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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

My school does not give spellings as homework .. this is supposedly in line with latest research

58 replies

Twiglett · 29/11/2007 13:33

according to god cod that is

I am relieved and interestingly he can spell rather well in my view ... I occasionally correct but not that often

he is year 2 .. I am always stunned at all the 'spelling' threads because it has always been stressed to me that children pick up spelling naturally and spellings are not necessary

OP posts:

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FluffyMummy123 · 30/11/2007 12:23

Message withdrawn

motherinferior · 30/11/2007 13:30

Yep. Homework for small children is just obscene.

pointydog · 30/11/2007 16:08

yes, ban homework.

no, teach spelling

lispy · 30/11/2007 20:57

I once was lucky enough to be at a teaching conference and one of our top educational psychologists was talking about homework (off the topic of her main talk) and she said she has never asked her child to do any homework. I once set homework that was based more on interaction with the family eg. discussing things we were doing in school with their parents' generation and if possible grandparents' (eg environmental stuff) and the 'test' was our Friday group discussion. THe kids loved it and would wait for me in the mornings to tell me funny things their parents said etc and sometimes they were allowed to ring their gran to ask her about when she was younger which always excited them. One parent asked me to ring her and she abused me for wasting everyones time!!! SHe asked me to photocopy some maths for him to do and she'd take it from there.

Reallytired · 30/11/2007 21:56

I don't think there is any subsitute for hard work. It takes work to become literate and numerate.

I wish my son's school gave him spellings. I am really sceptical that children can learn to spell without spelling tests.

Blu · 30/11/2007 21:59

DS, Yr 2, hasn't had spellings, either.

And we have had a letter to say that in thier writing the only spelling that will be corrected is tricky words , or high frequency words.

SlightlyMadScreachingSirens · 30/11/2007 22:00

So you mean the 45 word meag spelling test that DTDs did this week was worthless?

You mean we all stressed over it for 3 weeks for no reason?

You mean we (well they) learnt them on top of the 11 spellings they do every week??

B&("$%ds !!!!

ginnyweeze · 13/12/2007 14:27

The point about Oxbridge is that yes they do accept state and private pupils in equal numbers, but private pupils are a much smaller proportion of the school population, so they must be getting something right?

maretta · 13/12/2007 14:34

I always found learning spellings a waste of time. I could learn them, remember them just long enough to do well in a test and then happily forget them.

Learning by heart doesn't in anyway guarantee knowing for very long.

ginnyweeze · 13/12/2007 15:05

thwas het tinop fo lleinspgs nyaywa?

Sorry, what's the point of spellings anyway? Ah yes, that's the point, when you spell correctly everyone understands!

I'm all for learning by rote, some of it sticks, it works a lot better than not correcting incorrect spellings, which seems to be the latest educational fad.

Come to think of it, I'm all for traditional methods rather than whatever is the latest trend thought up by a professor of education to justify their existence.

smartiejake · 13/12/2007 21:10

It depends whether they are given spellings to learn that are relevant or not.
Last year DD1 came home with concertos and ostinatos. Unless she is doing an essay for her GCSE music doubt these are useful words.
These aren't even the correct plural of concerto and ostinato!!!!!
It should be concerti and ostinati.

roisin · 13/12/2007 21:27

DS1's spelling homework last year rather than a list of spellings to learn was always an exercise using a set list of words - fitting them into a sentence, or using them correctly, or whatever.

Having said that dss both read widely and are therefore 'automatically' good spellers. We've never learned spellings, and they both always score extremely highly in all spellings tests.

islandofsodor · 13/12/2007 22:17

Lucky you. I caused rebellion at the meet the teacher evening back in September. If dd wants to do her homwork I don;t stop her. But we have far more important and interesting things to do on a weekend.

SHe has a spelling test every week and has got 10/10 every week except for one week when she lost a mark for writing a letter backwards. However we never actually learn the spellings.

