All Mulberry House School Policies are always to be read and considered in conjunction with Equal
Opportunities, Race Equality and Inclusion Policies
MULBERRY HOUSE SCHOOL
SPELLING POLICY
This Policy of Mulberry House School applies to all sections of the school including the Early
Years Foundation Stage.
Introduction
The school policy outlines the purpose, nature and management of Spelling in our
school. The school policy for Spelling reflects the consensus of opinion of the
whole teaching staff. The implementation of this policy is the responsibility of all
teaching staff.
The nature of Spelling
Spelling is a developmental process. The stages through which children pass as
they develop as spellers are the following: pre-communicative, pre-phonetic,
phonetic, transitional and ‘correct’. An understanding of the developmental spelling
stage of each child will aid teachers in their teaching.
Spelling is a visual motor skill and children will therefore need to develop visual
strategies in order to spell correctly. Phonic knowledge alone will be inadequate.
Children therefore need to be encouraged to look carefully at words in order to
develop their visual memory.
Spelling is an important aspect of writing but one that should not be allowed to
dominate our marking and assessment. The content of children’s writing should be
valued as much as the ‘secretarial’ skills of Spelling and Handwriting.
Children need all the help and encouragement they can get to develop as confident,
competent spellers because of the ability to spell most words correctly is often
closely associated with good self-esteem and affects performance in other areas of
the curriculum.
Aims and Objectives
We aim:





For children to build on knowledge of blends, spelling structures and patterns
gained in previous classes.
To nurture confidence in the spelling of common mono-syllabic words.
To encourage independent spelling and phonetic attempts at spellings.
That by the time they leave the school they are confident spellers of common
multi-syllabic words, and can make a good attempt at uncommon multi-syllabic
words.
For most children to become independent spellers.
D:\116097098.doc
Last Reviewed: Oct 13
Next Review: Oct 15
Good principles
Children will be discouraged from becoming dependent on the teacher for the
spelling of words. They will be taught to use dictionaries, word banks and the spellcheckers on the computer to gain access to correct spellings of words.
The teaching of spelling and handwriting will be closely linked so that spelling of
common letter strings will become automatic.
Children will be taught to look for common letter strings and patterns in words and
an interest in words will be fostered.
Spelling games and various computer
programs will encourage children to look closely at words. Where possible children
will be encouraged to identify their own spelling errors.
They will be given
opportunities for presenting written work for display so that they will understand the
need for correct spelling.
The school’s approach to spelling will be applied in all cross-curricular activities but
spelling strategies will be taught in a subject specific way.
Children will be taught in their normal class group.
All teachers will be responsible for the planning and teaching of spelling.
Children’s early attempts to communicate in writing will be valued and built upon.
From the earliest stages they will be encouraged to look closely at words and will be
helped to develop strategies for writing when they are unable to spell whole words or
part of words.
They will be given lots of experience of rhymes and rhyming words and their
attention will be constantly drawn to print in the environment, highlighting familiar
letters and words, and words within words.
Policy into practice
Badgers:
Work orally on initial sounds, middle sounds and end sounds, and on rhyming
words.
The more able can copy write them and make 3 letter words.
They also practise writing their own names.
Transition:
.
Work on blends and sounding out words.
Use dictionary word sheets full of common words to help them.
Work orally on rhyming words and have words of the week.
Preps:
D:\116097098.doc
Last Reviewed: Oct 13
Next Review: Oct 15
2.
Preps’ policy is structured and developmental so that children build on the
knowledge gained in the previous classes and their progress may be clearly
monitored throughout the school
Prep I:
For more difficult or less common words they are to find what they think might be the
initial letter (they write the initial letters) and put their hand up for their teacher or
helper to write the words for them to copy.
The spelling words for them to learn at home are in 3 groups according to which
term each child started in Prep I. They usually have around 5 spellings per week to
learn.
Spellings are grouped in patterns of words, e.g. set, bet, jet, etc.
These spellings are written in their books by their teacher.
They discuss the sounds first, then think of as many different words as they can with
the sound in them. These are written on the board.
The teacher then reads the ‘Rime Book’ to them and any words they have not
thought of are written on the board too.
They then go through the spellings. They are encouraged to use the ‘Look, cover,
say, check’ method of learning their spellings at home and school.
A leaflet
explaining this method is given to each child’s parent.
Spellings are practised at school and they are tested orally at the end of the lesson.
Prep II:
Common word lists are used as a spelling aid for writing. They are expected to learn
how to spell the 100 most common words and apply this knowledge in all writing.
There are 2 ability spelling groups in Prep II. Spellings are grouped in patterns of
words, e.g. head, read, spread, bread, etc. There are usually around 10 spellings
for them to learn each week.
Children copy the spellings from the board. These are checked by the teacher and
then put in their reading folders ready to go home.
The patterns of the spellings are found and discussed.
Children are encouraged to use the ‘Look, Cover, Write, Check’ method of learning
their spellings at home.
Most common spellings will be marked as incorrect if misspelt in News and Creative
Writing. Children are expected to make plausible attempts at unfamiliar words.
Prep III:
All children have the same spellings to learn, usually between 10 and 15. They are
usually in word patterns, e.g. ie.
Spelling patterns are discussed, and the ‘Look, Cover, Write, Check’ method of
learning spellings at home is encouraged.
All three classes are given their spellings on a Friday to learn for a test on Monday
morning. The test includes a dictation that revises previous spellings and common
words.
Spellings are marked in all written work
S.E.N.D. Provision
D:\116097098.doc
Last Reviewed: Oct 13
Next Review: Oct 15
3.
Individual programmes will be set up according to the needs of the child; whether
this is to give them a more basic list, fewer words, just letters or sounds, or extra,
more difficult words.
Assessment
Samples of unaided writing are put into portfolios once a term starting in Transition.
Weekly spelling tests are undertaken from Prep I to Prep III.
As much as possible spellings are corrected with the child and the child is
encouraged to recognise his/her mistakes for themselves.
Spellings in their writing are corrected as follows:
= a word they can correct themselves.
Illegible words are written for them above.
If a word is recognisable and they have made a good guess, but it is not one we
would expect them to know, it is left uncorrected.
Resources
Prep I spellings are taken from John Smith spelling book O on Cassel. ‘My First
Word Book’ – Folens Foundations for Literacy.
They also use ‘Sunshine Phonics’ Rime books by Jane Buxton.
Prep II spellings are taken from ‘Spelling Made Easy’ Introductory level on Egon.
‘My Second Word Book’ – Folens Foundations for Literacy.
Prep III spellings are taken from ‘Spellings Made Easy’ level 1 also on Egon.
Exercise book used for word book.
Other useful resources
Dyspraxia by Dr. Amanda Kirby on Souvenir Press.
Overcoming Dyslexia by Dr. Beve Hornsby on Vermilion.
Dyslexia by Philomena Ott on Heinemann.
Toe by Toe by Keda Cowling and Harry Cowling.
D:\116097098.doc
Last Reviewed: Oct 13
Next Review: Oct 15
4.