Spelling list not changed since January

[hectorthestandbyhawk]

Dd in y1 gets a new spelling list from the teacher after she's learnt them at home. It's now July and shes not had a new list since January. I've signed them off as learnt but when teachers tested her she says she doesn't know them yet so won't give he the next one. 4/5 months is ridiculous tho. There's no momentum and it's demoralising. I've told teacher I'm working thru lists at home (got master list from secretary). She's not taken hint, so still no new list and no more stars on her chart. She's a nice lady. What shall I say now? Thanks for reading.

That sounds wrong to me. She must be bored witless with that list by now and that alone will put her off learning them. How many are on the list? Could you talk to the teacher and say you're worried dd is getting demotivated and would it be possible to leave this list for now and try focussing on a different one for one -don't make it a critisism of her but present it as you being worried about your DD

DD gets a new list every week regardless of how she did in previous weeks test - the mistakes get ironed out in time.

If you know she's got the ones on your list why keep doing them at home? I'd give them a break for now.
You say the secretary gave you the master list. Does the school have that rigid a curriculum? Maybe the teacher doesn't actually intend the children to have spellings to learn like this any more? My two are learning spellings through their phonics and knowing how to sound out the words, not memorising lists.

What do you want? Do you want your daughter to be able to spell, in which case you just carry on teaching her how to spell. Or do you want recognition from the school that she can already spell certain words, (a desire that you cannot command.)

I think learnandsay is being a bit harsh here. I suspect you simply want your DD to move on and it sounds like you've taken matters into your own hands at home. However, I'm not clear whether you've been given a list of 100 key words (which can be quite typical and is sincerley quite a lot of work) or whether you've been given a list of say 8 - 10 words (which is what my DDs have been working to).

If the situation is the former (a list of the first 100 key words) - then perhaps what you need to be looking into is whether she consistently spells them in her written work and understands their meaning - this may be where the problem is.

If the issue is that you started with a small list of words (say 8 words) and haven't progressed from there then personally I'd raise this with the head, since you have already raised this with the teacher. You should feel very confident that most schools simply give a new list each week - and some schools occasionally give grand review spelling tests (reviewing all words to date) and end of term or sometimes just at end of year.

Although my DD1 could spell 'with' or 'Mrs' from the first 100 key word list for the test - she consistently would spell 'whith' and 'Misses' in her writing work at school or in her reading diary. If this is your DD's situation - than the teacher may be correct in thinking she hasn't mastered these first 100 key words. For whatever reason DD1 could learn them short-term for a test, but not retain them. That really hasn't clicked in until late Y2/ early Y3 (but DD1 was working slightly 'below expectations').

However, it may be that spelling isn't a serious component of Y1 work - but is only being introduced in preparation for Y2. Certainly at our school spellings were not introduced until after Easter Y1 and then became a regular weekly feature and carried on weekly in Y2.

I wouldn't get angry - but you are confused and are more than entitled to understand what the purpose of this spelling list (long or short) is, so that you can better support learning at home.

HTH

Thanks for all replies. There are only 6 spellings per list and I'd imagine the idea is that they learn one list a week. 5/6 months between list is taking the piss. I spoke to teacher this morning and told her that there'd been no new list since Jan/Feb. She said, 'OH DD just needs to ask for a new list' and that she'll put her on the next one. So now she's got list 7 after 5 months! She knows it anyway as we did it at home.

O.K. hectcorthestandbyhawk

With only 6 words and the fact that nobody explained to you that they need to ask for new lists - then yes this is bizarre.

I would calmly draft a letter raising the issue -more in terms of a lost learning opportunity - than an attack on the teacher but suggest that perhaps something is done to make the system of giving out and testing spellings clearly to Y1 parents, who in fact heavily support this learning at home and were unaware of the procedure this year.

You can either send this directly to the head or (as I find this makes it very formal and something OFSTED/ Governors would see) - put it in your parent comments box on your child's school report [if your reports are in this format].

I personally have found anything I'm seriously concerned about and I raise on the school report does get addressed, changed or fixed subsequently. It's the kind of thing governors & OFSTED inspectors will pick up on.