Broughton and West Tytherley Primary Schools

Spelling Policy

Intent

At Broughton and West Tytherley Primary Schools, we use the No Nonsense Spelling programme to support teaching our daily spelling sessions. No Nonsense Spelling teaches spelling in a 'Little-but-often' structure which allows children to revisit and review, learn new strategies and apply. A variety of strategies are suggested so that children with different learning styles can find out what works well for them.

Implementation

The focus of the programme is on the teaching of spelling, which embraces knowledge of spelling conventions – patterns and rules; but integral to the teaching is the opportunity to promote the learning of spellings, including statutory words, common exceptions and personal spellings.

Approaches to spelling 

Reception and Year 1  - In Reception and Year 1 and our pupils follow a high-quality, systematic programme of phonics teaching following the Little Wandle teaching programme. Our phonics teaching makes strong links between blending for reading, segmenting for spelling and handwriting. We encourage all of our pupils to apply their phonic knowledge when spelling. By the end of Year 1, it is our expectation that the vast majority of our pupils will be secure at spelling Phase 5 words. Pupils who do not secure Phase 5 by the end of Year 1 are given additional support and intervention. 

From Year 2 onwards, pupils are taught the age related spelling content using the published scheme No Nonsense Spelling through daily spelling teaching. This scheme of work provides us with a manageable tool for meeting the requirements of the 2014 National Curriculum, has a clear progression through blocks of teaching units across the year and supports our teachers with the teaching of spelling.

A typical learning sequence is as follows: 

• Revise: activate prior knowledge, revisit previous linked learning 
• Teach: introduce the new concept, explain, investigate, model 
• Practise: individual/group work, extend/explore the concept independently, investigate, generalise 
• Apply/Assess

Impact

Assessment

Pupils’ learning is assessed throughout the programme. The ‘Apply’ part of the sequence regularly includes assessment activities to identify if pupils have learnt the key concept taught. These activities include:

• Testing – by teacher and peers

• Dictation •

Explaining

• Independent application in writing

• Frequent learning and testing of statutory and personal words