Download Spelling policy 2016-2017 - Woodham Walter Primary School

WOODHAM WALTER PRIMARY SCHOOL
Spelling Policy
‘Excellence for Everyone’
This policy was agreed at a meeting of staff:
Autumn 2016
It will be reviewed in line with the Policy review Cycle
SPELLING POLICY
Rationale
At Woodham Walter Primary School we aim for all children to achieve the highest
possible standards of spelling. We want children to spell well and to achieve
satisfaction in spelling well. Whilst we do not want a fear of incorrect spelling to
undermine children’s willingness and motivation to write using a broad range of
ambitious vocabulary, we expect teachers to set clear expectations for children, so
that all words previously taught are spelt correctly and that children have a range of
strategies to help them spell unknown words. While it is important to remember that
spelling is not the most important aspect of writing, confidence in spelling often has a
profound effect on the writer’s self-image, therefore, we believe that a positive,
motivating and interactive approach to spelling will encourage children to recognise
their achievements.
Through careful teaching and using specific strategies to develop spelling through its
stages, we can encourage children to investigate and overcome spelling problems, thus
becoming more confident writers. We recognise that spelling is a fundamental part of
the writing process and believe that when spelling becomes automatic, more thought
and creativity can be put into the exact content of what is written. Pupils can channel
their time and energy into the skills of composition, sentence structure and precise
word choice.
The improvement of spelling is a focus for teaching and learning for the whole school.
Aims
At Woodham Walter we aim:
 To provide a rich and lively learning environment, supported by well-chosen word
resources and interactive displays to enhance pupils’ learning.
 To teach spelling systematically throughout the school.
 To teach Phonological Awareness, Word Recognition, Graphic knowledge and Spelling
knowledge.
 To encourage children to develop and learn a personal bank of frequently used
words, as indicated in the National Curriculum for English.
 To equip children with a wide range of spelling strategies to enable them to be
confident, competent and independent spellers.
 To make children aware of the Writing Process so that they can write fluently,
confidently and independently, concentrating on Spelling when and where it is
appropriate.
Spelling Policy
Roles and Responsibilities
The Staff
• To ensure that teachers plan for the teaching of spelling every week and that
planning is shared with members of support staff, who are also responsible for
encouraging children to spell correctly.
• To ensure that spellings are set at an appropriate level for the child and build on what
they already know and can apply.
• To teach a range of approaches to learn spellings.
• To provide children with a range of strategies to help them become secure with
spelling rules.
• To ensure children’s spelling is assessed on a regular basis and that this is used to
inform future planning.
• To ensure that everyone shares good practice, reviewing this on a regular basis, to
ensure there is continuity.
The Pupils
• To use the strategies taught to them, to help secure spelling skills.
• To be able to identify the most effective methods to help them to learn and recall
spelling rules.
• To transfer skills to their written work, correctly spelling words that have learnt.
The Parents
• To support their children in the learning of spelling.
• To be familiar with the strategies that the children are encouraged to use to help
them to learn their spellings.
Teaching and Learning
Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1
Teaching and learning in the Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 is strengthened by the
use of a high quality phonics programme, ‘Letters and Sounds’ alongside the EYFS and
National curriculum for English requirements.
A discrete period of 20 mins approximately will take place daily within EYFS and Key
Stage 1.
Children will be taught:
 the grapheme- phoneme correspondence in a clearly defined sequence, using
Letters and Sounds as a basis for this sequence.
 the skill of segmenting words into their constituent phonemes to spell.
 that blending and segmenting are reversible processes.
High Frequency Words
Throughout each phase the tricky high frequency words will be taught. These will be
referred to as Tricky Words (these are words which cannot be spelled using phonic
knowledge alone at the phase they are introduced)
Teachers use a variety of methods to ensure the correct spelling of the high frequency
words appropriate to each phase plus subject specific vocabulary.
Teachers should recognise worthy attempts made by children to spell words but should
also correct them selectively and sensitively.
Transition from Year 1 to Year 2
By the end of Year 1, the expectation is that most children will be secure at phase 5,
though further work will be required to ensure they have the knowledge and
understanding of alternative spellings for each phoneme. This is addressed in the
spelling requirements for Year 2.
For those children who are not yet secure at phase 5, it will be necessary to continue
with daily phonics sessions. For phase 6, children are to use the No Nonsense Spelling
Scheme.
Key Stage 2
At Key Stage 2 there is an emphasis on the recognition of letter strings, visual
patterns and analogies, the application of spelling conventions, the morphology of words
and the use of a range of word resources, such as dictionaries and thesauri.
Nevertheless, it is recognised that some pupils will need to consolidate the phonic
knowledge and skills taught in Key Stage 1
Throughout KS2 children use a ‘cued spelling’ approach to consolidate their learning of
specific spellings and No Nonsense Spelling as appropriate.
The long term plans for teaching spelling in Key Stage 2 will be taken from the Spelling
appendix in the National Curriculum for English. (Appendix A) from the children’s work
(and if necessary from the high frequency/ tricky words from KS1).
Learning and practising spelling (across the whole school)
To become successful spellers, pupils need to be given opportunities for consolidation
on a daily basis and should include the promotion of collaborative learning, The teaching
of spelling should predominately be school based as the practice of giving lists of words
solely to learn as homework has proven to be less than successful.
Pupils will develop different strategies for memorising high (Tricky Words) or subject
specific vocabulary. The children may continue to use the system taught in Key Stage 1
or other memory strategies or cues to support learning of high frequency (Tricky
words) or subject specific vocabulary:
 Syllables - To learn my word I can listen to how many syllables there are so I can
break it into smaller bits to remember (e.g. Sep-tem-ber, ba-by)
