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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

To teachers and parents of Year 1's, do your dd's have spellings to learn??

27 replies

debs227 · 15/04/2011 10:23

Hello all,

Just a quick question as i don't really want to ask the teacher. It was only when i have heard other parents of year 1's saying that their children have spellings that it made me wonder. My DD is doing really well, loving her class and her teacher. Everything is fine and her teacher says she wishes she could have a class full of children like DD. She is an easy, very helpful child which makes me wonder whether i am sitting back and not taking much notice.

Her reading is great, and she loves writing. In fact she writes freely and writes using her phonics. But my only quibble, and we all have to have one, is that she is not yet learning how to spell the words correctly? I can read what she is writing but i know she can spell the words if she is shown how to do it, if she asks me i will show her and she remembers it.

My question is when do they start having spelling tests, does this happen in year 2 or should i be asking for her to be given some spellings to do now??

I have no idea what level she is at, as the teacher doesn't tell us, but she just says she is doing fine and it is always DD's book she brings out when showing visitors the children's work which i presume means she is happy with her.

Thank you in advance!!

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lovecheese · 15/04/2011 10:30

A child does not need weekly spelling tests to learn how to spell.

Itsjustafleshwound · 15/04/2011 10:33

DD is in Yr1 and I think they are concentrating on the high Frequency words - every week she comes home with 6-8 words to learn how to spell - all the same phonic - and have tests weekly??

speakercorner · 15/04/2011 10:38

Mine didn't, and still doesn't (Y2).

crunchbag · 15/04/2011 10:40

DD is in year 1 and has weekly spelling words (about 8) and a 'test' on Friday. She gets a sheet home to practice but as they also practice them in class, I do not really see the need to do them at home.

ps I don't know which level DD works at and I do not care, she is happy and the teacher is happy with her :)

feelingendoftermish · 15/04/2011 10:44

my DS is in year 1 and he has about 5 or 6 spellings each week which the teacher sends home on a sort of grid, with spaces to write them in on Mon - Fri. They are encouraged to use the 'Look - Say - Cover - Write' approach to learn them. They are tested on them each Monday morning.

DD is in year 2 and has a similar thing, only a greater number of more complex words.

The words usually follow a pattern, e.g. this week DS has 'air' words like hair, dairy, lair, fairy and so on.

I'm happy for them to do this, but I do think another good way of learning to spell is to do a lot of reading.

I don't think I'd be too concerned if my year 1 wasn't bringing home spellings.

pinkstripes · 15/04/2011 11:17

My dd is in year 1 and gets 5 spellings to learn each week and gets a spelling test every Friday .

mumsapoppet · 15/04/2011 11:23

From what you say your child will be able to learn some spellings at home with you if she's not bringing spellings home. Make some flash cards, make it fun, my child would bring some home every week in reception, they then were tested verbally each week and when they had got them all correct three times they moved onto the next set, about eight in a set gradually increasing as they moved through the sets. If you look at her reading scheme book you will be able to pick out the high frequency words that they are covering in her class. By year one they had moved onto writing out the spellings in a little book in a test each week, we then used the write, cover and spell system. Look at the the website listed below, but there are a lot of others which are based upon the national curriculum. I would advise you look at sparklebox, this is a great site with lots of fun things for your child to do and lots of resources for you to print off.

www.primaryresources.co.uk
www.sparklebox.co.uk

spanieleyes · 15/04/2011 11:24

Please don't go anywhere near Sparklebox, there are plenty of other sites you can use!

mumsapoppet · 15/04/2011 11:43

I am sure debs can make up her own mind. Yes there are lots of great sites out there with some great resources, but I mentioned sparklebox because I have used this a lot in the past, teachers of key stage 1 children use this site to download resources for there own classrooms, looking on classroom walls
a lot of printed resources will have come from sparklebox.

cheesesarnie · 15/04/2011 11:44

ds2 does and hes in reception.

teacherwith2kids · 15/04/2011 11:44

DS is in Year 5, DD in Year 3. They both learn spellings at school in daily 'morning work' while the register is taken. They have never brought spellings home.

As a teacher, I love their school's system as it does not prejudice children who have parents less interested or able to help with homework and also removes the 'competitive parents in the playground' thing which often seems to happen with spelling tests.

Both spell excellently.

lovecheese · 15/04/2011 11:58

teacherwith2kids - quite; any monkey can be taught to get 10/10 in a spelling test only to forget them the next day. Always makes me smile when competitive parents grab the childs bag the moment they step out of the classroom and announce in a voice loud enough for other parents to hear "ooh well done, ten out of ten" (And then go and question teacher if one has been marked incorrectly, in their opinion).

Evil chuckle...

melpomene · 15/04/2011 12:02

My dd(year 1) gets 5 spellings to learn each week. Her older sister (same school) didn't get spelling lists until year 2, though, and is great at spelling now.

IAmRubyLennox · 15/04/2011 12:03

I thought spanieleyes was saying don't use Sparklebox because of an unwillingness to line the pockets of a convicted paedophile, rather than because of any problem with the resources.

No?

treas · 15/04/2011 12:12

debs227 - yes my dc had spelling tests in yr 1 and to be honest they were a complete waste of time as the words they were given both ds and dd knew how to spell already.

