Spelling
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No Nonsense Spelling
Strategies for use when supporting your child at home
The pyramid method
Drawing an image around the word
Drawing around the word
Look, say, cover, write, check
Spelling at our school
Intent (The ‘why’)
“The art of spelling is not about memorisation, but also about understanding the rules and patterns that govern language.” (Anonymous)
Rationale
At Hazeldown School, we believe that developing strong spelling skills is crucial for our pupils to become confident and effective communicators. Our policy outlines our approach to teaching and assessing spelling, ensuring consistency and high standards across the school. It is aligned with the expectations outlined in the 2014 National Curriculum in England.
Aims
Our spelling curriculum aims to:
- provide a structured and progressive curriculum that supports the development of spelling skills across all year groups;
- foster positive pupil attitudes towards spelling and encourage them to take pride in their spelling achievements;
- equip pupils with a range of strategies to decode and spell unfamiliar words accurately;
- promote the use of correct spelling in all written work, including in cross-curricular subjects;
- enable pupils to understand and apply spelling rules, patterns, and conventions effectively.
Implementation
Curriculum organisation
Our spelling curriculum is structured to ensure full coverage of the National Curriculum. It includes the following areas:
- Phonics: We follow a systematic synthetic phonics program – ‘Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised’ - teaching phonemes and graphemes in a progressive manner.
- Spelling Rules: We explicitly teach spelling rules and conventions such as homophones, silent letters, suffixes, prefixes, and plurals.
- High-Frequency Words: We prioritise the teaching of high-frequency words, providing regular opportunities for pupils to revise and embed these words in their writing.
- Visual Strategies: We teach visual strategies to support the spelling of particular words, including using alphabet arcs, word banks, and ‘Have a Go’ books.
- Word Origins: We explore the etymology of words to deepen pupils' understanding of spelling patterns and the historical development of English vocabulary.
We use the ‘No Nonsense Spelling’ scheme to deliver our spelling curriculum and employ a range of teaching and learning strategies to support the acquisition and consolidation of spelling skills including:
- Phonics: We use the ‘Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised’ systematic synthetic phonics approach to teach the relationship between sounds and letters, enabling pupils to apply this knowledge in their spelling.
- Word Study: We provide opportunities for pupils to investigate and analyse spelling patterns and rules, including exploring word roots, prefixes, suffixes, and etymology.
- Memorisation/Automaticity: We recognise the importance of rote learning for certain spelling patterns, high-frequency words, and irregular spellings
- Mnemonics: We encourage the use of strategies such as mnemonics, visual cues, and word associations to aid memory and recall
- Contextual Learning: We embed spelling instruction within meaningful contexts, ensuring pupils can apply their spelling skills in cross-curricular writing tasks.