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.
· Parents will know that 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.