Helping your child with English at home

Reading

In response to feedback at Parents' Evenings, we've produced a Reading Guide for Parents. In the guide, you'll find some top tips on hearing your child read, advice on finding and choosing books and some useful questions to ask your child when you read together. I hope you find it helpful. 

Spelling

At South Wootton Junior School, we teach spellings in a consistent way across all year groups.

We are required by the National Curriculum to cover certain word lists and spelling patterns in Y3/4 and in Y5/6.  In addition to this, we work on the 100 and 200 words identified as the most commonly used. These are known as the High Frequency Words (HFW).

The following bullet points will clarify how we set, test and assess the spellings your child will be given.

• Spellings are generally taught through rules and patterns.  Spellings set weekly will draw on these. In Y3 (or later if required), specific HFW may also be given.
• Each week, 10 spellings will be set.  Your child will have a list which matches their needs according to their teacher’s assessment.
• Spellings will be tested weekly.
• The children have “Spelling Games” books to bring home, which contain suggested activities and games in the back.  These should make practising the spellings more fun, and help to fix the patterns in memory.
• The process of LOOK, SAY, COVER, WRITE and CHECK is also a useful strategy.  LOOK at the word carefully and say it, COVER it up and WRITE it from memory, then CHECK how accurate your spelling is. Even if you are correct, repeat this 5 times to really secure the learning.
• Hard work in practising and succeeding in spellings is rewarded.  We give 2 house points for 10/10, and 1 house point for 9/10.
• If your child does not achieve 7/10 they will be re-tested until the score is raised.
• Children with particular additional needs may have an adjusted number of spellings set in order to support them.

It is really important for the children to spend a little time each week learning their spellings. This should be done in their purple spelling books. It is a small investment in time, but can make a huge difference to their progress.