 Base words - To learn my word I can find its base word (e.g. Smiling – base smile
+ing, e.g. women = wo + men)
 Analogy - To learn my word I can use words that I already know to help me (e.g.
could: would, should)
 Mnemonics - To learn my word I can make up a sentence to help me remember it
(e.g.could – O U Lucky Duck; people – people eat orange peel like elephants
Children should be able to spell an ever-increasing number of words accurately and
to check and correct their work. This process is supported through:
 shared writing: the teacher demonstrates how to apply spelling strategies while
writing and teaches proofreading skills;
 guided and independent writing: the children apply what they have been taught.
This is the opportunity to think about the whole writing process: composition as well
as spelling, handwriting and punctuation;
 marking the children’s work: the teacher can assess their progress and their ability
to understand and apply what has been taught, then identify targets for further
improvement;
 teaching and practising handwriting: learning and practising a fluent joined style will
support the children’s spelling development.
When marking, teachers do not correct beyond what has been taught about in spelling.
Children are assessed at the end of each phase during the Letters and Sounds
programme before moving onto the next phase.
Once a child is secure in their spelling of a word, it will not be accepted to be spelt
incorrectly.
Spellings which have been corrected in marking in Key Stage 2 should be rewritten by
children and/or including in individual cued spelling lists.
Marking of written work provides the opportunity to see how well individual children
understand and apply what has been taught and should always relate to the specific
focus for teaching.
Teachers will:
 Set clear expectations when the children start to write. Reminding them of the
strategies, rules and conventions that they can apply.
 Analyse children’s errors.
 Provide feedback and time to respond.
Teachers are expected to use their professional judgement as to the number of
spelling mistakes corrected in any one single piece of writing. Corrections are made on
the basis of the spelling focus the children have been concentrating on. Teachers base
their assessment according to the objectives set out in the National Curriculum for
English and set targets accordingly.
Inclusion
Some children, who may be experiencing difficulties, will be given additional support in
small groups or one to one led by teachers or teaching assistants. Their progress will be
closely monitored by the class teacher in conjunction with SENCo where relevant.
The Classroom Environment
The skills that children develop in spelling are linked to, and applied in, every subject of
our curriculum. The children’s skills in spelling will enable them to communicate and
express themselves in all areas of their work in school.
The spelling of key vocabulary in all subject/topic areas and will be taught through the
strategies already listed above. Children will be encouraged to read and spell new words
relating to different topics taught across all areas of the curriculum, allowing their
knowledge and vocabulary to be developed and extended further.
To raise the profile of the importance of good spelling, it has been agreed that in any
piece of written work completed by a child, the teacher should, where appropriate,
mark or correct spellings accordingly. Examples of when this correction might be
appropriate include:
 A common word, usually spelled correctly, has been incorrectly spelled.
 ‘Sloppy’ spelling, where a word given on the board or on a word bank has not been
looked at properly to ensure correct spelling.
 A word given in previous tests that has been incorrectly spelled.
As part of the child’s improvement work, following the teacher’s marking, the child
should look at these spelling improvements.
a) Children in Key Stage 1 and less able children in Key Stage 2 should have the words
corrected fully by the teacher writing the word above the incorrect spelling or in the
margin. It should be clear to the child how exactly to spell the word and their
‘improvement’ might be to copy that word or sentence underneath the piece of work
marked or include it in their cued spelling list.
b) Children in Key Stage 2 or more able children in Key Stage 1 should have an
appropriate selection of incorrect spellings underlined. They should then attempt to
spell the word correctly or use a dictionary to help.
Teachers are signposted to appendix A ‘Supporting children with spelling’
November 2016
Reviewed in line with the Policy Review Cycle
APPENDIX A
Supporting Children with Spelling
The bulk of the work on learning how to spell should be completed by the end of
primary school.
Different children learn in different ways. There is no blueprint for teaching children
to spell.
1) Fundamental issues
 In order to spell properly children need to be able to speak properly. Parents and
teachers should sensitively correct poor articulation and mispronunciations. They
should also assist pupils to recognise words that are slang (for example,
gobsmacked).
 Joined handwriting helps spelling accuracy. As a general rule, children with neat,
joined handwriting tend to be more competent at spelling than those who print, or
those with poor handwriting
2) One technique for learning spellings – Rainbow writing
 The link between the brain and the writing hand is the key, therefore when
learning spellings pupils should write them out
 They should say the word before writing it
 They should write in a joined script
 As they write each letter they should say its name
 At the end of the word they should repeat the word
 This process should be repeated twice more using a different colour each time
and tracing over the letters
 In this way a striking visual image (‘rainbow writing’) is created. This enhances
the visual impact of the word on the child’s memory – a stronger imprint.
3) Key Issues when teaching spelling – Melvyn Ramsden
 Teach children to segment words rather than looking at individaul letters
diff-er-ent rather than d-i-f-f-e-r-e-n-t; dis-gust-ing rather than d-i-s-g-u-s-t-i-n-g
 Teach them to ‘get a feeling for the word in their mouth’. Speak the word out loud
 Repeating words out loud is very important
 Single letters rarely indicate and represent a sound in isolation. Letters work in
combination with other letters – does your child know this?
4) Using the segmentation technique
1) Segment your target word
2) Ask: do I recognise any of the segments?
3) Ask: do I know how to write any of these segments?
4) Write down the segments you know how to write in order
5) Leave a blank for those segments you don’t know and ask a partner (parent) to
help you with those segments
5) Visualisation and spelling
Some researchers stress the importance of visualising spellings as key to learning
them. They suggest an alternative to the look-cover-write-check methodology.
Master strategy for
programming’, 1994
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


