Spellings-The New

Curriculum
Emma Lloyd
Literacy Co-ordinator

Why the changes?

Old homework- List of spellings to learn at home in
order to be tested on them the following week.
Assessment of childrens writing showed that words
the children were being tested on during their
weekly tests were not being spelt correctly in their
written work- Children had forgotten what they had
learnt!

Reasons for changing the way we

approach spellings.
Learning to spell is very difficult if not taught properly.
Too many children find the process of learning to spell hard work
and, sadly, boring.
The Thursday spelling test may be great for those who can already
spell, but for others it makes for a scary Thursday morning.
Most children get most spellings right on the day, but forget them
when coming to use them in future work, others just get them
wrong.
We need an approach which meets the needs of all children and
allows them to develop their skills at an appropriate rate. Allows
children to become independent, confident spellers.

So how will we change?

Spelling must be made fun, enjoyable and interesting.
Children only really become good at spelling by
practising over and over again and this is best done in
fun and interesting ways, not just by rote learning!

What spellings are taught?

YEAR 1 AND YEAR 2

Daily for 20 minutes using Letters and Sounds

Phase 1- Nursery
Phase 2 and 3- FS2
Phase 4 and 5- Year 1
Phase 6- Year 2

Y1- Phase 4 and 5

Phase 4 Spellings

Phase 5 Spellings

Revision of segmenting cvc

(consonant, vowel, consonant)
words
w e t
For example: wet
Segmenting for spelling CVCC
(consonant, vowel, consonant,
consonant) words
w e

For example:

Segmenting for spelling CCVC

(consonant, consonant, vowel,
consonant) words
g

For example:

ss

Segmenting two-syllable words

Alternative spellings for the

graphemes
ai
ay
a-e
eigh
ey
Pain
pay
made
eight
they
Spelling two syllable and three
syllable words
For example: football, triangle
As in Phase 4, children will be
taught how to spell common
words and tricky words.

Additional Spelling objectives

that need to be taught in Y1
Adding s and es to words (plural of nouns and the third
person singular of verbs only)
For example: cats, dogs, tables, pencils
Third person singular of verbs: catches, runs, climbs
Adding ing, -ed and er to verbs where no change to
the root verb is needed
For example: jumping, jumped, jumper
Adding er and est to adjectives where no change is
needed to the root word
For example: Quicker, quickest

Y2-Phase 6
At this stage children should be spelling more
accurately, although its perfectly normal for there
to still be some mistakes made at times. Spelling
usually lags behind reading as it is harder.
Spelling past tense form of verbs
For example: Regular= I looked, I jumped, I listened
Irregular= I went, I came, I said

Y2 continued
Groupingwords according to their spelling pattern:
Rules for adding ing, -er, -est, -ful, -ly and y
To investigate how adding suffixes and prefixes
changes the word.
Jump
=jumping

Swim=
swimming
Wave=
waving
Hop= hopping

Make=
making

Additional Spelling
objectives Y2

Contractions
For example: cant, didnt, hasnt

Adding es to nouns and verbs ending in y

For example: flies, tries, replies
Homophones or near homophones
there/their/ theyre
Hear/here

Yrs 3 and 4
Huge emphasis on teaching the suffixes and prefixes
Suffixes= forgetting, forgotten, beginning,
beginner, information, sadly, usually
Prefixes- un, dis, and mis (disappoint, disagree,
unhelpful, unsafe, mislead, misbehave)
Possessive apostrophe (belonging to)- girls, boys,
babies, childrens
Homophones or near homophones- accept/except,
affect/effect etc

Yrs 5 and 6
Investigating rules for word endings that sound like
-cious, -tious
precious, vicious, suspicious, ambitious
Further word endings cial and tial, -able, -ible
official, special, confidential, adorable, considerable,
legible
Words with silent letters- doubt, island, lamb
Further homophones and near homophones
advice/advise, practice/practise

How do we teach spellings?

We use a multi-sensory approach to meet the needs

of all learners. Below are some of the
resources/approaches we use to teach spellings:
Using phoneme frames and magnetic
letters to segment to spell words.