When ds was in Yr 4 he had an older teacher who rather than give them spelling tests gave them a comprehension test i.e. the children had spelling list to learn but then had to find out their meanings as well as write sentences using the words. On the test day the teacher would then read out a sentence or paragraph containing all spellings set. This proved to be far more useful than writing out a list - in the same order as the list was set.

lovecheese · 15/04/2011 12:18

I encourage my DD to write her words into sentences. It is standard practice at their school from year 3 onwards anyway, so hopefully it won't be too much of a fuss when she goes into juniors and has to do this.

tigerfrog · 15/04/2011 12:36

I Have just moved my DD schools, many reasons, but one of my main concerns was their approach to spelling. She is in Y1 and sent home each week with 10 random high frequency words. No patterns, no teaching of phonics what so ever and certainly no fun. She learnt the list, with a lot of tears and stress and promptly forgot everything after the test. Got a bit silly when she was sent home with a list of topic words containing aeroplane, airport etc
She is now in a new class, a new country as well!! Long story! Enjoying learning again, being taught her phonics rather than learning lists of random words. She is still having a test every Friday but its words that follow a pattern and has meaning. Todays comment as we drove to school wearing a ribbon covered easter bonnet was " I love school mummy" What every 6 year old should think, school should be fun, a great adventure!!!

spanieleyes · 15/04/2011 12:38

Yes, my objection to sparklebox was on moral rather than aesthetic or functional grounds!

WoodRose · 15/04/2011 13:06

DC's school don't give spelling or any other sort of tests until Y3.

roadkillbunny · 15/04/2011 13:10

My Yr1 dd has had spelling since Christmas, four or five high frequency words each week, each child has a list tailored to their needs.
They have their spellings checked on a Thursday (they don't use the word test, they do it in small groups so you will have say 4 children who had the same words and the teacher or one of the TA's will do the 'test' with them) and then get the next weeks words to take home that day.

I don't make a big deal out of it with dd, due to speech issues she has had a bumpy start to her reading and her confidence got knocked for a while so the teacher makes sure that dd can have success while still being stretched for example she will have one 'easy' word on her list, two she can get when she thinks about it and one that will stretch her. The teacher hasn't given any advice (you could ask her is you wanted though) about how to do the spelling with our children, after some trial and error we have gone with the copying the word about 5 times into a little exercise book I got her and then we will do a little check to see where she needs to spend more time by getting her to write them without being able to copy, we will normally do this 3 times over the week, about 10 mins each time and when we have done that she has always got all of them right, when we have only managed to do it once for what ever reason she won't do as well.

I think the way our teacher does it really works well for us as apart from reading (which is just as and when you want to, no weekly fixed amount set) it is almost the only 'homework' that dd has, very rarely she may have a work sheet, twice I think, one science and one literacy, dd loves it when she gets a work sheet, they see it as a real treat, they have a week to do it and there is no pressure about it all.

So many schools do things so very differently, some are big on work sheet homework, some are big on spellings and nightly reading, other don't do homework at all and then you have some like ours, it doesn't seem that there is one way that works as there are schools that do the various things above that have outstanding ofsted reports and high SATs results so you can't say one thing works and the others don't it all depends on the child, the way the teacher delivers the homework or lack there of and also the general ethos of the school.

I would say that if your dd is happy and school and doing well as you say the fact that her spelling is not yet developing and they don't do weekly spellings is not a worry, the spelling will come in time, it is more important (IMO) at this stage that they have the confidence in themselves to start getting their ideas down on paper, utilising the skills they have developed with phonics work to discover the joys of reading and writing, to much early focus on spelling can squash that developing sense of creativity with the written word (again IMO) so I would just carry on the way you are (sorry for the very long winded post!)

curtaincall · 15/04/2011 13:23

Ds has been doing spelling tests since beginning of Y1 two terms ago. He regularly gets either 9 or 10 out of 10. So what! Apart from the shorter words, he frequently will ask me how to spell one of them weeks or months later so don't really believe they stick. Repetition counts though and if she's enjoying reading, it will all get absorbed over time.

Elibean · 15/04/2011 13:41

dd1 did not have spellings weekly until Y2. In Y1, they were encouraged to use phonics, and praised for all attempts at writing - creativity flourished in every direction, they wrote wonderful, badly spelt stories, and no one worried.
Now in Y2, they are learning to spell as well - and to be honest, I worried a bit too (pfb) but half way through Y2 and dd, a good reader and prolific writer, is spelling better and better without any stress.
Honestly, I would trust your dd's teacher

magicmummy1 · 15/04/2011 17:34

DD has spelling tests once a week - 12 words. they're supposed to be differentiated but they're very easy and she doesn't need to spend ant time learning them. Even if she didn't already know them, though, I'm not convinced that the tests would be any use - she'd just memorise them for the test and then probably forget to apply them in her work!

mrz · 15/04/2011 17:40

mumsapoppet I'm sure debs can make up her own mind too but perhaps knowing that by visiting the site she is financially supporting a twice convicted paedophile may help her to make an informed choice.

Personally I would be unhappy to see SB resouces anywhere near children...

nikki1978 · 15/04/2011 17:41

DD has 3 or 4 spellings a week.

With regard to correcting spellings DD's teacher doesn't do that at the moment when they write. They all write phonetically and they don't get corrected at this stage. Not sure when they do. Think they are just trying to get them writing and get their confidence up before saying you are doing it all wrong

My DDs school is very good and I have every faith in them so leave them to it really. They have been teaching longer than me. DD is always asking me how to spell words at home so hopefully she will get there in the end!

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