Feel sorry for 5yo not getting reward for spelling test

[peanutmandmss]

My DC is in year 1 and they do a spelling test every week. Apparently children who do well get a prize.
He is trying very hard practising at home but it's just not something that's clicking in to place just yet so he is still getting a lower score.
I feel so sad about this reward side of things, as it is not reflective of any child who is really putting in the effort.

You don't need to learn the hard lessons of life two or three years into your school career.

He’s not being sent to a workhouse, he just isn’t winning spelling tests 🙄

Maybe I should have worded my title better. The prize is neither here nor there.
It's just now his motivation is because you need to get a reward. So my efforts to let him know I'm proud of him for trying etc or just building a general love of learning is over shadowed.
He's working hard, he's trying his best, whether he gets full marks or no marks that's what matters to me.

I was at school in the dark ages (primary in the 1950s) and we didn't all do the same. If it had say 20 words the group who struggled with spelling might have 5 or 6 words to learn middle group maybe 11 or 12 and the top group have 20, so the test started off with easier words and gradually got harder.

I think that was fairer as it was more realistic and if you weren't good at spelling you probably learned those 5 or 6 words to a higher standard than if you were struggling with 20 words.

Agree with @Nightynightnight wrt the usefulness of spelling tests.

What makes a difference in tbe long term is reading.

Read to your child, listen to your child reading to you. Encourage your child to write a title for every picture he draws, to write cards and noted to his relatives,; ask him to read out names of shops and words on cereal boxes. The environment is full of written words.

Read and recite poetry together, and sing songs. Poetry helps form sound and rhythm connections in the brain.

He will feel chuffed that he can read too. It may make up for the completeky unnecessary battering his self esteem is taking on a weekly basis in school. It should be a crime to make children feel anxious and unsure of themselves in literacy skills. It has huge knock on effects in their relationship with school.

@mathanxiety thanks for that. Thankfully he is getting on really well with his reading and we love reading books every day!

In DD's last year at primary they got a chocolate bar if they either got 20/20 on their spellings OR if their score was better than the previous week. I think that was a really good system.

This reminds me of my DN with dyslexia working so hard to get 8 out of 10 each week but never got the sweet because she didn't get 10. Meanwhile others who didn't have to look at the spellings got a sweet.... so unfair. Absolutely not a reflection of what we want to encourage which is hard work and effort.

OP, my DC is also in yr 1 and does weekly spelling tests but it’s not taken too seriously as the focus at this age is very much on becoming a competent reader - they don’t know the other kids scores or get rewards for this very reason - learning should be motivational and individual to childrens ability at this age - sounds totally disheartening and I would feedback to the school. Why can’t their teacher ensure they are given words to spell that they can manage to boost their sense of achievement rather than put them off learning and crushing their self esteem at such a young age… tackle the school OP! X

@mathanxiety @Nightynightnight

Totally agree with this!

he doesn’t need ‘tips’ and home tuition.

You don’t know that for definite.

For example with my DD benefits from “air writing” the spelling, which helps her remember it. Just reciting it doesn’t seem to stick. But trying to put the spelling of the word into her muscle memory of how to write it makes it easier for her to remember how to write it in the test.

e.g. When we practice we either write it as tiny letters in the air, or sometimes make big jumbo letters using our whole bodies.

Another trick we do is sing the spelling. Usually fake operatic style. we normally end up laughing and it makes what was a fairly torturous homework experience more fun. And she remembers them better.

So something as small as that might help a child that is in danger of being switched off from learning.

@threegoodthings yes that seems like a good idea, much more personalised!

It's never to soon to learn that not everything in life is fair.