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Jargon Buster
EYFS
EYFS is an acronym for Early Years Foundation Stage. EYFS applies to the learning and development of all children from birth to five.
ELG
ELG is an acronym for Early Learning Goal.
Children are assessed against 17 Early Learning Goals at the end of Reception to say whether they are still working towards the ELG (emerging), whether they have achieved the ELG (expected) or if they are working beyond the ELG (exceeding).
Phonics
Phonics is a way of teaching children early reading and writing. It teaches children to hear sounds and how to recognise and represent sounds in a written form.
Phoneme
A phoneme is a single unit of sound.
We teach children to hear all phonemes in a word. For example, in the word cat there are 3 phonemes c, a, t.
Grapheme
A grapheme is how a phoneme (sound) is represented in it’s written form. It is what the sound looks like.
A phoneme can be represented with more than one letter such as sh in ship, and air in hair.
The same phoneme can also be represented in more than one way such as the ‘ai’ sound in rain, hay, spade and apron.
These representations are graphemes.
Digraph
A digraph is when two letters make one sound.
A consonant digraph is made up of two consonants such as ‘ss' at the end of ‘hiss’ or 'sh' at the beginning of 'ship’.
A vowel digraph features one or more of the five vowels such as ‘oa’ in road or the ar sound in car.
Split digraph
If a digraph is split by a consonant it is a split digraph. For example in ‘cone’ the split digraph is ‘o-e’.
There are five split digraphs – one for every vowel.
a-e, e-e, i-e, o-e, u-e
Trigraph
A trigraph is when three letters make one sound.
For example ‘igh’ in ‘light’ and ‘ear’ in ‘hear’.
Blending (including oral blending)
Blending is simply teaching children how to blend, or string together, sounds in a word.
So for example if we blend the sounds c-a-t together, we have the word cat.
If we blend the sounds f-i-sh together we have the word fish.
We teach blending to support reading.
Segmenting (incl. oral segmenting)
Segmenting is the opposite of blending.
When segmenting, children are taught to split up a word into the different sounds they can hear.
For example if I say the word cat, it can be segmented into three sounds c-a-t.
If I say the word fish, it can be segmented into three sounds f-i-sh.
We teach segmenting to support writing.
Tricky words
Tricky words are words that are phonetically irregular, so they can not be sounded out and blended.
As they can not be sounded out, we teach children to recognise tricky words as a whole word by sight instead.
These are words like I, no, the, he, they.
Nonsense words
Nonsense words are decodable words, so words that can be sounded out and blended, but they are not real words.
For example mog, cheb and glib are nonsense words.
They are not real words in the English language.
By blending and segmenting nonsense words, children are able to demonstrate their phonics skills.
Phonics phases (1 to 6)
The DfE has published phonics guidance called Letters and Sounds. In this document, phonics teaching and learning is broken up into 6 phases. Each phase is different and progressive starting with phase 1 through to phase 6.
Number bonds
Number bonds are pairs of numbers that go together make a number.
We teach number bonds to 5, 10 and 20.
KS 1
3D shapes
Three-dimensional shapes are solid shapes that can be picked up and held. Some examples are spheres, cubes and cones.
Venn diagrams
A diagram of two overlapping circles that can be used to sort things such as shapes or numbers. There are three sections, the middle section being a combination of the two circles.
Related subtraction
Related facts, also know as fact families, are a group of calculations that are created using the same three numbers, for example 2 + 5 = 7 and 5 + 2 = 7, Using these three numbers, the related subtractions would be 7 – 2 = 5 and 7 – 5 = 2.
Exchanging
Exchanging is often used alongside the column method. In addition, exchanging takes place when two digits add up to 10 or more. Ten ones are exchanged for one ten. For example, thirteen ones becomes one ten and three ones. This is often know as ‘carrying’. In subtraction, the exchange takes place when you cannot subtract one number from another. In this case, you exchange one ten from the tens column, for ten ones in the ones column. This is often known as ‘borrowing’.
Pictogram
A pictorial way of representing data and information that has been collected and displayed on a chart. Each picture may represent one, or sometimes will represent more than one, in which case a key will be provided alongside the pictogram.
Fractions
A part of a whole, for example a half is one whole, split into two equal parts. This can be applied to shapes and numbers.
Digits
The numeral used within a number. For example, the number 53 is made up of the digits 5 and 3.
