English Skills Introductory Book

Schofield & Sims English Skills provides regular graded practice to develop pupils’ literacy skills at Key Stage 2. Fully in line with the requirements of the National Curriculum for English, the series comprises seven pupil books, seven accompanying answer books and a single teacher’s guide. Key areas are constantly revisited, giving pupils the intensive and rigorous practice that is essential to embed learning and prepare for the Key Stage 2 national tests. 

Each pupil book is divided into three sections, comprising 12 one-page tests. The tests increase in difficulty throughout the book and are made up of three distinct sections:

• ‘Warm-up’ exercises – containing word puzzles and revision of earlier learning
• ‘Word work’ questions – featuring questions on spelling, word structure and vocabulary
• 'Sentence work’ questions – focusing on grammar, punctuation and sentence formation.

At the end of each section, a Writing task encourages children to apply what they have learnt in their own writing, while a Proofreading task further reinforces learning. Additional features include a Glossary to support the confident use of literacy terms and a Progress chart with ‘I can statements’ to allow pupils to monitor their own skills.

The English Skills Introductory Book revises topics from the Key Stage 1 curriculum and is suitable for use with children nearing the end of Key Stage 1 or as part of a catch-up programme at the beginning of Key Stage 2. Topics covered include: sentence formation and punctuation; compound nouns; verb tenses; commas in a list; common suffixes; alternative spellings of letter sounds; and common spelling patterns.

The accompanying answer book, English Skills Introductory Book Answers, contains answers to all the questions in the English Skills Introductory Book and the single Teacher’s Guide contains further guidance and resources to help children practise and develop literacy skills. Online answers as well as a selection of free supporting downloads are also available from the Schofield & Sims website.