Rathfern Primary School Spelling Policy

Spelling Policy Statement Rationale Spelling is vital to communicating in school and in public life. It enables children to express themselves creatively and imaginatively and to communicate with others effectively. The ability to write clearly and with accurate spelling is a very important skill that children need to acquire. It is important to help and encourage children to develop as confident, competent spellers because the ability to spell most words correctly is often closely associated with good self-esteem and affects performance in most other areas of the curriculum. Spelling is a developmental process. The stages through which children progress are: precommunicative, pre-phonetic, phonetic, transitional and ‘correct’ (see appendix i). Spelling is a visual-motor skill and children will therefore need to develop visual strategies in order to spell correctly. Phonic knowledge alone will be inadequate. Children need to be encouraged to look carefully at words and be helped to understand how the English spelling system works.

Aims • •

to teach spelling as an integral part of the writing curriculum.

• •

to teach children to draw on multiple sources of knowledge when spelling (see appendix ii)

•

to prepare children for life in the adult world where spelling and writing is a basic skill.

to increase pupil confidence in, and enthusiasm for, spelling so that they are able to spell an increasing number of words, to develop a bank of words that they can spell correctly and to spell words that conform to regular spelling patterns. to promote the development of confident writers who can use their spelling skills competently in all areas of the curriculum.

Teaching and Learning The teaching of spelling aims to develop children as independent spellers who take an active part in their own learning. Pupils are taught the knowledge and skills they need to become independent spellers. Routines and structures are provided to enable pupils to apply what they learn about spelling independently. Teaching aims to show pupils how to become natural and accurate spellers. The programme approaches this in three ways. Firstly, by using a structured approach as outlined in the National Literacy Strategy. Secondly, by ensuring that pupils learn and practise those words which they most frequently misspell as individuals. Thirdly, by increasing their spelling vocabulary by learning how to spell and by using the technical and subject-specific words which occur across the curriculum.

The role of the teacher is to: • • • • • • • •

follow the school policy to help each child develop as a confident and independent speller; provide direct teaching and accurate modelling; provide opportunities for individual, paired, group and whole class learning provide resources which promote good spelling; provide a rich and lively learning environment supported by well chosen word resources and interactive displays to enhance pupils’ independence as spellers. maintain high expectations that the pupils will apply taught spelling patterns. observe pupils, monitor progress and determine targets for development.

Some of the teaching methods and strategies we will use are: rhyming activities and songs, games (e.g. bingo, quick-write, snap, find the word) segmenting and blending breaking words into syllables identifying letter patterns and grouping words ‘look, say, cover, write, check’ dictionary activities investigating spelling rules and root meanings sorting words and generating spelling rules creating mnemonics sharing strategies for spelling handwriting new spelling patterns editing and proofreading

The role of the child is to: • • • • • • •

participate in spelling activities and learning with enthusiasm ‘have a go’ using phonic and other learned strategies when spelling unfamiliar words apply previously learned words and spelling rules in their writing across the curriculum test and support each other with spelling tricky words use ‘look, cover, write, check’ regularly to learn unfamiliar words refer to the learning environment as a resource for spelling edit their own writing and correct spellings using a dictionary

Frequency Phonics will be taught for 20 minutes daily in the Foundation Stage and in Key Stage 1. In Key Stage 2, spelling will be explicitly taught twice a week for 20 minutes each time. Handwriting sessions will incorporate spelling rules practise on another occasion within the week.

Continuity and Progression Foundation Stage The Primary National Strategy’s ‘Letters and Sounds’ programme is used to implement the teaching of phonics in the Early Years. The emphasis in phases one and two of this programme is on a multi-sensory approach to link the teaching and practising of letter shapes and patterns with the development of pupils’ ability to listen to, and discriminate between, the constituent sounds which make up a word. Much of this occurs through games and activities which encourage focused listening in music, dance and physical education, as well as literacy activities where there is a focus on rhyme, rhythm and alliteration. Pupils learn at an early stage how to discriminate and make connections between letter sounds used in reading and letter names used in spelling. Developmental writing is encouraged to give pupils confidence; it is crucial that pupils at this stage in their development as writers do not become over-concerned with spelling accuracy. Support is given to spelling by providing writers with aids such as letter charts, simple word banks and picture dictionaries to stimulate interest in, and enthusiasm for, words.

Key Stage 1 The ‘Letters and Sounds’ programme will continue to be taught on a daily basis, within differentiated sets to ensure targeted teaching and rapid progress. Most pupils will have completed the programme (phase six) by the end of Year 2. For spelling purposes, the emphasis is on the pupils’ ability to segment words into phonemes and then match the most likely letter or letters to each sound by accessing the alphabetic code. In addition, the pupils learn how to spell a number of tricky words, high frequency words and common irregular words to enable them to write fluently. They investigate and learn to use common spelling patterns, and frequently used prefixes and endings in their own writing. Pupils become increasingly independent. They identify reasons for misspellings in their own work and are taught how to use a simple dictionary, a range of word banks (including those on computers) and their knowledge of word families. Pupils should know what their responsibilities are in terms of spelling and when they may seek assistance from an adult.

