Year 1 - spelling tests

[GreatJoanUmber]

My DS1 has just started year 1, and last week they started the spelling tests again (he already did spelling tests in reception, from January on).
At the end of last term, his reception teacher gave me a sheet with words that they learn to spell in year 1. A lot of them had been covered in his reception spelling tests already, and I'm pretty sure he knows the rest as well.
Now he's had his first year 1 test, and been given the words to practice for his second test, and they are all words from that list.

So the question is, should I say something to the teacher? Or just let him do the tests and be thankful we don't have to practice? On one hand I would like him to be stretched a bit more, rather than repeating things he did in reception; on the other hand maybe it's nice for him to be slacking a bit in that area as they are doing a lot more in terms of homework now, and he's got enough to do?

I think recap of spelling words is normal. There will also (at this stage of term) be an element of assessing where the children are.

Have to admit that personally if I wanted to extend him, I'd be asking him to come up with sentences that contained each of the spelling words, rather than wanting harder spellings.

Harder spellings really discourage Year 1 spellers. It's MUCH better that he has some re-cap and feels really confident on those words. It may also be that although he spells them right in the test, they aren't being used correctly in his writing. This is a v-common problem in Year 1.

Our school don't do spelling tests. Are they beneficial?

Just because he was tested on them in reception doesn't mean he knows them in Y1.

Research also seems to show that even if a child knows a spelling for a spelling test, they spell it wrong when they actually come to use the word in writing. Perhaps try to get him to use the words in writing rather than just spell them on their own if you think he needs stretching.

Kilmuir

The aim of spelling tests is to help children learn the roughly 4,000 common English words with one or more irregular letters (e.g. learn roughly English words one irregular more) which takes roughly 10 years in all (learn - turn, rough - stuff, English - in, word - third, one - won, more - four - door....).

They have to learn them, but the testing makes many children very nervous, and the ones who regularly score badly in them can also get very discouraged by them. (This was even worse in the grammar school days, when they got beaten for not getting them all right.)

And as is well known, many children regularly misspell words in their writing which they get right in spelling tests. This is because it is difficult to concentrate on what u are trying to say and the accuracy of your spelling - until spelling becomes automatic. In spelling tests children concentrate just on the spelling.

Only about 1 in 10 children are able to learn to spell easily, simply by reading copiously and imprinting them on their minds that way, because they have above average visual memories. For the majority it's a hard slog, with lots and lots of repetition. Nearly 1 in 2 never become really proficient or confident spellers, because they simply cannot cope with so much rote-learning. A few children are able to learn them once and know them for ever after, but most keep forgetting some of the old ones as they learn new ones.

Words with two spellings (it's/its) are especially difficult to get right.

Kilmuir ours doesn't send spellings home until Y3. They do practice spellings at school by writing out a few words every day for a week. DD's teacher thinks this is more effective than sending them home and testing.