spelling lists by age

[fatbananas]

Does anyone know of any official spelling lists, ie ones which are linked to which spellings DC should know by a certain age? Many thanks

[Okanagan]

Is this any help? year 3 and above
http://www.educationbooks.co.uk/images/ ... 008601.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[fatbananas]

Thanks Okanagan, I think that's what I'm after! DS came home yesterday with the results of an age-spelling test. It said that he was 8 and 11 months, which is almost exactly his age. He always seems to get top marks in his weekly spelling tests, though I also know this doesn't always translate into work he does in the classroom! The note home said that this was an area that, whilst a satisfactory result, would benefit from some attention. He is in the top set, so, presumably, the others all have much higher spelling ages. I realise that correct spelling is also an element of the 11+ beit VR or literacy, so wanted to get on top of it.

Any idea what this age-spelling test is?

[Okanagan]

He's possibly been doing something like this:
http://www.rrf.org.uk/pdf/Schonell%20Sp ... ctions.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

(Other spelling age tests are also available!)

[fatbananas]

Ha! He did say some of them were hard - I can't imagine what he made of portmanteau!

Thanks very much Okanagan!

[fatbananas]

Interestingly, from looking at the http://www.educationbooks.co.uk/images/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... 008601.pdf link, I don't recognise ANY of the spellings on there from the ones he's done so far in year 4. Can teachers/ school just make up their own lists depending on their set?

[mystery]

Yep there's no particular way of teaching spelling or sets of words that a teacher has to teach. Your child's spelling skills are, to a degree, at the mercy of the teacher they have each year.
There are loads of different spelling schemes on the market, and lots of government guidance which has come and gone.

I think the most recent government guidance is called "Support for Spelling" but that's old now - it's probably been archived.

As with anything else, you're probably best doing it yourself if it's not going well at school. But spelling is such a hard one to crack. If someone doesn't do it right naturally it's a lot of work no matter how fabulous the system you use. Using a dictionary goes a long way. Seeing a child using a dictionary at our school would be like spotting a flying pig.

Banks of similar words, exceptions, derivations from Latin and French etc, there's lots to learn when spelling English and it's a process which goes on for years.

Good luck!

[fatbananas]

Thanks, Mystery - only just spotted your reply. Funnily enough, DS has had a lot of prefix/ suffix spellings lately and I've been doing latin/ greek word origins stuff with him consequently, which he's found really interesting and has helped him work out meanings, so that is clearly the way to go. Home edding again, just in between visits to school ...