Spelling articles

Although we have five vowel letters in the English language, each one can be pronounced in different ways and there are, therefore, far more than five vowel phonemes (vowel sounds). Consonant sounds, produced by restricting airflow in the mouth, contrast with vowel sounds that allow for unrestricted airflow. Each one has a short vowel and a long vowel form. Understanding vowel sounds is essential for developing reading and spelling skills.

Learning to use a dictionary is an important curriculum skill and will help your child expand their vocabulary. Here's how to help them find their way around it.

Help your child get to grips with spelling with our round-up of the best spelling apps for primary-school kids.

Dyslexia can have a profound effect on how your child learns to spell, but there are strategies to help them tackle their challenges. We share advice from the British Dyslexia Association to help you help your child at home.

Children learn to use irregular verbs naturally as they speak and write English, but will also understand more about them during their time at primary school. We explain how irregular verbs are introduced in the classroom in our guide for parents.

Standard English is accepted as the "correct" form of English, used in formal speaking or writing. In primary school children are expected to learn to write according to the rules of Standard English.

Spelling is an important part of the Year 6 Grammar, punctuation and spelling test. Support your child's learning at the end of KS2 with Y5 and Y6 spelling worksheets and activities to help practise the spelling rules and patterns they're learning at school.

A parents' overview of Year 2 spelling patterns, with examples of the words children are taught at the end of KS1 and Year 2 spelling worksheets to help them practise.

How is spelling introduced to Reception-age children? We explain how phonemes and then graphemes are taught in the classroom, and what words children are expected to be able to write by the end of their first year of primary school.

Expand vocabulary, develop spelling skills, learn about homophones, anagrams and synonyms and compose huge numbers of silly sentences... all while having a great time. Whether your child is 3 or 13, our favourite word board games and literacy card games offer fast-paced fun for the whole family.

As your child learns to read you might hear them talk about the 'exception words' they are learning. We explain what exception words are, what role they play in phonics learning and how you can support your child's developing reading and spelling skills at home.

From adjectives to writing frames, TheSchoolRun's primary-school literacy glossary offers a complete guide to all the concepts children are taught in EYFS, KS1 and KS2 English. Brush up on your own literacy skills, clear up homework confusion and understand exactly what your child is learning at school by reading our basic definitions (with links to more detailed explanations, teachers' tips and examples).

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.

We explain what a root word is and how prefixes and suffixes can be added to root words to turn them into words with different meanings.

Find out how your child will learn to encode – hear a sound and write it down – and what you can do at home to support learning.

Phonics teaching introduces children to CVC words (consonant vowel consonant), then CCVC words (consonant consonant vowel consonant) and CVCC words (consonant vowel consonant consonant). Understand how teachers will present the different words in the classroom and how to support your child's learning at home in our parents' guide to decoding and blending sounds.

Prefixes are groups of letters added to the beginning of a word, changing its meaning. Learning prefixes helps children with their spelling and vocabulary; we explain everything primary-school parents need to know about prefixes and spelling in KS1 and KS2.

Word banks are useful tools to help improve children's writing in KS1 and KS2. Find out how to create one at home and make expanding vocabulary a whole-family project!

Year 6 children are all tested on their spelling, punctuation and grammar as part of the KS2 SATs. So what will your child need to know, and how can you help them brush up their skills? By Lucy Dimbylow.