Does anyone's primary school use an app for spellings?

[PenguinsAreAce]

That's it really. Is there some sort of decent primary equivalent of show my homework, where the school supplies the spellings and the parents can download an app and use it on phones/tablets? Would be perfect if there was something visually appealing to children with the functionality to allow them to practise on the tablet. Actually, even just a way of sharing the weekly list that is not some scrappy bit of paper would be excellent.

Anyone know what's out there and how much it costs schools?

[PenguinsAreAce]

Bump...

Anyone?

If not seems like a gap in the market 😀

[mrz]

School Jotter spelling

[Artandco]

I really wouldn't want my 5 or 6 year old having to use a tablet for spellings tbh. At home neither child currently have any use of a computer or tablet or similar, and I don't think it's more productive than getting them to write the spellings every day and practice with you

In school life they need to be able hand write those words when writing stories etc so it helps they are used to writing by hand

[BeingATwatItsABingThing]

Spelling practise is also about handwriting practise. It doubles up. I'm sure there is an app but school choose not to use it.

[mrz]

As a teacher I agree.

[PenguinsAreAce]

Oh well. There we go, guess I have completely missed the 'point' all these years if it was supposed to be about handwriting!

As a bare minimum a means of sharing them electronically with parents would be invaluable. Even a odd on the website, but no we get bit after bit of paper, or worse still a single half-termly booklet. So many weeks ours don't get practised at all because the relevant sheet of paper has been lost. Dc2 consistently gets 6-7/10. Then again, I've not worried as the research I've seen suggests reading widely is far more important than 'spellings' per se. Just thought teachers might consider something to make parents lives easier and spelling practise more likely!

[mrz]

It's not all about handwriting but the motor memory created by handwriting words helps us to remember spellings.

[mrz]

There are a number of free apps/websites that provide spelling lists for parents

[BeingATwatItsABingThing]

Using an app would probably be easier for teachers as well but it's not really beneficial.

[Artandco]

We get a copy emailed each week also so nothing lost. And children have to write them in reading record book also.

An app would just mean most parents leave it up to children alone with little help

[PenguinsAreAce]

I have 4 DCs. Last week, on one single day, one of them came home with 7 separate paper letters from school, several including tear off reply slips, plus a note about having hurt her finger. Multiply it up and you will see why bits of paper are chaos. And this is a school that uses parentmail (there were a fair few of those last week too). What a waste of staff time (money) processing all these bits of paper, data entry etc.

Communicating electronically does not preclude handwriting the spellings.

Secondary school is a revelation. They seem to have discovered the modern world. Honestly, showmyhomework is marvellous!

[BeingATwatItsABingThing]

If we didn't give them a book, they would just practise it if at all on a scrap of paper that we would never see. By giving them a book with handwriting lines, we expect them to practise it there and then we can see if they have.

[PenguinsAreAce]

"An app would just mean most parents leave it up to children alone with little help"

Nope, an app would mean I could open the app on my phone, and dictate the list to dd for her to write them out whilst I clear the breakfast table. Emailing them to me would also be good, but then I would have to search my inbox for them, rather than opening the app, selecting the child's name and getting the list direct. It would also mean school having to manage the logistics of emailing different lists to different parents (they can barely operate parentmail), something that would no doubt be labour intensive. If they were in an app by year group it would only need to be set up once, or at most once per term/year.

[PenguinsAreAce]

"By giving them a book with handwriting lines, we expect them to practise it there and then we can see if they have."

Ours are not provided in this way.

[mrz]

We teach spelling in school and don't send lists of spellings home to learn.

[PenguinsAreAce]

Can my DCs come to your school Mrz ?

[CathFromCooberPedy]

Interesting thread. I haven't been getting to write the words just spell them out to me. OK, one more thing to add to my 'remember to do list'

[Artandco]

And yes outs have a 'spellings book' to write them in. Not scraps of paper. Maybe the school just needs that

[PenguinsAreAce]

We have a 'spellings book', but the actual spellings are provided on photocopied handouts either weekly or half termly. If they were stuck in the book they would be in school from the day of the week homework handed in, until the day the homework books return. The theory of the bits of paper is that the DCs can practise daily. The reality is they get lost and even the once a week practise we aim for rarely happens.

I still fail to understand why primary schools/teachers are SO reluctant to embrace technology and try approaches to make busy parents' lives easier. They seem to much prefer sticking to old fashioned ways of doing things and expecting parents to live up to some sort of out-dated SAHM ideal where everyone has a parent home from 315 and plenty of time for uninterrupted daily 1-2-1 schoolwork time with each DC.

[RoosterCogburn]

To be fair Penguins that's a fairly sweeping statement about Primary schools. Many have embraced technology - the fact that the one your children attend hasn't doesn't mean that it isn't happening

Our local primaries are far more clued up in using technology to communicate with parents/share homework etc then our secondary schools.

[PenguinsAreAce]

Good to hear some can do it .

Guess you can tell that I am v v fed up of our primary so far this term . Still, we are over half way through our time with them now.

[BeingATwatItsABingThing]

How about maybe it's easier for a busy teacher to give your child a piece of paper? How about maybe your child was told to stick it in and they don't? Most schools have embraced technology but that doesn't make it better.

[mrz]

Primary school teachers aren't afraid to embrace technology but they've used the type of program you are suggesting and discarded as ineffective or at best less effective. Suggest looking at research
We teach children to be selective to evaluate whether technology is better and not just use because it's there.

[AmeliaJack]

Our school uses spelling city to support spelling although it doesn't do what you are describing.

We get homework out on a Monday, hand in on a Friday for marking and spelling tests so there isn't a gap.

[RoosterCogburn]

Sorry, it's just a bit of a bugbear of mine when people state facts about schools/teachers as if they applied to all schools when really they mean in my experience with

It is lottery, because it comes down to a HT's interest/understanding/willingness to adapt and use more up to date methods. We share all homework online and use an app to send letters etc. Personalised spelling lists can be accessed by parents so they can help children practise at home. They can see how pupils did in times tables tests so they know which ones they still need to learn.
However, only about 35% of parents engage with this at home - we are trying to encourage it (for example running help sessions) but it is a long slow process