Spelling has always been a cornerstone of literacy learning and you can pretty much guarantee that at some stage you'll find yourself with a list of spelling words that you're trying to drum into your child for their weekly spelling test!
Help your child become a spelling superstar
In this section of the site, you'll find lots of great suggestions, as well as spelling games, spelling strategies for SATs, teachers' tricks for spelling and expert advice to help tricky spellings stick. Spelling is also now formally assessed in the new Year 6 Punctuation, Grammar and Spelling (SPAG) test, so you'll want to download our practice papers to help your child prepare beforehand.
Start by finding out what spelling rules and patterns your child will be taught in each year of primary school, read our parents' guides to spelling in Reception, spelling in Year 1, spelling in Year 2, spelling in Years 3 and 4 and spelling in Years 5 and 6. There are also spelling test packs for all ages.
KS1 and KS2 spelling objectives
Dive into hundreds of teacher-created, fun spelling worksheets and activities, divided by school year and covering National Curriculum spelling objectives for KS1 and KS2. Tackle tricky spelling rules such as silent letters, unstressed vowels, split digraphs and doubling and practise high-frequency and exception words.
For parents seeking to support their child's learning at home, with our teacher-created spelling resources, games and puzzles, it will never be a chore again!
Articles
Simple ways to make spellings fun
If your child’s spellings have become the bane of your week-end it’s time to take a look at how you tackle the weekly-test challenge. Teacher Phoebe Doyle offers 10 suggestions to help make spelling practice more playful than stressful.
9 spelling strategies from real parents
Helping your child master spelling starts in Reception and continues throughout the primary years. Lucy Dimbylow asked real parents for their top tips on making learning spellings fun.
What is Look, Cover, Write, Check?
Look, Cover, Check, Write is a strategy your child will be taught in schools to help them learn spellings. Find out how the technique is taught in the classroom so you can reinforce learning at home in the same way.
Worksheets
Spelling patterns: the suffix -ful
We use the suffix -ful to make adjectives, but watch out – although the word ‘full’ has been put on the end of ‘hope’, the last l is dropped. Can you complete this table to show how words are changed by adding the suffix-ful? Then find all the words ending -ful above in this wordsearch.
Correcting spelling using phonic knowledge
Sammy has had a spelling test today. Some of the words he has written correctly, others he has got wrong. Can you put a tick next to the words he has spelled correctly and help him by writing the wrong words out properly below?
My very first spelling test
Spelling isn’t usually tested in Reception, but your child might really like the idea of doing a ‘grown-up spelling test’ (especially if they’ve seen an older sibling prepare for spelling tests!).
Also see:
Year-by-year guide to spelling learning
Understand the spelling rules and patterns your child is taught in each year group in primary school, as well as the importance of high frequency words and exception words, with our explanatory guides for parents.
Ready-made spelling tests for all ages
Put your child's spelling knowledge into practice with ten simple spelling 'tests' for their year group, designed to be used at home to help them practise the words and spelling patterns they've learned at school.
Each test uses the Look, Cover, Write and Check method to help your child revise spellings (and to make them feel very grown-up!). A final "end-of-year" word list is provided to boost their confidence in their own writing abilities.
Spelling test packs are available for
Reception,
Year 1,
Year 2,
Year 3,
Year 4,
Year 5 and
Year 6.
Does your child’s spelling really let their writing down? Have fun with spelling offers you practical and effective strategies to help support your child’s learning at home, based on a real understanding of how spelling is taught and why it’s tricky to master. The bad news? Your child will be beating you at Scrabble before you know it!
Spelling Made Magic is a brilliant resource bursting with a variety of games, activities and strategies that will get your child learning to spell in a way you've never imagined before, whatever their age or ability. Together, you'll use all of your senses – sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste – and everyday objects such as chocolate cake and glitter to help your child remember the correct spelling of a word.
Spelling Made Magic is built around short, game-like activities for you and your child to enjoy together, all using a unique multi-sensory apporach to leanring.
It's not about teaching, it's about learning. It's not about lessons, it's about fun.
Using hilarious ‘links’ to help your child remember how to spell any word, Thinkalink! will take them from mixing up letters to spelling even the most difficult words.
Spelling enthusiast Andy Salmon (or Sir Linkalot, as you’ll come to know him) will show you and your child how to create quick and funny rhymes that put the letters in a word in the correct formation, making them far easier to remember. This fantastic eBook is packed with more than a thousand links to get you started, and a super simple guide to creating your own.
It's time to save the world... one correct spelling at a time! Designed to help kids practise common KS2 spelling patterns and tricky words the fun way, the Crack that code spelling rules puzzle pack offers wordsearches, crosswords, puzzles and codes galore.
