Spelling

The National Curriculum outlines very clearly the continuity and progression of spelling for children at Key Stage 2. In light of the more prescriptive guidance about spelling rules, alongside banks of words to learn, it is critical that children experience an investigative approach to spelling, enabling them to explore rules, patterns and shapes.

Children will be given a card with 50 words on it, to learn each term.  This card is to be taken home and goes hand in hand with the lessons they will be doing at school, where they will be investigating spelling patterns, rules and exceptions to those rules.  Each week, they will focus on different words from the list.  The children should highlight the words on their card once you they can definitely spell them. A weekly spelling test will not fire their imaginations and so we are going to take the more dramatic position of providing termly ‘Spelling Bee’ experiences whereby at the end of term, the children’s efforts are celebrated following a ’Spelling Bee’ assessment approach, where an award can be achieved if children have worked hard to explore rules and to learn exceptions to these rules.

Children with special educational needs will be given a card of 50 high frequency words, enabling them to achieve success in spelling the words they will need to use in their written work.