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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

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Original poster

Spelling!

19 replies

seeker · 07/10/2007 07:11

My dd is in year 7. She is doing well so far, but her spelling is atrocious. It's never been her strong point, but it seems that as she's having to use longer and more difficult words it's getting worse. Anybody got any tips to help her? She has lovely neat clear handwriting - which unfortunately means she can't get away with any spelling mistakes!

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ThreadyKrueger · 07/10/2007 07:14

Perhaps she would enjoy having a little pocket dictionary to carry about with her in her school bag?

scienceteacher · 07/10/2007 07:31

How is your DD's self-esteem regarding her spelling? Does she recognise when she has made errors, and is it helpful for her to have the teacher correct each word?

You really need to work with the school on this one. If it were me, I would discreetly give out weekly spelling lists for my subject to anyone who is struggling with spelling alone (ie not with underlying issues such as dyslexia, where I would be taking guidance from our SEN team).

Original poster

seeker · 07/10/2007 07:41

She's got a little dictionary, and she's happy to use it when she remembers. Trouble is, she often doesn't realize she's made a mistake. She knows she's a bad speller - it's been highlighted all her school life - and she would like to improve but I don't think it has had any impact on her self esteem so far She got 95% in her year 6 literacy SATS and the teacher said "I know where that 5% went!" and she laughed. Mind you so did the teacher. I'm a bit concerned now because her secondary school is quite academic and old fashioned and I think they might be much stricter about it. We haven't had a parents evening yet - I'll raise it when we do but I'd like to address it at home as well.

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Original poster

seeker · 07/10/2007 07:42

My favourite so far was William the Concera!

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law3 · 07/10/2007 07:45

i wouldnt worry, 95% is brill, we all have our weakenessus, no one is perfeck

Original poster

seeker · 07/10/2007 07:59

I don't want her to be perfect - and I'm sorry if the 95% thing sounded showyoffy. I just wanted to explain why it hasn't really been a problem up to now and that her self esteem isn't dented by it. But I think it will become increasingly problematic from now on because her new school is quite strict and academic and I don't think will take kindly to a piece of work that had a sentence with 10 words, 6 of them spelt incorrectly. Particularly if 2 of the words were in the question she was answering! I was just hoping for soem strategies to help her, that's all.

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edam · 07/10/2007 08:23

I think you are right to be concerned. She needs to be able to spell - not only for its own sake, but in order to get job interviews when she's older. People routinely use mis-spelling as one factor in discounting CVs.

Have you had a look at the BBC website? They have lots of helpful schools info. Suspect there might be something on spelling.

Also, are you sure she's not dyslexic? Just the bit about not realising when she's made a mistake... I think I'd check it out, tbh.

Original poster

seeker · 07/10/2007 08:33

Wouldn't there be other symptoms if she was dyslexic? She's a very good reader, doesn't have problems with left and right - or am I showing my ignorance of dyslexia?

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Original poster

seeker · 07/10/2007 09:31

Help, somebody! I'm worried now!

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scienceteacher · 07/10/2007 09:34

I would be a bit concerned that she is not spelling correctly when she is copying words - unless she is the kind of child who is always in a rush, and simply misses out letters.

Spelling does seem to just click at some point with some children. For example, my DS has started Y9 with rather good spelling compared to what he was like in Y8. I think he just couldn't be bothered to think about spelling before so didn't engage in getting it right.

Blandmum · 07/10/2007 09:37

I can't spell and you dd sounds just like I was at that age.

If she is like me, a dictionary isn't going to help her much, I can often fail to find the word I'm looking for....you have to be able to spell the word a little to find it!

I would have a word with the school, get her checked for dyslexia, possible get her put on the SEN regester at school action level (no big deal but will get her some structured help). Geting word lists can help.

The other thing is, can you ask the school not to correct every spelling mistake? If you are a bad speller and they correct everything, you just give up hope, and give up trying (from my experience).

Dyslexia /praxia wasn't recognised when I was in school. At least your dd has the advantage of good handwriting, mine is awful and my kids are both the same.

See if you can get her the help that she needs, don't put too much pressure on her, this happeh=ned to me and was very negative.

And in the end I got a good degree, from a good university, and teach in three of the best unis in the UK!

And I type all my lesson work, and spell check it!

cornsilk · 07/10/2007 09:39

wordshark is meant to be a really good PC programme to help children with spelling. I'm currently trying to find who sells it the cheapest on the web for my ds!

christywhisty · 07/10/2007 11:44

i very much doubt her spelling could be that bad or her literacy results would have been far worse. My DS's (yr 7) spelling bought his literacy down by nearly 50% and that was after years extra help. He got very high science, and high reading and maths results in his Sats, so it wasn't that he wasn't capable.

We have words like jiont for giant and during his homework last week he was typing are for our

I think you need to put it in perspective, I think her teachers will probably realise she is using advanced words and cut her some slack.

snorkle · 07/10/2007 12:06

Dd has poor spelling & is struggling a bit with it in year 7. My spelling was always bad (still is, but less so) too, so no real surprises. One thing dd uses that helps a bit is one of those electronic dictionaries - she finds it easier to use than the conventional ones. It still doesn't help when you don't know that you don't know a word, but is still useful sometimes.

Original poster

seeker · 07/10/2007 16:04

I'm a bad speller too, and I've just remembered that my mother painted the labels on kitchen canisters when I was a child and she had one with ICI sugar on it for years because no one would tell her how to spell icing! So maybe it's genetic!

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mrsstresshead · 07/10/2007 16:10

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn at the poster's request.

ScaryScienceT · 07/10/2007 16:17

How about taking the focus completely away from school, and playing Scrabble or Boggle at home?

Original poster

seeker · 09/10/2007 11:14

Good idea SST (bet you're not really!) We love playing games, but we've never really played scrabble because she used to get so frustrated at not being able to spell (how's that for a circular situation!)

Don't know Boggle - will check the toy shop this afternoon.

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happychildhood · 16/10/2007 10:31

Our family love playing scrabble. I have always allowed the children to have a dictionary, while playing. We use an egg timer, so they do not spend too much time looking up the words!

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