teaching
spelling
Harry
Alder
‘Neuro-linguistic
The secret to good spelling is being able to store words in a visual way
The best way to remember a spelling is to visualise it, a little up and to your left in
your mind’s eye, and store that picture
When you see that word again, it will ‘look right’ or ‘feel right’, or, if it was spelt
incorrectly, it will ‘look wrong’ or ‘feel wrong’
All top spellers that have been researched use some form of visualisation, usually
looking up or straight ahead as they recall a word, then down as they confirmed
that it felt right
The strategy to follow:
 First, think of anything that feels familiar and comfortable
 Next, for a few seconds, look at the word you wish to remember
 See the word in your favourite colour, in a place you really like
 Look away from the word, up and to your left, and picture the word as best you
can as you try to spell it in your mind
 Look back at the word, noticing any letters you have missed and repeat the
process until you can picture the whole word
 To test yourself, after a short break, visualise the word and write it down
 Now look up at the word again and spell it backwards. This will confirm that you
are learning through the best, visual strategy (you cannot learn to spell a word
backwards if learned phonetically)
 For longer words chunk them down into smaller units of three or four letters.
Visualise separate chunks
6) 50 common words that are frequently spelt incorrectly – a subjective list
Correct spelling
I
so
they
went
which
until
some
does
before
meant
always
could
should
would
like
might
people
believe
really
didn’t
listen
thought
actually
enough
anyone
happened
Common error
(grammatical error)
sow
thay
whent
wich
untill
sum
(homophone issue)
dose
befor
ment
allways
cud
shud
wud
lik
mite
peple
belive
realy
did’nt
lisen
thort
acshully
enuf
enyone
happend
i
different
friend
something
everyone
decide
many
very
slowly
heard
someone
quickly
special
tomorrow
comfortable
rough
first
calm
eventually
usually
surprsie
separate
asked
once
tried
herd
diffrent
frend
somthing
evryone
dicide
meny
verry
slowley
(homophone issue)
somone
quickley
speshall
tommorow
conftable
ruff
frist
carm
aventually
ushually
suprise
seperate
aksed
wonce
tryed
7) The 100 words most commonly mis-spelled by children
(in order of error frequency)
1) their
2) too
3) there
4) they
5) then
6) until
7) our
8) asked
9) off
10) through
11) you’re
12) clothes
13) looked
14) people
15) pretty
16) running
17) believe
18) little
19) things
20) him
21) because
22) thought
23) and
24) beautiful
25) it’s
26) went
27) where
28) stopped
29) very
30) morning
31) something
32) named
33) came
34) name
35) tried
36) here
37) many
38) knew
39) with
40) together
41) swimming
42) first
43) were
44) than
45) two
46) know
47) decided
48) friends
49) when
50) let’s
51) mother
52) another
53) threw
54) some
55) its
56) bought
57) getting
58) going
59) course
60) women
61) animals
62) started
63) that’s
64) would
65) again
66) heard
67) received
68) coming
69) to
70) said
71) wanted
72) hear
73) from
74) frightened
75) for
76) interesting
77) once
78) like
79) they’re
80) cousin
81) all right
82) happened
83) didn’t
84) always
85) surprise
86) before
87) caught
88) every
89) different
90) interesting
91) sometimes
92) friends
93) children
94) an
95) school
96) jumped
97) around
98) dropped
99) babies
100) money
8)
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Common words that are frequently confused