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 use of a range of word resources and the morphology of words. Nevertheless, it is recognised that some pupils will need to consolidate the phonic knowledge and skills from Key Stage 1. In lower Key Stage 2, the ‘look, say, cover, write, check’ strategy (see appendix iii) is introduced and risk-taking in the spelling of unknown words is encouraged by ‘having-a-go’. An investigative approach is taken to the teaching of spelling, which is supported by the activities contained in the Primary National Strategy’s ‘Spelling Bank’. The Primary Framework for Literacy details the National Curriculum programme of teaching, but teachers will use their professional judgement in order to pitch the teaching at the appropriate developmental level.

Building on the approaches introduced in Key Stage 1, there is an emphasis on developing confidence and independence. It is expected that pupils assume increased responsibility by identifying their own spelling errors, making reasoned choices about likely alternatives and using a range of resources (including spellcheckers and a variety of dictionaries and word banks) for making corrections.

Inclusion Where pupils have made less progress in their ability to use phonics and rules for spelling, a targeted programme may be required. Primary Strategy interventions and the Soundswrite programme may be used across the school. Usually, a teaching assistant is deployed to support pupils who are underachieving in their spelling. Those children who need even more support can usefully work through the programme at a slower pace, although a lot of consolidation will be necessary.

Individual programmes for teaching and support are drawn up as appropriate by the teacher in consultation with the SEN co-ordinator and parents.

Equal opportunities statement All pupils, regardless of race, culture, gender, specific educational needs or physical disability, will have equality of opportunity and encouragement within the teaching of spelling.

Home learning Phonics and spelling activities will be given weekly as part of home learning. In the Early Years and Key Stage 1, this may consist of tricky words to learn or a phonic activity as a follow up or in preparation for learning. At Key Stage 2, the children may be asked to learn misspelled words from their own writing using the ‘look, say, cover, write, check’ strategy. They may be given a spelling rule linked to the weekly class objective to learn as a follow up from their lesson or they may be given a spelling rule to investigate in preparation for a class session. High frequency words relevant to the year group will be sent home for children to learn/ revise every half term.

The role of the parent/ carer in spelling is to: • ensure that their child completes all spelling learning set by the classteacher and returns it to • • • •

school on time (the child will be at a disadvantage if they have not prepared or followed up learning which will be covered in a future class session) support and encourage their child to learn high frequency spellings regularly and often know their child’s ability in spelling through their home learning and supporting with their writing at home expect their child to use learned spellings in writing at home play spelling and phonics games with their child (e.g. I spy, Scrabble, Boggle, internet spelling games)

Assessment and monitoring Teachers will make on-going assessments of the individual children’s spelling progress based on the evidence contained within their written work and against expectations derived from the National Curriculum and Primary National Strategy. Half-termly assessments of spelling will be carried out using the school’s spelling booklets (appendix iv and v) and used to inform rules/ key words to be taught as next steps. Evidence will also be gained from: • weekly spelling checks • regular writing samples • termly ‘Letters and Sounds’ phase assessments in the Early Years and Key Stage 1 • termly non-statutory tests at Key Stage 2 • yearly statutory tests at the end of Years 2 and 6 • Soundswrite screening and progress checks • Primary Strategy Intervention programme screening and progress checks • Individual Education Plans for those pupils with Special Educational Needs

Reviewed and agreed with staff: 29.01.09

Appendix i

Spelling as a developmental process: the stages of development Precommunicative Spellers randomly string together letters of the alphabet without regard to letter –sound correspondence e.g OSPO= eagle Semiphonetic Letters represent sounds but only some of the sounds are represented e.g E= eagle A = eighty Phonetic Words are spelled like they sound.The speller represents all of the phonemes within a word though spellings may be unconventional.e.g EGL=eagle Transitional: a visual memory of spelling patterns is apparent. Spellings exhibit conventions of English orthogrophy,vowels in every syllable, emarker and vowel digraph patterns,correctly spelled inflectional endings, and frequent English letter sequences.e.g EGUL =eagle EIGHTEE = eighty Correct: the word is spelled correctly

Appendix ii Multiple sources of knowledge that children should be able to draw on when spelling and which will be a focus of explicit teaching: Phonological knowledge Letter name and alphabetic knowledge A repertoire of known words Knowledge of visual patterns Spelling knowledge Syntactic elements of spelling Semantic elements in spelling Making analogies and deducing rules Integrating different kinds of knowledge

Appendix iii

‘Look, say, cover, write, check’ method 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Write the word in the first box. Look at it carefully and say it to yourself. Cover the word up and try and picture it in your mind. In the next box write the word and then check the spelling. Continue this process. Repeat the process everyday and see if you have memorised in by then.

Look

Word to be learned

Say

1st attempt

Cover

2nd attempt

Write

3rd attempt

Check

4th attempt

5th attempt