Mathematical symbols
The most common mathematical symbols are +, –, x, ÷ and =. Other regularly used symbols include > (more than) and < (less than).
Multiples
The result when one number is multiplied by another, for example 6 is a multiple of 2 and 3.
Place value
The value of each digit in a number. For example, in the number 25, the digit 2 has a value of 20.
Place value counters
Coloured counters, often displaying the numbers 1, 10 or 100, that are used to represent numbers. For example the number 45 would be made up of four 10 counters and five 1 counters.
Nouns
A noun is a naming word for a person, a place or a thing. For example, farmer, shop, chair.
Verbs
A verb is a doing or action word. For example, running, shouting, sleeping.
Adjectives
An adjective is a describing word that describes a noun. For example, beautiful, quiet, colourful.
Adverbs
A word to describe a verb. For example, quickly, carefully, noisily.
Noun phrases
A group of words that contains a noun, for example ‘the boots’. An expanded noun phrase has the addition of an adjective, for example ‘the muddy boots’.
Conjunctions
Words that are used to join two or more parts of a sentence. For example, ‘but’ and ‘because’.
Consonants
A letter of the alphabet that is not a vowel.
Clauses
A group of words that contains a subject and a verb. For example, in the clause ‘The cat slept’, ‘cat’ is the subject and ‘slept’ is the verb. Clauses can be put together to form a sentence.
Ascenders
Ascenders are used in handwriting. This refers to lowercase letters with parts that are taller than other letters. For example, b, d and h.
Descenders
Descenders are used in handwriting. This refers to lowercase letters with parts that go below other letters. For example, g, j and y.
Question marks
The punctuation used at the end of a question.
Exclamation marks
The punctuation used at the end of an exclamation. Also often used to show strong feelings or emphasis.
Commas
The punctuation used to separate words, phrases or clauses. Often used to separate words in a list. For example, ‘We went to the shop and bought eggs, flour and butter.’
Apostrophes
The punctuation used to show possession or contraction. Possession refers to something belonging to someone or something. For example, ‘the rabbit’s tail’. A contraction refers to two words being joined together to create one word, with some letters being replaced by an apostrophe. For example, ‘I will’ becomes ‘I’ll’.
Contractions
This refers to two words being joined together to create one word, with some letters being replaced by an apostrophe. For example, ‘I will’ becomes ‘I’ll’.
Command words
Often referred to as imperative verbs or bossy verbs, these are the verbs that form a command. For example, in the command ‘Put the cup down’, ‘put’ is the command word.
Prefixes
A letter or a group of letters that are added to the start of a word that changes the meaning of the root word. For example, in ‘unhappy’, the prefix ‘un’ is added to the root word ‘happy’ to change the meaning.
Suffixes
A letter or a group of letters that are added to the end of a word that changes the meaning of the root word. For example, in ‘cheerful’, the suffix ‘ful’ is added to the root word ‘cheer’ to change the meaning.
Extending sentences
Sentences can be extended by adding additional information to make it more interesting. This is often done by using a conjunction to add a clause. For example, ‘The fluffy cat sat on the mat.’ becomes ‘The fluffy cat sat on the mat and fell asleep.’
LKS 2
Non-unit fractions
A fraction which has as a numerator greater than 1. For example. 2/5, 6/9.
Single-digit denominators
A fraction with a denominator with a single digit. For example ¼ , ½.
Fractions of quantities
A fraction of a number or amount. To find a fraction of an amount, divide the amount by denominator. For example, 1/3 of 27 can be solved by 27 ÷ 3 = 9.
Part-whole models
A part-whole model is a concept to show how numbers can be split into different parts. They can be used to represent numbers, as well as a wide variety of calculations. The concept follows the structure part + part = whole. A part-whole model can also be used to work out the inverse of a calculation.
Main clauses
A sentence that makes sense on its own. The sentence must include a subject (the person or thing that does an action) and verb (the action). For example, The dog barked.
Subordinate clauses
A subordinate clause contains a subject and a verb, but it does not make sense on its own. It needs to be attached to a main clause. For example, The dog barked because it was scared. A main clause and coordinate clause must be attached with a conjunction.
Relative clauses
A type of subordinate clause; a part of a sentence that won’t make sense on its own. A relative clause describes the noun or pronoun (I, you, me, she, he) in the sentence and can only be placed after the noun or pronoun. The clause must include relative pronouns such as ‘who’, ‘whom’, ‘whose’, ‘which’, ‘that’. For example, the cat slept which was normal.