where and were
than and then
two, too and to
there, their and they’re
will and well
quite and quiet
accept and except
9)
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Two words that pupils hear as one word
a lot
all right
in case
in trouble
10) Hearing issues
 could’ve ------ could have
Pupils write could of
 should’ve ------ should have
Pupils write should of
 Hearing the s in the third person singular:
He needs, she wants, he thinks
- He need, she want, he think
 The difference between of (ov) and off
 The difference between are and our (ower)
11) Some spelling rules
Rules should never be taught in isolation. They must be backed up by practical
activities. Most spelling rules have exceptions. It helps if the children are taught the
exceptions.
a) Every English word must contain at least one vowel
b) No words in English end in i – we use y instead
c) The letter q is always followed by the letter u (queen; quite, quintissential)
d) The letter j is never used at the end of a word – we use ge instead
e) No complete words ends in v – we use ve instead
f) The doubling rule: words ending in f, l, s or z double the final consonant (stiff, bell,
Miss, fuzzy)
g) Suffix rules
i) The lazy ‘e’ rule
Drop the ‘e’ before adding a suffix beginning with a vowel:
like – liked
hate – hating
shake - shaking
ii) The ‘e’ that isn’t being lazy
Keep the ‘e’ before adding a suffix beginning with a consonant
hope-hopeful, hopeless
iii) The lazy ‘e’ meets ‘a’
Keep the ‘e’ in words enidng in ‘ce’ or ‘ge’
orange-orangeade
manage-manageable
j) shun endings - There are four different ways of spelling shun – but none are spelt
as they sound:
- ssion profession, progression, discussion
- tion
prevention, protection, station
- cian
musician, electrician
- sion
decision, confusion, revision
12) Fifteen common word families in English
all
ing
ack
ay
at
op
ad
ill
in
ump
ent
old
ook
ell
et
ball
king
back
bay
bat
hop
bad
bill
bin
bump
bent
bold
book
bell
bet
call fall
hall
stall tall wall
ring sing wing
lack pack rack
sack
day hay
lay
may pay ray say way
cat
fat
hat
mat
pat rat sat
mop pop top
dad had
lad
mad pad sad
fill
gill
hill
kill
mill pill will
din fin
pin
tin
sin
win
dump hump jump lump pump
dent lent rent
lent
sent tent went
cold fold hold sold told
cook hook look took
cell
fell
hell
sell
tell
well
get
jet
let
met pet set wet
13) Eleven more common endings
ain
contain, complain, brain, drain, main, pain, rain, stain, train
augh(t) caught, daughter, naughty, slaughter, taught, laugh, laughing
ful
careful, thoughtful, painful, wonderful, resntful
ight
bright, fight, fright, light, night, right, sight, slight, tight,
ite
bite, kite, polite, satellite
ous
famous, cautious, ambitious, delicious
ough
although, cough, enough, rough, tough, thorough, though
ow
blow, follow, grow, low, slow, show, snow, yellow
sion
comprehension, confusion, decision, revision
tion
action, attraction, collection, direction, investigation, reaction,
station
ture
capture, creature, fixture, furniture, future, mixture, nature,
picture
14) Silent letters
Silent letter
b
c
g
h
i
k
l
n
t
w
Common examples
bomb, comb, crumb, doubt, thumb
descent, discipline, science
design, neighbour, sign
honest, honour, hour
business, marriage, parliament
knee, knife, knight, knock, know, know, knot
chalk, walk
autumn, column
castle, listen, whistle
wrong, wrap, wriggle, write, wrist, wreck, whole
15) Homophones
Homophones

