The teaching point: Many children identified the relative pronoun - but not the relative clause. Teach children that:
relative clauses always begin with a relative pronoun (the most common of which are who, which, that and where. A relative clause without a relative pronoun is known as an appositive)
they add extra information to a noun
they are sometimes surrounded by parenthesis - but not always
they can come in the middle of the sentence or the end.
Relative clauses resources from Learning by Questions:
How to avoid common year 6 grammar mistakes
Teach and interleave the word classes
Verbs, nouns, adjectives and adverbs are the building blocks for everything else, so take any and every opportunity to go over these in class! Consistently going back to basics will help maintain a strong foundation for the grammar tests.
Using past papers
Fill out a grammar paper with common mistakes that match those of your pupils and go through the paper in class. Getting the children to spot and explain mistakes is a fantastic way to build their confidence.
In-class feedback
Take opportunities in-class to provide feedback on grammar mistakes as they happen, whilst children are working through a past paper or completing a worksheet. Better yet, let edtech do the feedback for you. SATs Springboard from Learning by Questions provides individualised feedback for every answer to every question. Continuous formative feedback is effective but workload-heavy. Not with Learning by Questions. Find out more and take a trial of SATs Springboard.