This course is an interactive seminar, delivered online over half a day, with plenty of time for discussion and questions.

The new National Curriculum requires school teachers to teach English grammar, starting in primary school.

This online course is designed to help primary and secondary school teachers who:

• feel uncertain about their knowledge of grammar and want to improve their confidence in teaching it;
• want to refresh their knowledge of English grammar.

The course covers the key concepts of English grammar as laid out for each Key Stage in the National Curriculum.

It's taught by UCL experts and is brought to you by the team that runs Englicious, a free online learning and teaching resource for English grammar.

Watch a video about the course

You will receive an email with the invitation and instructions a week before the course starts.

Course Description

Grammar has in the past often been perceived to be a boring subject. If you think that too, you’re wrong! Grammar is part of everyone’s daily life and getting to know how it works is as important as knowing about maths, or any other subject taught at school. We will bring the fun back into grammar by introducing you to Englicious, a brand new free online resource for primary and secondary schools with lesson plans, exercises and projects that you can carry out with your pupils. This course aims to help you teach grammar in an engaging way that is relevant to your pupils and that makes sense to them.

This course is completely tailored to the 2014 UK National Curriculum, so you can be confident that you'll learn about English grammar as specified in the curriculum.

You'll have access to the latest research and training from leading UCL academic experts in the field of English grammar.

 The course aims to help you:

• understand the basic concepts of English grammar, as laid out in the National Curriculum;
• develop a stronger command of key English grammar terminology, as used in the National Curriculum;
• develop confidence in using grammatical terminology;
• improve your ability to analyse the grammar of texts;
• help you use grammar to improve your pupils’ reading and writing skills;
• learn to use the Englicious website.

Who this course is for

The course is designed for school teachers teaching at primary or secondary level, with any level of experience.

It's ideal for teachers who:

• are new to English grammar;
• feel uncertain about their knowledge of grammar;
• have taught for years, but might need guidance on new or revised terminology and concepts.

Recommended reading: the materials available on www.englicious.org (free sign-up).

Benefits of taking this course

For teachers:

• You’ll build confidence in dealing with grammar in the classroom;
• You’ll meet other teachers and discuss ideas and issues;
• You’ll study at UCL’s Institute of Education, a world-class leader in the field of teaching and pedagogy.

For pupils:

• Pupils will learn about grammar in a fun way;
• They will learn how grammar can help them understand how authors use language in novels, plays, etc.;
• Using the resources on Englicious they can practise what they have learnt and test their knowledge;
• They can improve their confidence in grammar;
• Englicious will help pupils improve their SPaG tests results in Years 3 and 6, or improve A-level results.

For schools:

• Your teaching staff will be up-to-date with a reliable, authoritative understanding of English grammar terminology as presented in the new National Curriculum;
• Your staff will be confident in the classroom and able to engage and enthuse pupils in grammar as part of the curriculum;
• Your school will be in a better position to get higher pass rates at all Key Stages as a result of high quality and engaging teaching in an essential part of the curriculum;
• Your school will be meeting the requirements of each Key Stage in the National Curriculum.

 Structure, teaching and certification

The course is designed as an interactive seminar. You'll learn to identify key elements of English grammar using rigorous sets of criteria.

You'll apply those tools to real examples of language, step by step. 

Over the course of the day you'll move from identifying single, simple grammatical features towards identifying more complex structures and relationships.

This approach, using clear criteria and a consistent toolset, provides you with the means to analyse a wide range of English sentences in the classroom.

You will be introduced to the Englicious website and taught how to use it effectively.

A certificate of attendance will be issued on request for those who attend the whole day.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course you will:

• be able to identify the grammatical concepts that students need to know about as set out in the 2014 UK National Curriculum;
• be able to distinguish between grammar and meaning, along with the different approaches to language that they represent;
• be able to distinguish between grammatical form and grammatical function;
• feel confident in the methods used to analyse English grammar, and use that confidence to enthuse your students in the classroom. 

This training session will be delivered on via Zoom from 09:30 to 13:00 on the advertised date.