Spelling

In Early Years, children are encouraged to discriminate between sounds, link sounds to letters and begin to use this knowledge to read and write. Read Write Inc. is used to teach, practise and assess phonics and spellings.

In Key Stage 1 children are taught to spell by segmenting words into phonemes (sounds) and representing these by graphemes (letters). It is expected that by the end of Year 2, children are able to spell the common exception words accurately.

In Year 3 and 4, children are expected to know how to spell the age-related common exception words. By the end of Key Stage 2, teachers ensure that children show a sound understanding of how to spell words with prefixes and suffixes and homophones. They are also taught how to check the spellings of words using a dictionary.  

In Key Stage 2, spellings are taught on Mondays, practised throughout the week and tested on Fridays. These spellings are based on specific patterns and include the Year 3/4 word list and the Year 5/6 word list. Each half-term, a booklet including weekly spelling words is sent home via Parentmail and a copy handed to each child. On a Friday, these words are then assessed.