A clear guide to every topic in the Year 6 Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling SATs — so you know exactly what your child needs to revise.
GPS stands for Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling. It is sometimes called SPaG (Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar). Year 6 children sit two GPS papers in May:
GPS is worth the same as the Reading paper and contributes significantly to a child's overall English score.
Commas (lists, clauses, after fronted adverbials), apostrophes (possession and contraction), inverted commas, colons, semi-colons, brackets, dashes and ellipses. Punctuation is tested heavily in Paper 1 and is one of the easiest areas to improve with targeted practice.
Sentence types (statement, question, command, exclamation), main and subordinate clauses, phrases, verb forms and tenses (simple, progressive, perfect), subject-verb agreement, active and passive voice, formal and informal register.
Word meanings in context, synonyms and antonyms, prefixes (un-, dis-, mis-, re-, pre-) and suffixes (-ful, -less, -ness, -ment, -tion). Children are tested on selecting the right word to complete a sentence or match a definition.
The Year 5/6 statutory word list — 100 words children are expected to spell correctly by the end of Year 6. Includes words such as accommodate, aggressive, conscience, prejudice and sufficient. Paper 2 tests 20 of these each year.
Suffixes and their spelling rules: -tion, -sion, -cian, -ous, -ious, -eous, -ious. Children must know which ending to use and how the base word changes (e.g. dropping the final e).
The separate Reading paper tests inference, retrieval, prediction, summary and vocabulary in context. SATs Goals! includes comprehension practice passages to build the skills needed across both fiction and non-fiction texts.
Combined GPS questions that blend grammar, punctuation and vocabulary — mirroring the variety found in Paper 1 and building the flexibility children need on exam day.
SATs Goals! covers all the GPS topics above with fresh questions every session — including the full Year 5/6 statutory spelling list.