Certainly a challenge for many 11-year-olds.Īside from the statutory requirements, learning to spell well is extremely useful if we want children to become confident writers. That means every child spelling words such as ‘receive’, ‘solemn’, and ‘conscience’ correctly in their writing and knowing when to use different homophones such as ‘compliment’ and ‘complement’ and ‘stationery’ and ‘stationary’. This is assessed by teachers against specific performance descriptors, and a child needs to be able to spell ‘most’ of the Year 5 and Year 6 words accurately in order to be judged as working at the expected standard. Strong spelling is also a significant aspect of the writing element of the curriculum. At KS2, 20 of a possible 70 marks (29%) are awarded for spelling. In 2017, these will be assessed through the spelling element of the grammar, punctuation and spelling tests in Year 2 and Year 6. The 2014 National Curriculum places significant emphasis on correct spelling and Appendix 1 of the National Curriculum document features a long list of statutory requirements illustrated with non-statutory (and quite challenging) word lists for the different year groups.
The truth is that in the current educational climate good spelling matters a great deal. How important is good spelling, really? Is it still vital in a world of typed documents, emails and auto correct? Isn’t it the quality of writing we should be worried about, rather than the spelling of the words themselves? Perhaps, as Mark Twain observed, ‘anyone who can only think of one way to spell a word lacks imagination’.
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