Reception - spelling ability - Can any teachers help me with a query ?

[fedupwasherwoman]

Does anyone know what standard is expected of children by the end of the reception year.

ds has mastered reading but his spelling is starting to concern me a bit, particularly confusing "d" with "b" and likewise with "q" and "p". There are other letters he writes backwards all the time too

He writes words down as they sound unless it is something he is well practiced at writing like "mummy" or "cat" or "dog".

Anything with "er" on the end he writes with an "a" at the end instead.

Is this normal for a 5 year old or do I need to concentrate even more homework effort on writing and spelling. I know there are target reading word lists but are the children also expected to be able to write/spell all these words by the end of reception too ?

Apparently the confusing of b and d etc is normal til at least 6. My dd1 only recently stopped doing it, she's nearly 8, and dd2, 6, has just about stopped too.

Both of mine are, to my mind, appalling spellers, but the teachers seem to see their spellng as normal.

I'm not a teacher, but I think this sounds completely normal. My DD is in Year R and confuses b & d all the time. At parents evening, her teacher showed me something she had written herself (rather than copied) and pointed out that it was good that she had written "caym" instead of "came" because it meant she had been thinking about what sound "ay" makes. I think spelling is very hit and miss in Reception (see my other thread on homework!) and that all they try to get them to do is learn the most commonly used words.

I think they're only supposed to be able to read those words by the end of Reception, and then spell them by the end of Yr1.

Oh good I'll stop worrying, until parents evening looms anyway.

The new Letters & Sounds programme (government phonics ) has a list of words children should be able to spell by the end of each phase. publications.teachernet.gov.uk/eOrderingDownload/Appendices.pdf
In reception the "tricky words" children are "expected" to write are

the
to
I
no
go
into
he
she
we
me
be
was
you
they
all
are
my
her

Even in Year 2 SATs "phonetically plausible attempts" at spelling more difficult words are acceptable.

The 40 odd key words they have for end of Reception are for reading only, not spelling/writing.

DD did no spelling practise/tests at all in Reception. They did do independent writing and some spelling deeveloped within that, but to different degrees for the different children in the class.

They started spelling tests in Y1.

I don't know anything about the letters and Sounds words - never come across those before but we are not in the state sector so may be the reason.

It is very common to confuse b and d, p and q at this age, and for a fair bit longer too.

Making a good attent with phonic based spelling is great at this age - is it called emergent spelling or similar? I love reading DD's attempts at tricky words

Hulababy the 45 High Frequency words were scrapped with the introduction of Letters & Sounds and replaced by a new list of words with words that children should be able to read at each phase and by the end of the next phase will be expected to spell.

Phase 1 has no words ~ starts in nursery and continues throughout reception and KS1
Phase 2 has 6 tricky words to read (and a long list of decodable words )
In phase 3 children will be expected to write the 6 Phase 2 tricky words and read a further 12 (and a long list of decodable words )
In phase 4 (end of reception depending on child's progress) children will be expected to write the 12 tricky words from phase 3 and learn to read a further 14 tricky words (and a long list of decodable words )

publications.teachernet.gov.uk/eOrderingDownload/Appendices.pdf

Ah right. We are in the private sector and don't follow the NC, so not up to date with all this anymore.

we are using a state primary and they still seem to follow the high frequency words lists.

thanks for the link mrz. I will look into it before parents evening.

The new stuff is here

Thanks - xposts. Knew it has been changed; finally found the link.

Ignore this - posted on wrong thead, lol!

so what are the limits to each phase then ?

I think its important to be positive at any attempt at writing in reception. If you pick at their spelling they will become discouraged. My son in year one still has strange spelling, but its possible to work out what he has write.

The cheeky lad wrote "Wot does a tesha do?" in his homework book. It would be interesting to see what his teacher's reply is? He had to write his own question as part of his easter homework.