Interviewee: Suzie Laverty, Class Teacher and English Lead, Caen Community Primary School
Case Study: GPS SATs Results Rise from 68% to 86% After One Year of Spectacular SPaG
After just one year of using Mrs Mactivity’s Spectacular SPaG scheme, Caen Community Primary School saw the percentage of Year 6 pupils meeting the expected standard in grammar, punctuation and spelling rise from 68% to 86%.
We spoke to Suzie Laverty, Class Teacher and English Lead at Caen Community Primary School, about why the school introduced Spectacular SPaG, the impact they have seen after one year and how both teachers and pupils have responded to the scheme.
At a glance
68% → 86%
After one year of Spectacular SPaG
Year 6 pupils meeting the expected standard in the GPS SATs.
School: Caen Community Primary School
Interviewee: Suzie Laverty, Class Teacher and English Lead
Scheme: Spectacular SPaG
Time using the scheme: One year
Why Caen introduced Spectacular SPaG
Caen Community Primary School wanted to strengthen SPaG teaching across the school. KS2 SPaG data was an area they wanted to improve, while teachers were also seeing gaps in pupils’ application of grammar, punctuation and spelling within their writing.
“Our KS2 SPaG data was low and children across the school were missing key SPaG elements in their writing.”
— Suzie Laverty, Caen Community Primary School
From 68% to 86% after just one year of Spectacular SPaG
After one year of using Spectacular SPaG, Caen saw a significant improvement in its end of KS2 grammar, punctuation and spelling results. The percentage of Year 6 pupils meeting the expected standard in the GPS SATs increased from 68% to 86% – an increase of 18 percentage points.
After one year of Spectacular SPaG
68% → 86%
Year 6 pupils meeting the expected standard in the GPS SATs
For Suzie, however, the impact isn’t only visible in the SATs data. She has also seen greater understanding of SPaG amongst pupils and greater consistency in how it is taught across the school.
“The children have a greater understanding of SPaG, we can now have a whole school approach to the teaching.”
Easy to introduce across the whole school
Introducing a new scheme across a school means it needs to work for teachers with very different levels of classroom experience. At Caen, Suzie says the response from the whole teaching team has been positive, from experienced teachers to ECTs.
“Very, from teachers with over 20 years of experience to ECT, our whole team has commented really positively on the SPaG resources.”
A consistent approach that pupils recognise
The consistency of Spectacular SPaG across year groups has also been useful for pupils. Rather than encountering a completely different format as they move through school, children recognise the lesson slides and resources, helping the approach feel familiar.
“They recognise the slides etc being the same across each year group so it helps them to feel secure as it is familiar. They enjoy the activities within the slides/the paper resources too.”
Flexible enough to adapt to each class
For teachers, having a complete scheme doesn’t mean having to teach every activity in exactly the same way. Suzie highlighted how easily teachers can adapt Spectacular SPaG lessons to suit the needs of their class.
“You can adapt the lessons easily to suit the needs of your class. E.g a sheet activity can easily become a quick fire answer game using white boards.”
What would Caen say to another school considering Spectacular SPaG?
When we asked Suzie what she would say to another school considering introducing the scheme, her answer perhaps summed up the experience of the Caen team best:
“It’s a scheme that is super easy to run with and all levels of experience have really enjoyed teaching from it. How often does something new get brought in without complaints?!”
— Suzie Laverty
Support from the Mrs Mactivity team
Suzie also highlighted the support Caen has received from the Mrs Mactivity team while using the scheme:
“Really love how responsive the team are with questions, sorting the formatting font issues etc.”
About Spectacular SPaG
Spectacular SPaG is Mrs Mactivity’s complete grammar, punctuation and spelling scheme of work for Years 1 to 6. It includes carefully sequenced lessons, interactive teaching slides, differentiated activities, assessments and progress tracking, alongside an integrated spelling and handwriting strand and whole-school progression resources.
A huge thank you to Suzie and everyone at Caen Community Primary School for taking the time to share their experience and allowing us to share their results.
You can read more experiences from schools using Mrs Mactivity on our Mrs Mactivity case studies page.
Explore Spectacular SPaG for your school
See how Spectacular SPaG supports consistent, progressive grammar, punctuation and spelling teaching from Year 1 to Year 6.
Based on questionnaire responses from Suzie Laverty, Class Teacher and English Lead at Caen Community Primary School, submitted on 11 September 2026. Results are reported by the school. Suzie’s quotations have been kept in her own words.
