This is the way we teach spelling at St. Richard’s:

In line with other curriculum areas, and our vision for the school, we will teach Spelling mastery as whole class.

The children will become masters of spelling, with mastery shown through their writing, away from the point of teaching.

Working walls will be used to share the spellings on a Monday, or focus words of the week. They can be added to as children discover more words that include the particular pattern, suffix etc, through their spelling activities, reading etc . These words will then be removed on Friday and the children can check their visual memory. Children will be introduced to the week’s spelling words/ focus pattern through activities and discussions. During the week, through short, daily lessons, children will have the opportunity to practise, explore and understand more about the particular words of the week – these activities can include dictionary work, word scrambles, Bingo, dictation, exploring patterns and etymology, ‘Countdown conundrums’, rainbow words etc. Children will be celebrated when they share how they have used the words in their writing – certificates, stickers etc. There are no tests for spelling. Spellings will continue to be corrected through up-levelling of writing, and with teacher/ TA support and highlighted through feedback. Spelling is about building vocabulary, word catching, word collecting – we can instil a love of words and pattern finding in our children.