Tricky words - Regional variation?

[PeterPiperPickedSeaShells]

My son has been sent home from school with a list of "tricky" words which do not conform to the phonics as taught in primary schools. So far so good....

They include words such as Bath & Path
We live in the south east so would naturally pronounce Barth & Parth rather than the shorter a sound

Do schools further north include these as tricky words as presumably there they do follow the phonetics pattern?

Does this even make sense...?

We're down south and didn't have those as tricky words. They did mention a northern accent was a plus for spelling though!

Don’t know how the school will handle it but my DS who has just started reception would be able to sound out those words as to us they are phonetic. Northern here.

"My son has been sent home from school with a list of "tricky" words which do not conform to the phonics as taught in primary schools." All words conform to the Phonics taught in primary schools.

The spelling represents different sounds including /a/ and /ar/. In certain regions the in bath, path, grass etc represents the sound /ar/ and in other areas it represents the sound /a/

What is tricky about them? I would imagine they all rhyme with Math, lath, and others I cannot think of. Why should a regional variation matter as long as it is consistent within itself?

"Tricky words" are words containing spellings representing sounds that haven't been taught at that point nothing more.

What is tricky about them? I would imagine they all rhyme with Math, lath, and others I cannot think of. bath and path don't rhyme with math here (Kent) not sure on lath as I've never heard it said.

bath and path aren't actually on the tricky words resources, they'll probably be something their teacher has added in.