When do they start spelling at school?

[imaginaryfriend]

Dd's in Reception, age 5 1/2. We haven't had any spellings brought home and I thought they don't start doing them until Y1. But today dd told me that 3 times a week she and her group go off with the teaching assistant and do 'spelling practice.' I asked her what kind of words and she said last time it was 'girl', 'boy', 'toast', and a sentence 'the crab crept into a crack in the rock.'

Is this right?! It seems a bit hard to me for a Reception child. I asked her how she spelled them all and she spelled them all right except for girl as 'gul', toast as 'tost' and the crab sentence fine except ended the ck words with just k.

I am increasingly confused as to what goes on in Reception. I've never even considered helping her with spellings at home to prepare her for these kind of things at school.

Hi imaginaryfriend. My DD is in reception too and we have just had parents evening. To date we havent had any words home to learn or anything like that, just reading books. Anyway the teacher told me that she would like to introduce spelling for some of the class and I was very keen on this as my DD is clearly ready. However she told me that she is being 'blocked'. She confirmed that this was definitely by the Early Years woman from the LEA but it is also clearly by someone in the school. She is 'working on it' but I am annoyed. So in answer to your question I believe that spelling starts in year 1. However it sounds like your DD is doing really well so if she is ready why not!

Why are you worrying about it? My dd1 brought home some writing when she was in Reception, in which she spelt every single word wrong. At end of KS2 SATS she scored 100% for Spelling.

At Reception age, encouragement and enthusiasm for writing are much more important - spelling will come gradually.

Hi anmhe! Here we are again

Elasticwoman, I'm not worried about it in the way you're suggesting. I was thinking that the spellings she'd been given seemed a bit hard and that I hadn't expected her to be given any just yet.

I agree. I also am not worried, my DD writes sentences spelling out the words phonetically, which I love to read. However for me this is about pacing the learning for my DD. If her teacher thinks she is ready for spellings (which incidentally I know she is because she is keen) then why not send some home. I think what they are looking for at this stage is exactly what you your DD (and my DD) is doing IF and that is trying to write the words using the knowledge they have gained.

I think giving kids lists of spellings to learn at home is a waste of time. But if a small group is taken out by a t.a. and they are looking at how some words are spelt, that sounds quite useful.

It does sound useful but don't those words dd tried to spell sound a little tricky for a 5 1/2 year old who has no experience really of spelling other than phonetic attempts here and there of her own?

DTDs have juts had "girl" on their spelling list. They are Yr2.

BUT depends how your school are approaching phonetics. If they are doing the "ir", "oa" phenomes etc. maybe they are exemplifying them.

Our school are stretching hte phenomes out over teh first 3 years (there are some they still havn't covered) but some schools do them all in reception.

Spelling starts in reception once children know enough letter/sounds to spell out words. The words suggest your daughter is following a synthetic phonics scheme and not being given pointless spellings to learn at home.

The words your daughter worked on with the TA are all phonetically regular and children would have had lots of practise at breaking up words into the sounds they can hear.

g ir l
t oa s t
b oy

If you want to help your child at home practise sound talking

Learning how to ?sound-talk?

The teacher shows children how to do this ?
Children learn ? cat = c-a-t. The whole word is spoken aloud, and then broken up into its sounds (phonemes) in order, all through the word. This is called segmenting ? it is a vital skill for spelling.

Sound-talking
Find real objects around your home which have three phonemes (sounds) and practise ?sound talk? ? first just let them listen, then see if they will join in, e.g.
?I spy a p-e-g ? peg?
?I spy a c-u-p ? cup?
?Where?s your other s-o-ck ? sock??

?Simon says ? put your hands on your h-ea-d?
?Simon says ? sit on the ch-air?
?Simon says ? pick up your b-a-g?

Yes, I can see that mrz. The thing is that dd can read out all her 'ow' 'oa' sounds and she can read them in words in books but she seems to be unable, so far, to translate them into her own writing. I'm guessing this is normal? So she'll write toast as tost even though she would read it as toast.

Writing is definitely a later skill than reading with some teachers questioning whether it should be taught later than it is at present. Can I ask does your dd know letter names as well as sounds because sometimes children will use both when trying to spell words independently which would explain tost for toast. This is why letter names are better being left until children have a secure knowledge of sound/letter correspondence.

my ds has started doing phoetic spellings in school (reception)

He has brought home some 'tricky word' spellings over the holidays to learn (are, the, you etc)

I think it's fine, as long as they can already read them and are ready and willing to learn to spell.

The "Tricky Words" children should be able to spell by the end of reception are (if anyone wants to teach them)
I
the
to
go
no
into
was
he
she
me
we
be
you
they
all
are

some children should be able to read and may be spelling
said
have
like
so
do
some
come
were
there
little
one
when
out
what

mrz, she does know letter sounds as well as the phonetic sound due to them learning the ABC song and also learning that 'o' sometimes sounds as 'owe' (when there's an 'e' at the end of the word and in words like 'old' and sometimes the phonetic way. It's a pretty confusing language to get your head around isn't it?

Looking at that list of spellings I would think that a word like 'toast' is quite hard to spell half way through Reception?

I would expect some/most of my class to be able to spell words such as toast road board by the Spring term of reception year using phonics. It is much easier for children if they don't know letter names. By that I don't mean singing ABCs but by looking at a letter and using it's name. I have one child in my class who knew all the letter names in nursery but only a few sound correspondences and she is struggling more than children who knew neither at the beginning of the year.

I never taught dd the non-phonetic alphabet because one of her nursery teachers at the school told me not to so she only every knew letters by their phonetic sound. It's been since learning to read that she's become a little confused.

Gosh I don't think most of dd's class could spell those words at this stage. An awful lot of them wouldn't be able to read them even.

mrz that's very useful info, thanks. I am getting increasingly frustrated with my DDs school when I read these boards (perhaps I should stay away) because I was told just last week by my DDs reception teacher that she is being blocked from introducing spelling. Otherthan the Early Years curriculum perhaps not including it do you know why this would be? Just to add my DDs class has 11 in it, yes 11 and it is a state school so they should be really motoring!

aintnomountainhighenough the early years curriculum requires children by the end of reception to "Use their phonic knowledge to write simple regular words and make phonetically plausible attempts at more complex words" and "Write own name and other words from memory." (The child writes at least her/his first name, as well as some other words. These may be key words currently featured in literacy sessions).
I personally find sending spellings home doesn't help as children invariably get them correct in a "test" but then don't use the correct spelling when writing sentences so personally I find using the words often in their own writing or even "dictating" a sentence is more productive.

anmhe you are so lucky! I would love that for dd. She's in a class of 27 with the other Reception class next door with 29 in it.

I was always led to believe that they don't 'do' spelling until Y1 to be honest.

Are schools in some sort of general transition following the Rose report? Would that explain the general confusion for mums about what our kids are doing?

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