Pronouns
A pronoun replaces the noun to ensure the noun is not repeated multiple times in a sentence. Example of pronouns are I, me, they, your, you. For example, Kate cheered her dad while her dad played cricket. The sentence can change using the pronouns to, Kate cheered her dad while he played cricket.
Abstract nouns
A word that refers to ideas or feelings. It relates to nouns that cannot be touched or seen. For example, bravery, love, morning, afternoon.
Prepositions
A word that connects the noun or pronoun to the verb (action word) or adjective (describing word). It tells the reader where one thing is in relation to the other. Examples of prepositions are after, on, under, inside. For example, Jane was sat under the table eating cookies.
Adverbials
A are word or groups of words which add detail to the verb. They add extra information, such as how or when an action was carried out. For example, the man painted the fence carefully. To create a fronted adverbial sentence the adverbial must be placed at the start of the sentence, separated with a comma. For example, Carefully, the man pained the fence.
Synonyms
A word that has the same meaning as another. For example, synonyms for happy are; content, joyful, glad pleased, cheerful.
Antonyms
A word that has the opposite meaning of another. For example, the antonym for hot is cold, the antonym for long is short.
Subordinating conjunctions
A conjunction that combines a main clause and subordinate clause together. A subordinating conjunction will have two parts of the sentence, the main clause and the clause to extend the main clause. Examples of subordinating conjunctions are; although, because, before, if.
Co-ordinating conjunctions
A conjunctions that combines to main clauses together. The sentences will make sense on their own. Examples of co-ordinating conjunctions are; and, but, or, so. For example, I had a terrible headache, but I went to school.
Alliteration
Using several words in a sentence that have the same letter and sound. For example, Tessa is a tremendously talented translator.
UKS 2
Translation
Moving a shape left, right, up or down to a new position – usually on a grid – but without changing its size or shape in any way.
Decimals
Decimals are numbers which show a part of a whole number by separating the whole number from the fractional part using a decimal point.
Percentages
A percentage is a way to show a proportion by expressing it as a number which means ‘parts per hundred’. We use the percentage symbol % after a number to show it is a percent. For example, 7% means ‘7 out of every 100 parts’.
Improper fractions
Fractions are shown using two numbers, one above and one below a horizontal line. The number below the line (the denominator) shows how many equal parts are needed to make a whole, and the number above the line (the numerator) shows how many of those total parts the fraction is concerned with. Usually, the numerator is less than the denominator because generally fractions are used to show a part of a whole. Where the numerator is greater, we call the fraction an ‘improper fraction’.
mixed numbers
Mixed numbers show a combination of a whole number and a fraction. For example, ‘one and a half’ would need to be written as a mixed number as 1½.
Subjects
In a sentence, the subject of the sentence is the person, place, thing or idea that is doing or being something. For example ‘The boy kicked the ball’. In this sentence, the boy is the subject because he is kicking the ball.
Objects
In a sentence, the object of the sentence is the person or thing that is having something done to it by the subject of the sentence. For example, ‘The boy kicked the ball’. In this sentence, the ball is the object because it is being kicked by the boy.
Active voice and passive voice
Where a sentence is in the active voice, the subject is carrying out the action: The boy kicked the ball. In the passive voice, the subject is acted upon by the verb: The ball was kicked by the boy.
Personal pronouns
A pronoun is a word which can stand in for a noun such as ‘it’ or ‘that’ to avoid repeating the noun over and over again. A personal pronoun is a pronoun which we can use in place of the proper names of people such as ‘he’ or ‘her’.
Subjunctive form
The subjunctive form of a verb is usually used to express things that could or should happen such as wishes, hopes or commands. For example, ‘I wish I were able to attend.’
Present perfect
This is a form of verb which uses ‘has’ or ‘have’ to show that an action has taken place at some point in the past. For example, ‘We have seen that film several times already.’
Present progressive tense
The present progressive is formed using ‘am’, ‘is’ or ‘are’ to show that an action is still taking place and is not finished. For example, ‘I am mopping the floor.’
Idioms
An idiom is an informal phrase or group or words which has a meaning that would not be easily understood by looking the phrase or words on their own. For example, ‘couch potato’ or ‘raining cats and dogs’.
Acronyms
An acronym is a group of letters which have been made using the initial letters of a group of words. For example, ‘DIY’ is an acronym made up of the initial letters from ‘Do It Yourself’.
