Year 1 spelling tests

So the children are expected to memorise the words rather than be taught how to spell them. It's setting them up to fail - far too much cognitive load for 5/6 year old. It would be interesting to find out the average class score for this test. I'm guessing it would be pretty low.

Year 1 teacher here. This is the national curriculum spelling appendix. Maths vocab words are not listed. She should be spelling words that focus on a particular spelling pattern. I’d raise it with the teacher and/or head, and ask to see their English policy (it’s probably on the school’s website). Giving a list of vocabulary words to learn to spell is cognitive overload. There should be one spelling rule per list of spellings. I don’t agree with spelling tests at all by the way, but if people insist on giving them to 5 year olds, they can at least make it purposeful and have it reinforce what they have been learning in phonics lessons.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7ccc06ed915d63cc65ce61/English_Appendix_1_-_Spelling.pdf

Quickly looking at the curriculum-Year One words should be based on phonemes (make, bake, shake) or rules like zz at the end of a word (fizz, buzz).

Spelling tests are a bit pointless in my opinion and Year One Autumn term is young for them. But yes these are too hard and I'd question where they are coming from when the national curriculum stipulates set word families already.

I’d also say query this.

I'm a Y1 TA. We do spelling tests but they are all linked to our phonics. So this week our Y1 have ‘ur’ words. Five words all using this rule (turn, burst, church) and one ‘exception word’ - you can’t sound it out, you just need to know it (said).

Each week we give a pretest before they’ve seen the words. If they get 5 or 6 right they go on to the extension list. Six words that still follow the rule but are a bit more challenging (bursting, Thursday). So we don’t have set groups, it changes depending on how well each child does on the pretest each week.

If they learn then but bomb in the test, it doesn’t matter because they’ve still spent time looking at the rule, reinforcing what we’ve done in class. If they haven’t looked at them, they still have a chance because we’ve done it in class. And to get a reward (housepoint) they only have to do better than in their pretest. So if they score 1 in their pretest, then 2 the following week in the test, they get a mention and a house point in class but it’s not a big deal. We cover it quickly then move on.

My year 1 ds has spelling tests weekly, a mix of this weeks phonics words and some from previous weeks. So this week we have White, Make, Coin, Bright, and a few others, ten altogether. They've had numbers up to ten, but no shape words yet.

Been having spelling tests here since year 1...but think be, he, bee, etc in year 1... Now year 3 impossible, competition... Still not had the words your child has... So yes for year 1 child I don't think they right

My Year 1 child doesn’t have spelling tests yet.

Mine all had a weekly spellings test of 8 words in year 1. They also had them in the summer term of reception class too. Words are similar to what DC’s have had. Dd is in yr2 and this week some of hers are hippopotamus & beautiful along with there & their. It’s a small rural state school, mixed classes. They bring them home on a Friday, use the look, cover & rainbow write method over the course of the week as homework. Dc1 struggled with them and still does (now yr4) undergoing dyslexia assessment.

One of my grandchildren would have been able to spell the words in year 1, his brain was like a sponge!
The other one wouldn’t have been able to spell them, one was a maths genius and other was an English genius

But... I think they would have been in the extension words. They used to have a short list (maybe six or eight??) of standard words on a phonics theme if the week.
Yes that’s it- phonics words + some extras, may follow a theme related to other learning or time of year (last one was christmas, reindeer, present, sleigh etc). Would be funny if it was the same school but no sets for spelling in y1 or y2 so maybe not!

My DD would have had similar - I'm wondering if she goes to the same pre-prep as a poster above!!

But... I think they would have been in the extension words. They used to have a short list (maybe six or eight??) of standard words on a phonics theme if the week. How hard/long the words were depended on which set they were in. Then, for top set at least, there were a few extension words that were either off theme or more difficult again. This was real stretch stuff for the ones who liked spellings or 'got' phonics though - we were told that some of them were being given Yr 3/4 words if they were happy with that level of challenge. And it was all 'read, cover, write.'

I'm not sure if that's any use OP though as it's essentially a "might be, here's a load of info about a totally irrelevant school several years ago" 😂

My Y1 would have words like knife, shampoo, sandwich, chick, dolphin, friend, pure, appear, shell.

Mine have had spellings since y1. Some weeks are harder than others. They are set by the phonics scheme they follow and seem standardised at least in this area. Our spellings are the same each week in all the local schools

When you say Year 1 do you mean she's 6 or so? Or the first year at senior school as I am confused that a 6 year old is expected to be able to spell those words

My Y3 had pyramid on his spelling test this week! The theme was words where y makes an i sound. Spellings are always a theme, around a particular sound.
Like a pp said I’m unconvinced about their utility, DS usually gets full marks or 9/10 because he’s good at remembering words in the short term but a week later and most of the words would be spelt incorrectly in his written work.

Nope bizarre spellings. Linking them to learnng about shapes is weird. It should be linked to spelling rules like magic e etc

The teacher is probably trying to get the class to spell the maths vocab they are currently using in maths lessons. Year 1 is too young for spelling tests (they're not good practice at any age tbh) though. Has the teacher actually taught the children how to spell these words or are they just expecting your DD to memorise them? Spelling should be taught using phonics patterns and morphology that is already known which may not be the case for some (most? - sorry it's a while since I taught this year) children in Year 1 with these words.

Y1s have been doing ‘shape’ in maths these last couple of weeks so that’s probably where these spellings have come from.
Our school doesn’t bother with spelling tests in Y1 as long as they read regularly that’s enough.

Spellings shouldn't be linked to general learning but to what they are learning in phonics that week. That way they learn and practice them at school and at home.

If you send an email, I'd ask what phonics scheme they use and what is their policy in regard to spellings sent home /tests. If it doesn't match what your daughter has been getting,then I'd let someone higher up know. If it does or there's no specific scheme they are following (which they should) I would ask for more clarification on that and also inform them your daughter is struggling and getting upset over it.

Oh wow they're really hard! My son's in Yr 1 and has weekly tests but this wks words are tooth, boom, cool etc. Each wk they're simar types of word, so oo words or ea or ee etc

We have spelling tests but words you expect. My yr2 does not have anything anywhere near that bad, more like themes, e.g. kn words like knock, knife or ph vs f words. Those words are too hard.