spelling test at age 5? Is this normal?

[juniorant]

DS 5 started year 1 yesterday. He was in reception last year and really struggled with EVERYTHING (reading and writing).
Is it normal though to have spelling tests for this age group?
It seems crazy. We are in a british circ school but we don't live in the UK.
He can hardly write (he is behind I know that) his writing is unreadable (more or less)
If spelling test is normal in this year what sort of words would you expect ot have to learn and how many?
Thanks
btw he is coming up for 6 so oldest in the class

I'm guessing this is just the new teacher's way of analysing where each student is up to with regard to spelling. I wouldn't worry about it. It may be that the teacher is particularly on-the-ball at working out where each child is up to at the start of the year.

At my dcs school, yes it is normal, as it is in most of the other schools in our local authority. It tended to be cvc type words, ones that they can have a guess at as well as some of the so-called tricky words, high frequency words that they would be using in their writing.

yes normal last year for my year 1 DD. she was one of the youngest in class, but managed ok once we did one or 2 words a night

Yes Normal.

Ds2 left Reception unable to write all the letters of the alphabet so in y1 we practiced 2 or 3 out of 10 of the words each week. By the end of y1 his writing improved and I think some of the reason is because we practiced writing (spelling) each week.

The words were based on phonics that they covered in Reception and y1.

oh ok he'll just have to get on with it - thanks!
Just panicing as he has really struggled with reading and writing so much last year.
was hoping to blame the school for pushing them but it's obviously him :0)
Thank you

Try doing the spellings with magnetic letters maybe? Just because his handwriting isn't the best doesn't necessarily mean he can't learn to spell.

Yes DD had a weekly one in year 1. Spellings were based on the phonics they were leaning not just random words. They were also differentiated depending which group they were in. She was expected to learn them each night for the weekly test.

My DS3 has just started year one today. He brought home a letter saying there will be a spelling and mental maths test each week. The maths is mainly concentrating on number bonds to 10. I believe the words they will have will be based on the Year 1 high frequency words.

Yes very normal. 10 or so words a week to learn since Year 1