Have spelling standards dropped?

[NorhamGardens]

I am shocked that so many teenagers and younger children don't seem to be able to spell fairly simple words correctly? Wonder if this is just my experience?

I know spelling tests have been largely phased out of primary schools as the evidence showed that they were not effective. The children would spell the words correctly in the test and then just forget apparently.

'In my day' :) these tests seemed to work for the vast majority. Just been to an open evening for one of mine and saw the teacher had made corrections that were incorrect in themselves. An example would be 'extrodinary'. I notice from facebook accounts of my older children's friends that even those who have had a great education use 'your' instead of 'you're' and seem to guess simple words and make elementary mistakes.

Has spell check replaced the need to spell these days and I am just out of touch?

My dd1 is in Y6, and her spelling is a real concern. Her Y5 gave out regular spelling tests, but she never had spellings in YR,1,2,3,4 and 6! Unfortunately, she is now about to go to secondary school with terrible spelling.

Dd1 is fairly bright, but I fear that her work will never be taken seriously because of the spelling. I do not really know what to do. We are thinking of applying to some private schools, but I think that they will not be interested in her because of her spelling.

Mad, why don't you do a word each day at home? Wouldn't take long to get her spelling up to scratch if you did. You could bribe her if she objects, but a word a day is hardly arduous. Do it at breakfast and ask her to write it at tea time to make sure she's got it.

madsometimes,

I wouldn't worry about your dd's spelling at secondary school. If the school I work at is anything to go by it will be accepted as completely normal! If you were to ask our teachers what percentage of our pupils did they consider to have spelling problems they would say about 60%!

Of course, we are a 'bog standard comp' in a non-leafy area; things might be different where you are...

Maizie - EdPsych (SpLD team) observed DD today in her RWI group and said that RWI was being done exactly as intended, and that DD was engaged and working hard, the books were at the right level and she was able to read them accurately but with effort.

He'll now come back in Dec to see if she's made progress....

IndigoBell did he give any indication of the problem?

(Does the school not use SP for all children?)

mrz - No. He gave absolutely no recommendations besides to continue with RWI and he'll be back in December..... :(

He's implying the only reason RWI hasn't worked for the last 2 years was that it wasn't being done properly.

Once again, nothing I can do but wait till Dec. Although I'm fairly sure he doesn't do anything else besides recommend RWI, regardless of how little much progress she's progressing....

This has been very enlightening! I came on here to find out some information about spellings as I have just come back from parents evening and been told DD who is nearly 7 (Y2) has a reading age of 8 and a spelling age of 5.

The teacher showed me some tests that they had done to ascertain this. Apparently at her school they learn weekly spellings (which they bring home) and are tested on weekly, then every half term have a big test which can cover any words for R, Y1 or Y2 to see what they have retained.

DD's issue is with retention. Her teacher seems to think she just hasn't learnt them thoroughly enough which is probably true. May be the answer would be to do a very small number of words each week (say 5) and get the children to learn them really thoroughly?

then every half term have a big test which can cover any words for R, Y1 or Y2 to see what they have retained.
good grief!
I can't imagine children concentrating on such a boring task long enough to demonstrate what they know sorry