At Stephenson we teach spelling patterns explicitly through a range of activities to develop children’s awareness of the patterns, etymology and morphology of words and spelling patterns. At the end of teaching a spelling pattern, children have a spelling quiz. This consists of 5 words from the Spelling Shed list of 10 and one “surprise word”. This is an unseen word that follows the spelling pattern to see if children can apply their knowledge to spell it.
We use Spelling Shed to support the teaching of spellings, using their scheme, which meets the requirements of the National Curriculum. However, we have adapted the Year 1 Spelling Shed scheme to support any children who need to recap any of these patterns and have broken it down into smaller steps to support our children successfully learning these. Year 1 are also taught spellings in a more tailored way to ensure each child can achieve and make progress.
In Year 1, most National Curriculum spelling patterns are covered in our phonics scheme (Read, Write Inc), ensuring children only see graphemes and patterns that they are ready to learn. Therefore the teaching of these spellings and tracking of them is covered in our daily phonic sessions. The National Curriculum spelling patterns, which are not phonetic, are taught explicitly within Literacy. Year 1 still have dedicated spelling teaching time and this is focused on learning and spelling common exception words.
From Year 2 to Year 6, our daily timetabled spelling sessions are learning the spelling patterns from the year group each child is in. Children who have struggled with previous year group’s spelling patterns or have any specific gaps, have additional intervention spelling sessions. Children with particular SEND have more tailored spelling teaching to ensure their needs are targeted to effectively.
All children have a Spelling Shed login to practise spellings at home to support their learning in school.
Teaching of common exception words is separate to our daily timetabled sessions for Years 2 to 6. This is mapped out by teachers to ensure all words are covered to be taught and tracked and are in context of their learning (Literacy lessons, grammar slots and other subjects where there are links to these words).