Teacher despairs over teaching spelling to year 6

[LaBelleDameSansPatience]

Hello everyone. I am looking for help and advice. I am new to year 6 and rather worried about the Grammar and Spelling test.
Obviously, as a primary teacher, I have taught spellings and run spelling tests, which the able spellers enjoy and the poor spellers dread (so glad that they are out of fashion at the moment, at least in the school where I teach). However, this is the first year that the complete focus is on me and the results of my year 6, several of whom are poor spellers.
I have a new HT who wants to know what I am going to do about it ... and I just don't know. I sit over my laptop every night, trying to analyse the lists of words that have come up before and get more and more miserable.
If results aren't good it could, according to HT, a) trigger an OfSTED inspection and b) give amunition to the parents who did not want a job share in my class (I also have a child and a very aged parent to care for and only work part time).
Any ideas? Teachers or parents, please??

Also re spell checkers - they may give you the wrong word, or not catch where you've used a wrong but correctly spelled word. I once read a motoring article in the Guardian with 'break' used instead of 'brake' throughout and in places that made the meaning ambiguous or plain wrong. Using a dictionary which also gives the meaning avoids this; some of the electronic ones are also pretty good at interpreting a phonic rendition of the word whereas normal computer spellcheckers (IME) don't.

Glad you've got some good ideas from other teachers now, Belle

My Spell Checker

I halve a spelling checker,
It came with my pea see.
It plainly marks four my revue
Mistakes I dew knot sea.

Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait aweigh.

As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the era rite
Its rarely ever wrong.

I've scent this massage threw it,
And I'm shore your pleased too no
Its letter prefect in every weigh;
My checker tolled me sew.

Just saved the poem into my planning on 'homophones' week!

Very good, L&S

I think with some children (of the bright but not good spellers variety) they can learn if they make an effort but that they need to have a good reason why they should bother. For my DD, I think we reached a watershed when she started losing marks in science tests for mis-spelling scientific terms - and when I pointed out to her that mistakes, sometimes not ones any spell-checker could pick up - could have disasterous effects - one letter difference can totally change a chemical and BOOM !

No suggestion for help spelling. Just very, very shocked that a group of parents think that can dictate a schools HR policy to them.

I didn't write the poem. It's been kicking around the internet for ages. I think it's attributed to anon.

A group of parents who include the Parent Governor who is influential in the village and therefore with the other governors.

Stargirl, can you tell me more about how you use the Smartboard record and play, spelling tennis and back to board?

Just now got time to sit down and really study all these messages!

Do you have the Support for Spelling booklet? It follows on from Letters and Sounds. It has lots of help this way, including word roots, prefixes and suffixes. I think that understanding where words come from plays a big part in being able to spell correctly. Here is a PDF. www.thorners.dorset.sch.uk/literacy/Support%20for%20Spelling%20dcsf.pdf

And even if it doesn't work, you can say you're using a Government-approved document to teach it! (albeit the previous one :) )

Thanks, Panzee; I'll look now.