Writing Targets:
To Develop Spelling - Term 1
Be able to orally blend
and segment CVC
words, e.g. hop, leg,
rich.
(See Letters and
Sounds Phase 2)
Must: I can give the sound when shown any Phase Two letter
s,a,t,p,I,n.
Should: I can orally blend and segment words like cat with three
phonemes
Could: I can read and spell VC words such as if, am, on, up.
Y1
Spell words with four
phonemes, e.g. jump
and with adjacent
consonants, e.g. drift.
(See Letters and
Sounds Phase 4)
Must: I can blend and read words with adjacent consonants at the
beginning of the word.
Should: I can segment and spell words with adjacent consonants at the
beginning of the word.
Could: I can blend and segment single syllable words with adjacent
consonants at the beginning or at the end of the word
Y2
Spell words ending in s
(plural), ing (present
tense) and ed (past
tense).
Must: I can add an s to a word show that it is a plural, wave – waves.
Should: I can add ing to verbs, e.g. splash – splashing.
Could: I can add ed to a verb to show that it is the past tense.
Y3
Spell regular verb
endings and irregular
tense changes, e.g.
carry – carries –
carried, go - went.
Must: I can spell verbs with regular endings e.g. play – plays – played playing.
Should: I can spell verbs with regular endings where there is a change
of spelling before the suffix is added e.g. carry – carries - carried.
Could: I can spell verbs with irregular tense changes, e.g. go – went, do
– does - did
Y4
Distinguish between
Must: I can explain what a homophone is.
spellings and meanings Should: I can spell some simple homophones, e.g. to/two/too.
of homophones, e.g.
Could: I can spell tricky homophones, e.g. they’re/their/there.
to/two/too.
Y5
Understand the
meanings of, and spell
words with common
letter strings and
different pronunciations
e.g –ough: tough,
plough, through
Must: I can spell and pronounce words with the letter strings oo e.g.
good, book, mood and ear e.g. pear, bear, dear, year
Should: I can spell and pronounce words with the letter strings ie e.g.
lie, tried, field, thief and ight e.g. right, night, weight, eight
Could: I can spell and pronounce words with the letter strings –ough
e.g. bough, cough, though and –our e.g colour, your, flour
Y6
To be able to spell and
use correctly a variety
of connectives e.g.
notwithstanding,
alternatively, although
Must: I can spell and use correctly a variety of simple connectives e.g.
later, before, because, although, until
Should: I can spell and use correctly a variety of compound word
connectives, e.g. furthermore, henceforward, anyhow, meanwhile
Could: I can spell and use correctly a variety of phrase connectives e.g.
in the beginning, in addition to, for example, in other words.
Reception
Setting
Targets
 Set mini-targets. Present expectations for independent spelling in terms of simple targets that
will apply to all the writing the children do. These targets would generally be differentiated for
groups, but it may be appropriate to tailor a target to include specific problem words for an
individual.
 Children should have no more than five target words at a time and these should be reviewed
regularly, when children can look for evidence of correct spelling in their independent writing
and remove the word from their target list once it has been spelt correctly five times in a row.
The teacher can write the child’s spelling target into the log so that the child can refer to it
regularly.