InvestigationsPhoneme Spotter Stories

The School Sale
It was the day of the school sale. Mum could
not go as she had a pain in her knee, so Gran
said she would take Kate and Wayne. They
could not wait!
At the school gate, Gran paid 50AED to get in.
She did not have to pay for Kate and Wayne it was free for children!
As soon as they were through the gate, Gran
gave Wayne and Kate 60AED each to spend,
and told them not to go too far away.
The sun was shining. Its not as hot as Spain!
said Gran. I think I need a cup of tea.
At the tea stall, a lady put Grans tea on the
tray, and Gran went to find a place to sit in the
shade

ay
eigh
day

Wayne

pay
away
tray

ai
ey
pain
they
wait

a-e

ea

sale
Kate

Spain gate
shade
Can you think of a rule?

Games
Spell, Shoot, Score
Whiteboard, markers, words, two hoops,
beanbags, two teams
Teacher gives a word to the first child in Team A and B,
based on the spellings theyve been learning in class.
The children record the spelling on their whiteboard
and show the class. They score a point if they have
spelt the word correctly. They are then able to score a
bonus point if they can throw their beanbag into the
hoop. Repeat the game until everybody in the team
has had a go.

Teaching spelling strategies

Strategies
Syllables

Base words

Analogy

Mnemonics

Explanations
To learn my word I can listen to
how many syllables there are so I
can break it into smaller bits to
remember (bed-room,
tri-an-gle)
To learn my word I can find its base
word (jumping= jump + ing)
To learn my word I can use words
that I already know to help me.
(could, would, should)
To learn my word I can make up a
sentence to help me remember it
e.g. could-OU Lucky Duck,
people- people eat orange peel like
elephants)

Teaching rules
Possessive apostrophe-singular (only one= s)
The coat belonging to the boy = the boys coat
The pencil belonging to the girl= the girls pencil

The word ends in

s so the
apostrophe
comes after.

Possessive apostrophe-plural (more than one)

The coats belonging to the boys= the boys coats
The pencils belonging to the girls= the girls pencils
The books belonging to the children= the childrens
books
The word does not end
in s, so its apostrophe
followed by the letter s

Collaborative Group work

Apostrophes! Look at the following signs with your
group. Can you spot the mistakes and correct them?
What rule should have been applied?

What homework will my child

receive?
The children will still receive words to practise at home,
but will not be tested on these weekly.
Instead, children will be given a challenging spelling
activity to help reinforce what has been learnt in class.
This may involve applying the spelling rule or spelling
strategy theyve learnt to spell words, grouping words
according to their spelling patterns, spotting mistakes in
a text or playing spelling games.
Key words will still be sent home to practise in
KS1.

How will we assess spellings?

Children working at Phonic level

are tracked half termly by the class teacher.
Data is used by the class teacher
to identify children who may be in need of
additional support or specific intervention
programmes.

Assessment continued
Teachers use their assessment to identify words
children are continually spelling incorrectly in
writing and set targets to help them improve.
These words are also communicated to parents.

Assessment continued
Spelling is assessed continuously within the context of the
childrens writing.
Sentence dictation or sentence writing applying spelling rules
taught-half termly.
For example: Year 3 dictation Homophones and Contractions
It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining. It was the day of my birthday party.
I didnt sleep much the night before because I was so excited. Id invited eight of
my closest friends to the cinema to celebrate my birthday with me.
We arrived at the cinema at 1pm to watch Dragon Delight. During the film, we ate
delicious popcorn. There were lots of other children at the cinema too. The film
was quite good, although Ive seen better films in the past. However, my friend,
Maryam, thought the film was amazing. She cant wait to buy the film when it
comes out on DVD.
Next week, its Ahmed and Hassans birthday. Theyre twins. They will be having
their birthday party at the bowling complex and Ive been invited! Im so excited!

Further support for parents

Future workshop is being planned for parents to
see some of the spelling activities, games,
investigations and strategies being used in the
classroom with your children.
School will contact you in the future with the
date and time of the workshop.

Any questions?????
Thank you for attending!
Dont forget to take a Spelling pack before you
leave!