Writing target: To develop
spelling – Term 1
Reception
Spell CVC words, e.g. hop,
leg, rich.
Must: I can write the first and last phoneme of a word.
Should: I can spell words like cat with three phonemes
Could: I can spell harder words like rich with three phonemes, but
with four letters.
Y1
Spell words with four
phonemes, e.g. jump and
with adjacent consonants,
e.g. drift.
Must: I can try to spell some words like jump which have four
phonemes.
Should: I can try to spell words like drift which begin with two
consonants.
Could: I can spell words which begin with two consonants.
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 words containing
common prefixes, e.g. un-,
dis-, re-, pre-, de-.
Must: I can spell words with prefixes un- and dis-, unsafe, dislike.
Should: I can spell words with prefixes un-, dis-, re-, pre- and dee.g. rewrite, precooked, depart.
Could: I can make new words from root words by adding prefixes,
e.g. mix, demix, unmix, remix, premix.
Y4
Distinguish between
spellings and meanings of
homophones, e.g.
to/two/too.
Must: I can explain what a homophone is.
Should: I can spell some simple homophones, e.g. to/two/too.
Could: I can spell tricky homophones, e.g. they’re/their/there.
Y5
Understand the meanings
of, and spell words with the
prefixes: auto-, bi-, trans-,
tele-, circum-.
Must: I can explain what the prefixes auto-, bi-, trans-, tele- and
circim- mean.
Should: I can spell words with the prefixes auto-, bi-, trans-, tele-,
and circum.
Could: I can generate and spell words with the prefixes auto-, bi-,
trans-, tele- and circum-.
Y6
Explore and understand
the use of word roots,
prefixes and suffixes to
improve spelling skills, e.g.
aero: aerobics, aqua:
aquatic, audi; audience
etc. See list Y6 T1 Word
Work.
Must: I can explain what some prefixes and suffixes mean.
Should: I can add prefixes and suffixes to root words, e.g. bygone,
bypass, bystander and import, export, report.
Could: I can generate and spell words with prefixes and suffixes.
Key
activities
to support
targets
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Share targets with children, support assistants and parents / carers.
Display targets/example words/rules and conventions/spelling strategies on the wall.
Include use of targets in shared and guided writing.
Include targets into homework activities.
Link targets into other curricular areas, e.g. cross-curricular vocabulary.
Include teacher / pupil modelling into target setting.
Encourage the use of spelling logs/journals to record rules, exceptions, patterns, word
meanings and mnemonics etc.