is spelling taught in Reception or not?

[imaginaryfriend]

I've heard quite a few conflicting views on this and have been very much of the opinion that dd hasn't been taught spelling per se - she has been taught phonetic sounds and the letters to make them etc. But last week she came home and told me they'd learnt to spell 'all' 'are' and 'they'. She went on to say that they frequently do spellings in the class and the teacher 'tests' them on them. But we've never had anything home.

So ... is the idea that they should be able to phonetically correctly spell any word given to them by the end of Reception right or not? Or do they just learn and memorise words?

Teach the words that follow the same rules together. So I would teach he she me we be together then draw their attention to the "tricky" part of the word in these it is the "e" making a long vowel sounds /ee/ so the children just need to know the sound at the beginning and how the tricky part is written. For was I teach it says wos but we write it was then I can introduce words like want and water that follow the same rule of replacing the /o/ sound with an "a"

Well, my ds is at the same school that dd the spelling queen (not) was at, and is being taught by the same teachers. They have changes the spelling policy completely in the past 4 years. He doesn't have spelling tests, but he does tons and tons and tons of writing. The teacher often puts lists of words up on the board for them to incorporate into a piece of creative writing, and, now he is in year 2, the teacher often points out spelling mistakes in his work. It seems to work - he is, I think - an excellent speller, and looking at the work on the walls of the class, they all seem to be better spellers than dd was at the same age - dispite her 20/20 for tests!

That's a good idea mrz. Is there any guide to read on this, to help group together sets of words?

Dd is so strange with her spelling. If I ask her how do you spell 'they' (which they've just been learning at school) she says it correctly but every time she writes it down she writes it 'thay.'

DS3, reception, came home with a spelling list 2 weeks ago

FGS! Darling kid can barely talk, let alone even begin to understand the concept of spelling.

Dh and I looked at it, looked at each and laughed- and Lo! they didn't bother a second week.

Don't get me wrong, despite his Sn he's bright- it's the concept of writing specifically requested words in a list on command that isn't going to happen for a good while yet

I find "wa" easy enough to explain to older kids but when dd3 asked me today I was well aware that my response sounded a bit iffy to her!

cat, I think I get what you mean ...

Cat45 perhaps I wasn't very clear in my meaning I have never taught the original 45 HFWs as spellings because that was never their purpose in the NLS although many schools did this even with words that are easily decodable. Which is why in the revue the lists and instructions for use were made more explicit now there is a list of 100 HFWs (containing most of the original 45) but only a very few (18 in reception for more able children) are in the list to be taught as "spellings" the rest shouldn't need teaching if following a high quality phonics programme.
I don't think it is a case of baby out with the bath water it is responding to current research.

mrz, where would one find that list of 18? Just curious to see if they comply to what dd's being asked to do at school.

Wow this is still going. Yes I would be interested in knowing the 18 although will look on the Dfes website as I think I have seen it in some document somewhere. This thread confirms what I knew already, that DDs school is absolutely rubbish and sending home spellings that include 'I' is just a joke.

No way - they didn't ask them to spell 'I' did then??

I the no go to into we me he she be was my you they all are her
are the tricky words children are expected to be able to read and spell by the end of reception.

www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/local/clld/resources/letters_and_sounds/las_appendices1to3.pdf
page 2 lists all words by phase. In reception children are expected to read and spell phase 2 & 3 words and to read phase 4 words.
phase 5 is Y1

I
Aye
Eye
Y
Ie

Why is learning how to spell I not a good idea?

Thanks mrz, what would I do without you?

cat & seeker, I don't think learning to spell 'I' in itself is a joke at all but taking it home as part of a list of words to spell seems nutty, surely better to learn it in the class. I noticed it's also not on mrz's list of 18 words they're meant to spell by the end of Reception.

(hello seeker!!! )

OK so I am now eating my words. I am being honest, I was amazed when I found 'I' in her spellings but I can see why it is there now. Normally I do point out when a word has a different spelling to mean different things and explain it to her, it just never crossed my mind when I saw 'I' on the little card. I think the problem is that we havent actually had to work on any word that has been sent home yet, she gets them, I ask her how to spell them, she tells me and they get put back in the bag. Mmmm tomorrow I will ask her how to spell 'eye'! IF you have a good point, surely these things should be being done in class as a bit of fun!

cat, I totally agree that working things through at home is a good idea. But rather than giving them as spelling tests dd's school send us a note home telling us what they've done in the week and asking us to practise those things. For instance last week they said that they'd been learning to read 4 or 5 words and to spell the tricky words 'all' 'are' and 'they'. That way we can just re-inforce what they've been learning / know where they are.

I can see what you mean. But do you think those kind of parents would run through spelling tests? When i was helping out as a parent-reader I was shocked at how many kids hadn't even opened their reading book at home from week to week. Often it looked like their book bags hadn't been opened. One boy had a part of his dad's newspaper in the book bag and it was there all term. The book bag just filled up around it.

The teacher hands this note into the parents' hands as they pick up their child at the end of the week so at least it doesn't disappear into the abyss of the book bag.

no spelling tests til year 3 here

dd2 (reception) is very bright and reads almost fluently now but cannot spell for toffee

I know that kind of mum actually cat, the ones who really want to help their kids. I still wonder if giving them lists of spellings to learn helps them learn how to help their kids spell though rather than just giving them something 'to do.'