Spelling lists

[Michelle1964]

I don’t see the point in my Year 5 son’s teachers giving out weekly spelling lists for his class to be tested on the following week. However, he’s a decent speller and likes the competitive nature of class tests so we put up with it.

Nevertheless, I’d like someone to explain to me why this week’s list should have included the word “ceilidh”? Is that really a necessary word for ten year olds to be able to spell correctly?

I wouldn’t say so. I had to Google what it was. Strange choice for a 10yo’s spelling list.

The majority of adults would have to spell check that one. I'd find it odd to be on a child's spelling test as it isn't an English word and I think the correct spelling has an accent somewhere in there.

I'm guessing it's linked to their topic/something they're focusing on that week.

I think it’s a good one.

They might not get it correct but they might know what a Ceilidh is when they see it written down. I was invited to one in writing and had to Google, even though I knew what it was.

I agree there might be more standard words that could be on the list, but don’t really disagree with it being there as such.

Once my dc had mastered the common exception words, and could reliably spell most of the suffixes (eg care, careful, carefully) the lists of spelling words would be words they had got wrong in their writing. The premise was that they would be more interested in those words and therefore more likely to learn then and use them. Perhaps your dc wrote about a kaylee?

Yeah, probably linked to their topic. We learnt about Egyptians in Y3 last term and had words like Tutankhamun and sarcophagus.

It’s ok to have spelling tests of common words but definitely not this obscure word.

I've seen exactly the same kind of thing before 😂! Asking children to remember spelling rules for words that appear to conform to no rules never seems especially helpful.

Here's a good list of 5 Spellings www.examninja.co.uk/learning-zone/year-5-spellings/ that don't include such weird rules, if you're interested.

https://www.examninja.co.uk/learning-zone/year-5-spellings/

Sorry, the link broke.

Spelling drives me crazy as what we do in UK schools is completely pointless - it has been academically proven that spelling tests etc do not improve long term spelling as people forget how to spell the words they don't use regularly.

What we should be doing is vocab work. But the UK is irrational. 'If it was done in the 1940s, it must be right' is our national motto.

With one of mine I flat out refused to do spelling practice as their fucking annoying teacher made them write out words they could already spell ten times. I got agreement we were not doing anything that stupid. That child was just a naturally good speller.

With the others they had the generic instruction to 'practice' so I just left them to it.

It's a normal word in Scotland.

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