Stressing about Year 1 spelling tests

[flufflycloud]

DC is in year 1, and is summer born if that has any relevance!

They have started to do spelling tests every week. They have 8 words to learn ranging from 2/3 letter words, up to 6 letters like "fright". I can see the words are linked to the sounds they are learning like "igh" and "oa"

In DC first test they got 2 out of the 8 correct which I said was great, well done etc.

We had practiced each day, but only looked at about 5 words because of the amount of time it would have took to practice and get all 8, I tried to focus on less words but with more quality.

We have a brand new 8 words this week, and again I don't see how we'll be able to practice all 8 well enough.
I am trying the little and often approach and also trying to keep it light as I don't want to make it a chore or something we both dread.

Will it just improve over time??? Am I worrying too soon?

Ah ok. So maybe the issue is that his reading level isn’t aligned with the words they’re expected to spell.

Just wanted to say: don't stress and don't project stress onto him! He'll get there 😉 mine suddenly started reading nicely at the beginning of Y2. It just clicks.

Of course you need to be vigilant and on top of the teachers so your child doesn't slip too much..... if he's falling too behind you need to insist in "intervention classes" (that's what they call it in DD's school)

Oh! And personal experience, when he does mistakes in hw never rub it out! Put a faint line on top of it and encourage your child to try again. This way the teacher can see where your child has struggled. That is very important!! We were spending hours on hw 🤦🏻‍♀️ and I don't think the teacher was even aware of it....... the exercises were insane..... so advanced.....

I think it may help for you to learn how it's taught at your dc's school, and you can help your dc at home to revise and implement what he is learning.
I'm a foreigner, and English is my second language, so helping my son was in a way very easy. I knew how to help him figure out how the patterns of English language works, through hard work over the years.

I am shocked that the spellings aren’t linked to a specific sound, to be honest. Do you know which phonics scheme they are using?

Rainbow writing might help - you can Google for ideas, but this Twinkl guide is a good intro. Definitely focus on a few that he can get right. I think it’s worth asking the teacher for the long term overview for spellings, and how they consolidate in school.

As @QueenOfWeeds said, the spelling words should all be linked to a sound at this early stage. No wonder your poor dc is confused!

Keep reading. Ignore the maths homework if you like. Cut phonics practice to pointing out a few examples over the week. (Look! That's a boat. That has the oa sound and spelling.)

Just keep reading.

This is one of the things I hate about schools. They are there for 6 hours a day, 5 days a week yet somehow can’t manage to fit the education in so you are having to do it at home.
Reading, writing, spelling etc should be fun at that age, not getting ‘tested’ and feeling rubbish about themselves because they’ve got spellings wrong.
I’d tell him not to worry, to do his best but it doesn’t matter one bit, tests are for the teachers not them. Don’t bother making him learn spellings at home at all. Do fun things instead - draw, cook, go to the park etc. Which I’m obviously sure you do anyway but just forget about the school stuff at home. 30 hours a week is long enough there without carrying it on outside school.

This drives me insane. There is no point in practising lists of spellings in Year 1 which are focused on a particular sound. The whole purpose of phonics is that you can segment a word into the correct sound when you want to spell it by applying your phonics knowledge - not rote learning lists of words. If they wanted a useful homework on the oa and igh sounds it would have been better to give then something like a list of pictures representing words like goat, right etc and seeing if they could use their sounds to write them out.

There is some place for practising common exception words like what when etc but I just give my KS1 class sheets to practise writing them and checking them, or uaing them in a simple sentence. We also practise them in class. I don't think spelling tests are useful at KS1. Some children spell the words correctly in a test but never apply them when writing.

Get child to sing words with different tune for each sound. Sounds bizarre but it works as utilizes a different area of brain. Works for times tables too. My child knew all times tables before 6 years uses that method.

I've always just got my DC to copy writing each word out five times. Same for times tables.

This was how I used to revise for tests when I was at school and uni. I made revision notes and kept copying them out over and over. I take in so much more when I actually write it down rather than just reading it off the page IYSWIM.

Should say doing that only takes about 10 minutes a day.

That sounds really OTT to me - 10 words that don't follow the same theme at the start of Yr 1? Surely not right. Is it extension work maybe? Have other parents mentioned it?

I just think it’s disgusting children that age have spelling tests.

I just leave them on the kitchen table all week and he copies them out whenever he feels like it, usually when waiting for breakfast. Seems to be enough at the moment but it's not something I'd put pressure on as I don't really see the value, much better ways to spend time!

I wonder if it might be worth getting some phonics flashcards to practise with your DS? Our school uses the RWI phonics scheme, so I bought the flashcards from amazon and we regularly spend a couple of minutes practising them. I wonder if he would find the spellings easier if he could read/decode the words?

@Katinkak8 I have ordered some flash cards so going to try that and just do little bursts of practice here and there!

Little and often definitely works in our house! Good luck!

I wouldn't worry about it. My summer born DS began bringing spellings home later in year 1 but we just got him to write them out once for some reading/writing practice as he wasn't reading much at the time so no point in trying to learn them. If they tested the spellings at school he didn't notice. Something clicked with reading halfway through year 2 and he's now in year 3 and reading chapter books. His spelling is still fairly awful but definitely improving now he can read. I think at that age kids do things when they're ready and there's no point in forcing it or turning it into a big chore.

Every morning before school go over a few spellings provided by the school for that year group. At my DS school they have a list of words in their reading record. Build it into morning routine. That's what we did and he aced them.

@mslambs Interesting first spam post! Reported.

Letter magnets on the fridge - game changer!

English is second language for me so the whole phonics concept and how kids are taught was completely alien to me. We have 1 homework per week which includes some spellings and I just read them out and DD2 is writing them. She's also summer born and SEN. One thing I did with both my kids was to read with them religiously every night, they seem to be visual learners like so the more they read the better they are at spellings. You might need to find what works best for your little one but I refused to get stressed about progress at that stage. In my home country formal education doesn't start until 7 and we're not illiterate nation!