Help please from teachers (prim or secondary) re spelling.

[KitKatGirl1]

My ds will be starting secondary in September and I have mild concerns about his spelling. He is NOT behind (or at least I don't think so). His spelling age when reported to me in the past was always a little above chronological age and he usually gets around 15-16/20 in a 'Sats' spelling test.
My concern is just that he still makes mistakes in spelling which I believe (probably wrongly?) by the end of primary he should be able to spell everything correctly (unless totally new and unusually spelt words). In summary, I think that whilst his punctuation, grammar, vocabulary choice and response to texts are all excellent; his spelling is only average.
He chooses to write a lot at home (stories/labelled pictures or comics) and recent mistakes have included 'behavior', 'explotion', terified' and 'distent'. When pointed out to him, he can correct them ALL. He reads lots and quite hard books.
I believe he has been reasonably well taught but school do not ever insist on children writing out mistakes several times over. Is this a good idea? If I ask him to do this at home would I dent his confidence in writing for pleasure?
What if anything would you advise I can do over the holidays to improve things a little for him? Or would you advise leaving it for the secondary teachers to help? (He 's going to a non-selective independent which does teach quite close to the national curriculum but with a slightly more old-fashioned feel to the teaching, eg. lists of spellings etc as homework in year 7).
Any advice gratefully received.

Practice spelling the words he can't spell properly, give rewards as necessary and keep track of the mistakes. Retest him in the future to see how much improvement he's making.

Practise

Will retest you in a couple of weeks, learnandsay!

Lol! Any advice, Feenie? Does not being able to spell everything in year 6 mean the child won't get there eventually, all other things being equal?
We have a few issues with self-esteem (Asperger's) so my point is: do something at home or leave it to secondary?

I would say it's a proofreading/editing issue, rather than a spelling one, particularly if he can spell them perfectly when you ask him.

Sounds like he needs to take the time to check his work - how about encouraging him to look for this specifically, at the end?

As the mum of 3 fairly poor spellers I'd say don't worry a bit. Secondary will work on it with him and it's unlikely to hold him back academically. It only matters in a few tasks and then usually only a few points. (DD1s best mate always had "improve spellings" as her target, she' now doing maths at uni)

Yes, you're right it is, though I may be exaggerating to say he can correct every mistake he ever makes!
I think the problem comes that at school he works slowly-ish with not much time for checking (though he says he finished the reading Sats paper in plenty of time and 'checked' it) and at home I don't like to discourage him by correcting him too much.
I might have to think of a reward system for being happy/able to proofread...
Thanks for helping me clarify the issue!

Agree with Feenie that it sounds more like a "Stop and Check" at the end issue than a spelling one.
Also agree with Theas18 that it won't really hold him back. My dd is a terrible speller, but doing very nicely thank you in all her subjects at secondary.

x-posted

Thanks, Theas, I don't think it will hold him back, he's pretty good, just not perfect - and he does want to be a writer, so we'll see!

Practise his checking by making a game of sentences "spotting the mistake " where you deliberately add a wrongly spelled word in each sentence. Children often run out of steam by the time they should be checking their work, so try to make that part fun (with rewards).

Good idea; never thought of letting him look for other people's mistakes rather than his own. I could tell him editing/proofreading is an essential part of being an author/illustrator!