Spelling issues year 4 - what help should school be giving

[Coldcomfortjoe]

DS is coming to the end of year 4, and at the end of last week his teacher flagged he 'had some catching up to do with his spelling' and she wants us to work on it over the summer. We're meeting soon to discuss.

More than happy to help in the holiday, although a bit frustrated as we'd been working on spelling since she mentioned it was a weaker area in Feb and the feedback at the end of last term was that he was doing much better.

Up until this year his teachers have always said his spelling was fine so not sure exactly what aspect he's struggling with but I get the impression that he performed badly in the end of year spelling assessment which is what triggered the meeting next week.

What I need is some advice on what to ask at the meeting, and also how much support I should be looking for them to give at school? I can help him at home but is it realistic that he be given additional help in the school day too?

I'm keen we crack any issues before y6 and SATS loom so want to make sure I ask the right questions and get the right plan in place.
Any advice or people who've had similar sudden problems with spelling flagged.

well one of mine can't spell, never has been able to. school tell us sometimes she is fine and other times she is rubbish. I have been known to tell them they aren't taking her problem seriously enough which they deny and then a few weeks later they tell me she has a problem!!! (er yeah I told YOU that)

Anyway I would say you need to find out if there are any patterns, so is it words over a certain length, certain phonics getting mixed up, common/high frequency words.

Then I would get hold of a book we found in WH Smiths which is a little A5 pamphlet type book with the study guides, they do a year 3/4 one and a 5/6 one and they cover the words they are supposed to know by the year 6 SATs but it explains spelling patterns which is what he probably needs to be taught.

OP, do not let the school land this exclusively on you. Your child is about to have a much needed holiday from school. They've had all year to notice this issue and to put supportive strategies in place, but haven't. It's fine for them to suggest small scale things you can do over the summer, 10 mins a day max, but not bigger projects. When is your son's birthday, as this may also have a bearing.

In the next week or so you should have the chance to go and meet his teacher for next year. Ask them what support they'll be putting in place for your boy from September, so they know it's an issue you're aware of. they should be doing individual and small group work with him, and differentiating spellings for him. Do not let them make this your issue because they didn't have the staff to do this.

My boy is about to go into Yr 6 and is still a poor speller, often using phonetic spelling rather than the correct spelling. I just have to make peace with the fact that a bright and articulate boy will fail his KS2 SATs because his spelling is poor, we do weekly spellings with him but in free writing work he just reverts, nachure instead of nature etc.

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Difficulties with spelling in an otherwise bright and articulate child from year 3, year 4 is often a sign of mild dyslexia. I think the school have let you down here and should not be throwing it back at you to do work in the summer 😮. Bright kids who find spelling hard can learn for tests each week, but this is a terrible way for them to actually learn and reinforce spellings, hence an end of year test result would be poorer. I used to be a spelling pedant, but since seeing my otherwise bright DS really struggle with spelling, i have become much more chilled. Going forward from primary school, to secondary and then in the big bad world, so much more work is typed, and therefore spell checked. My DS will cope out there. Yrs we still reinforce correct spelling at home and how to check spellings (hes now secondary age), but its mot worth fighting or agonising over every mistake. However, for KS2 in primary school, his struggle with spelling was horrible and completely knocked his confidence. It sounds as if you are already helping him in the right ways at home. Make sure you go to this meeting with two questions. ' What does the school think he finds hard with spelling?' and 'what have they been doing to help him?' They will be selfishly worrying about their SATS results down the line as a component of this is spelling. Do they think it is an indicator of dyslexia? Beware of the teacher who thinks that a child who is at age related expectations or higher refusing to believe that the child could be dyslexic, because in our experience the class teacher assumed that if you were dyslexic, this would automatically mean your attainment could only be lower than expected😦 !!! Sorry for the long post, but having been there with a primary age boy who struggled with spelling, I hope that sharing the obstacles we came up against help others

In my opinion there are naturally good spellers and the rest. Concentrate on a few tricky words, such as 'becAUse', 'neCeSSary', learn 'i before e except after c'; I still say that to myself when writing.

I do intensive spelling support with a group of Y5 girls and have found a huge part of her problem is that thumb don’t pronounce words properly in the first place. Eg surprise pronounced Suprise. Might listening carefully to how he says them help? Also, in my experience you can really tell those that do their spelling homework and those that don’t... even the severely dyslexic Y3 I work with does better when he does the work.

@PopWentTheWeasel - that was my feeling too - that by mentioning it to me the 'flagging the issue' box had been ticked and it was going to be left with us to deal with!

@Changemyname18 - was actually wondering if slight dyslexia was the issue. The spelling is at odds with the rest of his work. But can't imagine the school will be willing to pursue. Those two questions are a good shout. JUst want to make sure I come out of it with a plan rather than just another list of spellings to learn.

Thanks all

My DD has a visual processing disorder which means that whilst her phonics are excellent she is unable to convert that to phoneme knowledge so at the end of year 6 she just scrapped a level 3 ( old SATS) in SPAG - independent school so still used levels.
The best piece of advice I was given was encourage a love of books and reading as the more she reads the better the spelling will become.
True enough she is now in year 10 and in her mock English Language she scored full marks for SPAG.
Reading lots helps with the spelling as it is familiarity and brain muscle memory for the word.