to, too, two
there, their,
they’re
here, hear
are, our
one, won
by, buy, bye
sea, see
meet, meat
no, know
wait, weight
Examples of use

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
We have two cars.
He is too tired.
Are you coming too?
I go to school.
Their dog is fierce
They’re coming over
There is a willow grows
askance a brook.
I can’t hear you.
I’m over here.
We are going on a trip.
Our class is going to Richmond.
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
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I have one sister
They won a prize.
I go by car
I must have a new pen
He waved goodbye
I can swim in the sea.
Did you see the boy?
I will meet you in London.
We had to eat the meat.
No you don’t
Oooh I know . . !
I will wait here.
Guess the weight of the cake?
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Teaching tips




Use two when you mean the number 2
Too: means ‘more than enough’, or ‘as
well’
In all other cases use ‘to’
Remember if there can be a ‘my’ spell
their with an i. You can say ‘my house is
big’, you can say ‘their house is big’.
You hear with your ear.
This is a ‘false homophone’. Correct speech
distinguishes between the pronunciation of
the two words.

If you can win it then it has a w.
Remember: we eat meat.
No belongs with yes
16) Using mnemonics
Mnemonic – A device or system for improving memory
Irregular words cause most trouble to children
Word
Mnemonic
are
Are rhinos elegant
beautiful
Boys eat apples under tress in France until lunch
beacuse
Big elephants can always upset smaller elephants
believe
Never believe a lie
build
u and i will build a house
busy
This bus is busy
business
Do your business in the bus
could
Oh u lucky dear or could old uncle lie down?
Same rule for should/would
does
friend
great
intelligent
island
mother
piece
present
special
sure
Wednesday
Does Oliver eat sausages?
i to the end will be your friend
It is great to eat
Tell the gent to come in
An island is land
Mother ate a moth
The other lady was his mother
Eat a piece of pie
She sent a present
A special agent is someone in the CIA
Save up red elephants
Nes was wed on Wednesday
17) Creating spellings, rather than remembering them

An alternative to asking pupils to learn a set list of words is to ask them to
generate as many words as they can – this creates more ownership of the
learning experience.

Think of all the words you can that contain a particular pattern. For example:
ight
bright, fight, fighting, height, light, lightening, might, mighty, night, nightly, right,
rightly, sight, sighting, tight, tightly.

Take a prefix: How many words can you create using the following prefix
pre
pretend, pretending, present, presently, presentation, preview, prepare, prepared,
preparation, predict, prediction, preposterous, preachg, preacher, precise, precisely,
preoccupation, prescribe, prescription.

Take a suffix: How many words can you create ending in the suffix:
ly
carefully, thoughtfully, cowardly, terribly, seriously slowly, quickly, fortunately,
unfortunately, casually, meaningfully, normally, dramatically, aggressively,
amazingly,

Take a common phoneme. For example:
ir
bird, third, thirteen, thirty, thirst, thirsty, thirsty, first, shirt, skirt, dirt, dirty, birth,
birthday, girl, firm, firmly, stir, stirred

Take a vowel digraph. For example:
ai
chain, train, rain, rainy, brain, Spain, again, main, remain, pain, painful, explain,
paint, painted, painter, painting, rail, railway, sail, sailing, sailor, wait, waiting
For all the above activities pupils need to have an alphabet close at hand.

Segment a word and create other words by using the letter strings
unknowingly
un
underneath
understand
unhappy
unhelpful
unkink
unknown
unusual

know
known
knowing
knowingly
knowledge
ing
cooking
fighting
hating
sitting
singing
watching
throwing
ly
badly
carefully
quickly
slowly
terribly
seriously
extremely
Use a base word to generate as many words as you can. For example
sign
Sign
design
designer
designing
redesign
signature
signed
signatory
signal
signalling
resign
resignation
resigning
resigned
consign
significant
consignment signify