Spelling
English spelling is tricky and often quite bonkers. It can take a lifetime to learn.
If you have a child at Primary School, you are probably used to the weekly list of spelling words. It doesn’t take long for the words to become quite challenging. By Year 6, your child will be learning words like privilege and conscience and will need to know the difference between compliment and complement!
Here are some ideas for making the weekly words fun to learn.
Helping your child to spell when writing
As well as learning their spelling words, your child will need to remember these spellings and attempt to spell other words when writing. When we can spell well, we can concentrate on what we want to write, rather than how to write it. We are also more likely to use interesting words when we can spell them.
Here are some strategies you can use to support your child:
1. Encourage your child to ‘have a go’
Encourage your child to have a go at spelling a word. This will build confidence and practise spelling skills. Making mistakes is a natural part of learning, and if your child is comfortable knowing that they’re not going to get spellings right all the time, then they will be more likely to try out more adventurous words. Keep positive and upbeat.
2. Keep reinforcing phonics
Remind your child to use phonics as their first port of call for spelling a new word – even in Key Stage 2. Help them to really hear each individual sound in the word and choose a suitable spelling pattern.
3. Check your spelling
Remind children to read through their writing and check for spelling errors. They need to develop a feel for whether a word looks right. Help them to check words in a dictionary.
4. Encourage your child to read
When we read, we see words spelled correctly. The more we read, the more words we see.
What your child will learn at school
Follow the links to find out what your child will learn in each year at Primary school.
Spelling in Year 1 (age 5–6)
In Year 1, your child will learn:
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- to spell simple words that can be spelled using the phonics they have learnt so far
- to spell the days of the week
- how to spell words with simple prefixes and suffixes like un- and -ing
- how to spell compound words, for example, football, playground
- the names of the letters of the alphabet
- to spell the Year 1 common exception words (see our list of Common exception words for Year 1)
Books to develop spelling skills:
Spelling practise activities:
Spelling in Year 2 (age 6–7)
In Year 2, your child will learn:
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- new graphemes (letter groups to spell sounds) to represent the phonemes (sounds) they have already learnt
- to spell words with suffixes including words ending in -ment, -ness, -ful, -less, and-ly
- to use an apostrophe to mark where a letter is missing, for example don’t, he’ll
- to use an apostrophe to show possession for single nouns, for example, George’s hat, the lady’s car
- to spell the Year 2 common exception words (see our list of Common exception words for Year 2)
Spelling books for age 6-7:
Spelling in Year 3 (age 7–8)
In Year 3, your child will learn:
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- how to use a dictionary to check their spelling
- to spell many homophones correctly:
Year 3 and 4 Homophones list
accept/except, affect/effect, ball/bawl, berry/bury, brake/break, fair/fare, grate/great, groan/grown, here/hear, heel/heal/he’ll, knot/not, mail/male, main/mane, meat/meet, medal/meddle, missed/mist, peace/piece, plain/plane, rain/rein/reign, scene/seen, weather/whether, whose/who’s
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- spelling more words with prefixes including words beginning dis-, mis-, in-, re-, im-, sub-, inter-, super-, anti-, auto-
- spelling more words with suffixes and other endings, including words ending -ation, -ly, -sure, -ture, -sion, -ion, -ous, -tion,
- words with unusual spelling such as ch for /k/, gue for /g/ and que for /k/, sc for /s/ and ei, eigh, and ey for /ay/
- using the possessive apostrophe with regular and irregular plurals, for example, the children’s lunch, the girls’ shoes
- spelling words that are often misspelt (see our Spelling word list for Year 3 and Year 4)
Spelling books for age 7-8:
Spelling in Year 4 (age 8–9)
In Year 4, your child will continue to practise:
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- how to use a dictionary to check their spelling
- to spell many homophones correctly:
Year 3 and 4 Homophones list
accept/except, affect/effect, ball/bawl, berry/bury, brake/break, fair/fare, grate/great, groan/grown, here/hear, heel/heal/he’ll, knot/not, mail/male, main/mane, meat/meet, medal/meddle, missed/mist, peace/piece, plain/plane, rain/rein/reign, scene/seen, weather/whether, whose/who’s
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- spelling more words with prefixes including words beginning dis-, mis-, in-, re-, im-, sub-, inter-, super-, anti-, auto-
- spelling more words with suffixes and other endings, including words ending -ation, -ly, -sure, -ture, -sion, -ion, -ous, -tion,
- words with unusual spelling such as ch for /k/, gue for /g/ and que for /k/, sc for /s/ and ei, eigh, and ey for /ay/
- using the possessive apostrophe with regular and irregular plurals, for example the children’s lunch, the girls’ shoes
- to spell the words in the Spelling word list for Year 3 and Year 4
Spelling books for age 8-9:
Spelling in Year 5 (age 9–10)
In Year 5, your child will learn:
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- to spell words with silent letters, for example, doubt, island, lamb, solemn, thistle, knight
- to spell words ending in ence/ance or able/ible
- to spell more homophones and other confusing words
Year 5 and 6 homophones list
aisle/isle, aloud/allowed, affect/effect, altar/alter, ascent/assent, bridal/bridle, cereal/serial, compliment/complement, descent/dissent, desert/dessert, draft/draught, farther/further/father, guessed/guest, heard/herd, led/lead, morning/mourning, past/passed, precede/proceed, principal/principle, profit/prophet, stationary/stationery, steal/steel, wary/weary, who’s/whose
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- to talk about word families, for example, sign, design, signature, significant
- to use a thesaurus to find new words
- to use a dictionary to check their spelling
- to spell the words in the Spelling word list for Year 5 and Year 6
Spelling books for age 9-10:
Spelling in Year 6 (age 10–11)
In Year 6, your child will continue to practise:
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- to spell words with silent letters, for example, doubt, island, lamb, solemn, thistle, knight
- to spell words ending in ence/ance or able/ible
- to spell more homophones and other confusing words
Year 5 and 6 homophones list
aisle/isle, aloud/allowed, affect/effect, altar/alter, ascent/assent, bridal/bridle, cereal/serial, compliment/complement, descent/dissent, desert/dessert, draft/draught, farther/further/father, guessed/guest, heard/herd, led/lead, morning/mourning, past/passed, precede/proceed, principal/principle, profit/prophet, stationary/stationery, steal/steel, wary/weary, who’s/whose
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- to talk about word families, for example, sign, design, signature, significant
- to use a thesaurus to find new words
- to use a dictionary to check their spelling
- to spell the words in the Spelling word list for Year 5 and Year 6