EniDeepMidwinter · 14/12/2007 10:31

14 words every week in year 3

nothing before then

EniDeepMidwinter · 14/12/2007 10:32

islandofsodor I tend to agree but can't help thinking you are lucky to have a bright child who doesnt struggle - believe me if your child is struggling and feeling bad because of it then learning spellings become a necessary and valued part of your weekend...

Fennel · 14/12/2007 13:00

Roisin, it doesn't necessarily follow. My dds (7 and 6) both read widely and are "automatically" not very good at spelling.

Especially dd1, who reads a lot but her written work is way behind her reading, just as her written maths is much worse than her mental maths.

we still rarely practise spellings, though they can't be doing very well on their test, I'd rather they just enjoyed life and read books for pleasure at their ages.

TheIceQueen · 14/12/2007 13:02

DS1 gets spelling lists home each week - but if I'm totally honest (and I confessed to his teacher the other day too) - I usually only remember about once a fortnight the night before the spelling test (or even breakfast of the morning of it!) - grab his spelling book (without giving him a chance to look through them), hand him a piece of paper and a pencil and fire them at him....

Doesn't seem to have done him any harm he's got 100% in all his spelling tests this term

kittylouise · 14/12/2007 13:12

DD's recent primary (a very good one as well) had a blanket ban on homework - good. The school she went to before had regular homework, which used to stress dd out and also I could not see any benefit of doing it whatsoever.

Young kids are at school for long enough, and work hard enough when they are there. To enforce, often pointless, homework regularly is unreasonable imo. Christ, they have enough of it at senior school. Let them be kids.

islandofsodor · 14/12/2007 18:05

I get your point Enid, however there are a couple of children who do struggle and after the meeting their parents thanked me for speaking up.

I guess it would be different if dd was getting 4 out of 10 or something and feeling a bit self concsious but the risk is that by forcing them to do spellings and stuff at this age it will put thm off totally. This is what one parents told me anyway.

toomanysleighs · 15/12/2007 12:14

no time to read all but my dd1 gets LUDICROUS spellings, and they are not put in context. She occasionally learns them for her test, depending on whether or not she feels like it, and then promptly forgets them. Her real spelling level is WAY below the spellings she is given at school. It all feels completely pointless.

candypandy · 15/12/2007 12:28

Agree with Anna.. some things just have to be done by rote. They don't do them by rote in school any more, so far as I can see, and as a result children don't know their times tables unless the mothers do it with them. Rather unfortunate for those whose mothers can't. They don't have enough hours in the school day and have to give homework because the school day is filled up with "projects" and a lot of colouring in.

candypandy · 15/12/2007 12:30

Too many sleighs -- a lot of the spellings are associated with "projects" so they will learn parthenon, and igneous, and other stuff which just makes them feel they can't do it instead of useful things like "their" "there" "they're"
xx

candypandy · 15/12/2007 12:39

have I upset people?

yurt1 · 15/12/2007 12:44

I went to school in the 70's wasn't taught to spell (learned ITA fgs) and cannot spell at all now. I was too busy throwing paint creatively. I can only spell the words can spell because an exasperated secondary school english teacher gave the class some basic spelling lessons when she was fed up with her class of 70's children.

DS2 (year 1) does get spelling tests (relaxed- he's not fussed what he gets, although he usually does quite well). He does all those number bonds etc as well which I also think are useful. It's been interesting actually watching him learn to spell- his reading is all done by sight- he's very good at reading - but his spelling has taken longer- but he's now learned to spell via phonics- which I think has been really useful for him.

The research goes round in circles anyway.

OverMyDeadStuffedTurkey · 15/12/2007 12:48

As a child I had weekly spelling tests, learnt them all by rote etc. etc. but was still a hopeless speller long into adulthood. Then I found a little book all about english spelling rules and exceptions, that helped me way more than just memorising words.

I think more emphasis should be on helping children understand the rules and exceptions in our language, rather than just memorising words for a test, but then promptly forgetting them.

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